Refreshing Dew

Young singer has eye on stardom

Sara Dew knows a future as a performer is uncertain.

Thousands of people try to launch professional music careers every year, and only a fraction make it. Dew, 17, knows this, but the uncertainty doesn’t stop her.

If a professional music career doesn’t work, Dew said she will figure out a Plan B. In the meantime, she loves performing too much to give it up without giving it her best shot.

“Singing and being involved in music is what keeps me going. As long as I have music in my life somehow everything is good,” said Dew of Tarboro.

The country singer will perform with her band, Dew Point Rising, at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Nash Arts Center in Nashville, said Rhonda Mayer, the band’s assistant manager. The concert is the band’s first at the venue, and Mayer hopes it will introduce Dew’s music to a wider audience.

“She has got a lot of things in her bag of tricks. She is a good fiddle player, and she has a beautiful smile. She interacts well with the crowd. Her voice is full of power, and she is versatile,” Mayer said.

Dew will perform a mix of country songs by artists such as Martina McBride, Patsy Cline and Sugarland and others Dew co-wrote with friends. Many of the songs will be off Dew’s CD, “Dew Point Rising,” which was released June 19. The CD had seven original songs and three covers. Dew said she likes her concerts to be lively and upbeat to get people moving.

“Usually when I perform, I feel like everybody is having a great time with me. It makes me feel good to see the smiles on their faces or them singing back to me. Even if they are not my songs, they are still having a good time,” said Dew, a senior at Rocky Mount Academy.

Terri Dew doesn’t remember a time when her daughter wasn’t interested in music. She was constantly singing as young as age 3. At 6, when her parents offered the option of taking dance or gymnastics classes, Sara Dew wanted to learn the violin. She had seen a fiddler play on a televised Shania Twain concert and was amazed. She began singing in the Tar River Children’s Chorus in the fourth grade and at festivals, contests and concerts at age 12.

“The stage and the music, that is pretty much her world. ... Pretty much when she gets up there, that is her. You are not going to see anything fake,” Terri Dew said.

Other concerts at Nash Arts this month and their ticket prices are:

• Craig Woolard Band, 7 p.m. today, $12.
• Will West, 8 p.m. Nov. 14, $12.
• Nash County’s Got Talent finals, 7 p.m. Nov. 19 and 20, $15 for two-day pass for adults and $10 for students 17 younger, $10 and $8 for a one-day pass.
• “Holly Leaves and Christmas Trees,” a tribute to Elvis Presley by Alvin Smith at 7 p.m. Nov. 21, $12.

Tickets for Dew’s concert are $10.

For details, call 459-4734.