THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 2, 1996 TAG: 9605020043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL RUEHLMANN, SPECIAL TO THE DAILY BREAK
LENGTH: Long : 201 lines
IT FIGURED that the handsome boy in the white satin shirt and black Stetson would be a hit at the Lynnhaven Middle School talent show in Virginia Beach.
Troy Hedspeth, a graduating eighth-grader with a howly-growly voice, knocked 'em slam dead with ``Boot Scootin' Boogie'' and two encores last Friday in an auditorium packed with parents, peers and purple balloons.
``He always tells me,'' sighed fan Sammi Crow, 14, ``that he's singing just for me.''
Classmate Liz Baxter, 13, looked startled.
``He says that to me, too!'' she said.
It also figured that the same boy, who gave up baseball to save time for his singing and has been crooning country at various Hampton Roads venues for four years now, would be headlining at ``Virginia's L'il Ole Opry'' in Mathews last Saturday.
Opry general manager and emcee James Smith, 58, has seen more than his share of talent raise a ruckus at the converted Donk's Theater over the past two decades.
``When Troy hits that stage,'' Smith said, ``people relate to him. He's aggressive to the brink of cockiness up there. Elvis had that.''
But what doesn't figure is the kind of flat-out, single-minded, straight-ahead focus that has led Hedspeth in an unwavering professional beeline from his ``Star Search'' audition at Lynnhaven Mall at the age of 10 to becoming opening act for Tracy Byrd at Little Creek Amphibious Base (June 14) and for Ricochet at the Cumberland County Fair in New Jersey (July 9).
``Offstage, Troy's kind of shy and reserved,'' said Millie Voliva-Wiggs, 41, editor of The Country Star, Hampton Roads' country-music monthly magazine. ``Onstage, he acts like he belongs there. Some people learn it, some people are born with it.
``That child is born with it.''
While most kids his age are going to outdoor summer shows, Hedspeth's performing in them.
He's booked: May 11, Ocean View Festival; May 18 and 19, Chesapeake Jubilee; May 25, Pungo Strawberry Festival; June 22, Newpoint Campground; July 6, Middlesex Festival; July 9, Virginia State Postmasters' Association Convention; Aug. 18, Franklin/Southampton County Fair.
From Aug. 9 to 17, Hedspeth will do two shows daily at the Prince William County Fair in Manassas.
``I've had hecklers,'' he concedes, ``but I didn't handle 'em. A couple heavy metal boys came up on stage at the Neptune Festival and started to joke me. It distracted from my music.''
His mom bounced them. WRESTLING WITH AMBITION
Hedspeth headquarters is an azalea-hugged brick ranch house in the Kings Grant section of Virginia Beach. The walls of the recreation room are hung with photographs of Troy's siblings in athletic regalia and Troy dressed like a cowboy, behind a microphone. His parents once drove his grown sisters and brother to games; now, routinely, they take Troy to gigs.
Last week the van was loaded for Donk's with - among other essentials - 40 pounds of Troy stage backdrop, Troy photos for signing, boxes of cassettes for sale (``Troy Wayne Hedspeth: `Little Man of Country Music' Sings His Favorites''), Troy banners and T-shirts and bumper stickers, a Shure Beta cordless mike, a $2,000 candy-apple Parker Fly thin-body electric guitar (paid for by Troy with a year and a half's savings), a Fender 112 amplifier, a fog machine and two 12-inch Yamaha speakers (soon to be upgraded to 15-inch).
``Each year we open the umbrella a little wider,'' said Dennis Hedspeth, 49, Troy's father and a human resources manager for the post office.
``Did you pack his jacket?'' asked Nancy Hedspeth, 48, Troy's mother, booking agent and personal manager.
He had.
Dennis has become fairly accustomed to loading up and moving out since the day four years ago when the youngest Hedspeth, a Garth Brooks fan, announced his desire to audition for ``Star Search'' before a battery of television cameras and a live audience of 2,000. The parents didn't think he'd do it, but they took him over to Lynnhaven Mall anyway. And heavens to Merle Haggard, he did it.
Troy didn't win, but he belted out ``Two of a Kind'' like one in a million.
His biggest supporter, grandma Nancy Albertson, 67, wasn't at all surprised; she had already scrutinized Garth Brooks at Hampton Coliseum after her grandson raved about him.
``He don't sing as good as Troy,'' she insisted.
Troy started showing up at venues like Stampedes, Swampfest and the Virginia State Fair.
Folks in the local know said Virginia's L'il Ole Opry in Mathews was an effective school for show business. If you could get on stage there, the Opry regulars would take you under their wing and help you refine your craft. So the Hedspeths took Troy to Donk's.
He sang for Opry production manager Joanna Mullis. She said she didn't pay much, but she'd like to have him. Nancy Hedspeth was flabbergasted; she thought she was supposed to pay Mullis for the experience, not the other way around.
``When do you want him?'' Nancy asked.
``Tonight,'' Joanna said.
Troy performed ``If Tomorrow Never Comes.'' Donk's went airborne. Now, after three years, Troy is himself a regular.
``It has been amazing to watch him do what he's done with raw talent and a minimum of direction and a drive you usually only see in mature adults,'' Mullis, 55, says today.
At 5-feet-2, 100 pounds, black-hatted and booted, the boy wraps himself around a song and rides it like a wrangler. He rips, he roars, he rages. ``That Summer,'' ``Sold,'' ``Statue of a Fool''; he makes down-home an up tune.
In the back of the van on the way to his headliner appearance, wolfing Goldfish crackers from a Zip-Loc bag, Troy talked about the necessity of paying attention.
``You go along, and you sing places, and you get hints from people,'' he confided. ``Like working your sound system to its best advantage. Or drinking hot tea instead of cold soda - it warms up your vocal chords.''
He admires Garth Brooks because he doesn't just stand there with a guitar. He prowls the playing space. He jumps on ropes and climbs on lights.
``Even as big as he is,'' Troy said, ``Garth still charges just $17 a concert, no matter what.''
And Garth, the boy noted, has a $130 million bank account.
Troy's focus is fierce. Small stature hasn't prevented the Little Man of Country from winning the Virginia Beach Middle School wrestling championship in his weight class. He is also an honor student.
``On a wrestling mat you're one-on-one in that circle,'' explained Lynnhaven Middle coach Gary Hartranft, 46. ``Like a performer, you're an individual, but you still have the team. Troy's super-personable, one of my co-captains.
``I think he likes the spotlight.'' DOING DONK'S
The headliner engagement at Donk's carried a little extra stress Saturday night. Hedspeth, adept with other people's material, was trying out some of his own. He would sing a song he wrote, ``One Second Glance.''
What will it take
To get you back for one more chance?
Baby, please give me
One second glance . . .
He scribbled it out one day at his doctor's office. Troy takes growth-hormone shots. There's always a long wait between the time the nurse shows a person into the examining room and the time the doc shows up, he explains.
Troy uses that time.
Why country music?
``It tells a story,'' Troy said.
The story it tells at Donk's, just about every other week except Christmas holidays in a scrubbed white blockhouse at the intersection of routes 198 and 223 about 90 minutes north of Norfolk, is about families having a good old time. And it is not amateur night in Dixie, either. These folks have been rattling the roof for 21 years come June, stars and locals alike celebrating live an authentic common enthusiasm: Talent.
Kitty Wells played here, Porter Waggoner, Mickey Gilley. Dolly Parton invited everybody into the trailer and showed them her wigs. Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours showed up in a big Silver Eagle bus with enough electricity in it to run two merry-go-rounds and a Ferris wheel.
But the real draws are the regulars and the resident Shades of Country back-up band. James (``Uncle Jimmy Wickham'') Smith presides with nieces Joanna Mullis and Betsy Ripley, 49, over about a score of wild balladeers of both sexes and all ages. Ripley's the one who encouraged Troy to master a novelty number called ``Trashy Women.''
Politely, he prefaced his first public rendition of it this way: ``I'd like to dedicate the following song to Betsy Ripley.''
``Troy has,'' she noted, ``a giving, sharing spirit.''
He does, and Hedspeth lavished the place with it Saturday. He not only sang, he gave away stuffed animals in Troy T-shirts, offered flowers to fellow performers, signed autographs and rode home on the rental tour bus with his fans.
There were many of them.
Louise Hudgins, 77, of Gwynn's Island said: ``Garth Brooks or none of 'em got nothin' on him. I was goin' all the way to Virginia Beach to see him one Sunday, but my car caught afire. To me, he's A-number-one.''
Pauline Bolser, 55, of Planview said: ``I love the kid. I got invited up here by neighbors two years ago and haven't missed a show since. Troy's a natural.''
But Brenda Wright, 48, who traveled from Richmond just to applaud the Little Man of Country, had the final word: ``We figure we better come catch Troy now. Because in the not-too-distant future, we're going to have to go a whole lot farther to see him.'' ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTOS BY MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Backstage, Hedspeth takes a sip of hot tea - with just a touch of
sugar - to soothe and relax his voice.
Troy Hedspeth of Virginia Beach - the ``Little Man of Country
Music'' - belts out ``Kickin' and Screamin''' during his concert
Saturday night at Donk's Theater - ``Virginia's L'il Ole Opry'' - in
Mathews, Va.
Hedspeth looks on as the other performers at Donk's ready themselves
for the first set of music Saturday night.
PHOTOS BY MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
On the tour bus after the concert, Troy Hedspeth reads a note he
received from a trio of fans.
Troy takes a moment away from the rest of the backstage crowd to
wipe his brow before his concert Saturday night.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY COUNTRY MUSIC
SINGERS by CNB