Jennifer Abidor

“I never thought I could sing”, says songstress Cady Groves as she divulges a secret that not many musicians would let on: she still struggles with whether or not she actually likes her music.

She need not worry though; thousands of adoring fans have confirmed what we already knew…this girl rocks. If you listen to her EP “The Life of a Pirate” you’ll hear a pretty pop voice with a little taste of country. In fact, many compare Cady’s style to Taylor Swift’s. Sure, they’re both young, fresh faces on the music scene with that oh-so adorable country twang, but the comparisons end there. Though they’re similar musicians, Cady isn’t influenced by Ms. Swift’s chart-toppers, “I’m sort of a mixture between Miranda Lambert, Haley Williams from Paramore and the Dixie Chicks. If they all had a less talented baby that would be me.”

For a “less talented baby” Cady is already making waves in the industry. This summer she’s been on tour on the “Bamboozle Road Show” with bands such as Boys Like Girls, Simple Plan, Hanson and Good Charlotte. During her downtime on tour Cady spends ample time with her fellow artists, an experience that has been completely surreal, “I used to jump on the trampoline to Good Charlotte songs… It’s so weird to think that I’m hanging out with them now.” But any weirdness has faded away, and Cady now considers the guys to be some of her greatest friends and supporters. They’ve pushed her to try new things (including watermelon, a fruit that she detests) and truly believe in Cady’s music.

In addition to the tour, Cady was recently featured on the album “Rockin’ Romance 2” with several of her friends. The CD is a compilation of cover versions of popular love songs. Cady’s pick? The classic N’Sync tune “God Must Have Spent a Little More Time on you.” Most girls would probably have picked a love ballad from a female diva. Cady Graves is not most girls, “I’m not going to do something that people would expect me to do. I’m going to do something fun and I’m going to do a song that a guy sings… So, why not five guys?”

Long before she covered N’Sync, Cady began writing her own music at the young age of seventeen. Now, at 20, she has already released two EPs, including March’s “Life of a Pirate”. So, what exactly is the life of a pirate? Cady’s honest and personal lyrics come from a painful past. When she was a teenager, Cady shut herself off from the world for two years. She would go from place to place to escape normalcy and complacency, constantly disappearing in a perpetually packed car, “I honestly became a pirate for a couple of years.” Yet Cady’s darker years surely have a silver lining. From her experiences she has penned beautiful lyrics, which she describes as letters to people that have hurt her. Once Cady stepped into the public eye, she was surprised by the realization that many fans could relate to her feelings.

So, how does an average teenager from Oklahoma City become a star on the rise? In Cady’s case, it was almost by chance; she worked three jobs to raise money for another artist to record one of her songs. When the artist backed out, Cady sang her own song “Refrain”, and the rest was MySpace history. But, Cady’s success has not gone to her head, “I am so incredibly lucky…I will always be humble about the gift that I’ve been given.”