DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710220149

SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN             PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: MR. ROBERT'S NEIGHBORHOOD 

SOURCE: Frank Roberts 

                                            LENGTH:   83 lines

GET SINGER'S AUTOGRAPH BEFORE SHE BECOMES NEXT LEANN RIMES

I get a fair number of calls from relatives and friends about someone they know who, they intone enthusiastically, ``can reeeaally sing.''

Often, as I listen to a tape, my reactions range from ``huh?'' to ``pretty doggoned good.''

Recently, I developed a new set of reactions - ``excellent, beautiful'' - after listening to 13-year-old Sarah Hammond of Delaney Drive.

This was a whole new ball game - the Norfolk Tides, to be exact.

Sarah sang the national anthem at Harbor Park twice in August, a prelude to ``playyy balll.''

She will do the same at Old Dominion University for one of their basketball games.

``I've been singing since I could talk. I want to be a country singer,'' Sarah said. ``I like the way country music sounds and I like most of the people who sing it.''

Her favorite is LeAnn Rimes who is two years older. Sarah is a member of Rimes' fan club.

The teens have one thing in common - ``Blue,'' the breakthrough hit for LeAnn. Sarah's version, some people feel, is an equal.

Sarah's mom, Teresa, tells what happened when her daughter performed the song, to acclaim, at Peanut Fest.

``A girl who was in the back heard her and came running up to the stage. Then, I heard the little girl say - oh, it's not her,'' she said.

The compliment is supreme.

So is this: A man who was listening kept insisting that Sarah was lip-synching the hit record. When told - no - he still wasn't convinced.

``Sarah has already signed her first autograph,'' Teresa said. ``She sang `Blue' at a cousin's birthday party and someone asked for her autograph.''

Whoever that someone is - save it.

Sarah's version of ``Blue'' comes complete with yodel.

``I didn't even know I could yodel,'' she said. ``I just started singing `Blue' and the yodel came out.

``I could go all day and not repeat a song,'' said Sarah who only recently began taking singing lessons, ``to help me with my range and breathing.''

The quiet, black-haired, pretty youngster needs no prodding to practice.

``We don't push her. She enjoys it,'' said her dad, Robby, a defense contractor with the RDSI Company in Virginia Beach.

``She stays in her room and sings, and she sings around the house every night,'' said Teresa, who works for Porter's Accounting in Suffolk. ``I'll be talking to someone on the phone - she'll be singing.''

Sarah alternates between ballads and uptempo songs. Her dad proclaims, ``she's comfortable with both.''

He knows whereof he speaks. Robby plays lead guitar with a band called Last Call.

Sarah is looking for work and comes highly recommended - by me.

The disadvantage she has is that the venue for country singers is usually the club and/or bar.

Sarah is too young to enter those doors, but she has entered several church doors, in addition to her home church, Liberty Baptist.

``I go to different churches and sing, including revivals,'' she said.

She got the Harbor Park singing job after sending a tape to the entertainment chairman.

She auditioned, was hired on the spot, and will resume her star spangled duties there next year.

Sarah had been told that ``The Star Spangled Banner'' is not an easy song to perform.

``It isn't tough,'' she said, ``if you have the right range.''

She has it. I watched the videotaped performance. Impressive. Sarah sang it clearly, beautifully.

``I wasn't a bit nervous,'' she said. Her dad chimed in, ``We were.''

This story needs a P.S.

Sarah's 8-year-old brother, Ryan, listened respectfully during the interview.

When his sister was asked about her interests she listed television viewing, swimming, bicycling, and softball (second base).

That was too much for Ryan.

``Can you write - that I play third base for PT Works, and I pitch?'' he asked. ``And, can you write that I had 10 home runs this year?''

Can't do that Ryan. I'm out of space. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA

Sarah Hammond, 13, sang the national anthem to open two Tides games

during the summer.

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