Local Teen's Songs Finding Air Time in Europe
By Larry Stroud (Associate Editor, Batesville Guard)
Scout Finch's success at singing came as a surprise to her whole family - even to Scout herself. Scout is more commonly known in this area as 17-year-old Batesville High School senior Amanda Finch, but her stage name is catching radio listeners' ears in France, Great Britain, Belgium, Scotland, the Netherlands and the Island of Cypress, according to the January issue of Country Music Round-Up, a British magazine. "17-year-old Scout Finch is creating a buzz at the moment with her single 'Right back Here To You,'" writer Stuart Cameron says in the magazine. "The schoolgirl from Arkansas was nicknamed Scout by her father after the little girl in the film 'To Kill A Mockingbird,' and it stuck. In between waitressing and studying, she is working hard at singing and hopes to carve herself a career. Judging by her vocal talent, she should certainly be able to achieve that."
The same blurb is in the current edition of the HotDisc music chart report, Finch's song reached as high as number 18 on the HotDisc Popular Tracks chart compiled by European disc jockeys. She also recently cracked the European County Music Association's chart that lists the Association's 200 most played songs; performers on the chart include such stars as Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Lee Greenwood, and Lorrie Morgan.
Closer to home, Finch said the song is being played on radio stations in Texas and Louisiana, as well as stations in Arizona and Las Vegas. Another song, "Play It By Heart," is also getting some airplay.
Scout also hopes to schedule several local performances this summer, but is concentrating on Europe, where it is easier and less expensive to break into the Country music business, her mother, Beverly Finch, said.
"Scout is a nickname that Amanda got when she was about seven," Bev Finch said. "She was such a tomboy and hated to wear dresses - just like the little girl in the book and movie, 'To Kill a Mockingbird.' Her dad, Phillip, thought Amanda was just like THAT little Scout Finch. He started calling her Scout and the nickname stuck."
But, back to the beginning - a year and a half ago, young Finch was preparing to enter a beauty pageant when she decided to sing the late Patsy Cline's "Crazy" as her talent. Her mother states, "No one else in the family is musically inclined, so when she said that, I said, 'Oh, no.'" But, Scout said, "I wanted to win $100 at Josie's and I was in a pageant and I said, 'I'm going to sing.'"
It turned out OK. Her pageant performance went well and shortly thereafter, she won the money in the weekly karaoke contest at Josie's at the Lockhouse, moving into contention for the $500 monthly contest. She won that, too, although she had to sing additional songs to win tiebreakers.
That was last May.
Before that, her only onstage experience was acting. "She was always interested in performing," her mother said, adding that in the beginning, "She would be, like a flower or something, a munchkin, …" in local plays. As she got older, she graduated into better parts in Shakespeare's "On the Steps," "The Tempest," and the Batesville Community Theater's summer "Godspell."
She also did well in the Colgate County Showdown in Searcy and tried out in Chicago for the American Idol television show. "The tryout was disappointing since they only let each performer sing a tiny bit of song. They auditioned 48 people every six minutes," she said.
Scout performs occasionally at Java Joe's, a coffee house in Heber Springs, and got to sing a song onstage as an opening act when country music legend Merle Haggard performed in Batesville recently.
Before becoming a singer, Scout said, she wanted to be either an actress or a veterinarian. "I have always loved animals and used to be very active in humane society activities and cleaned up after a lot of cats at their new shelter," she said.
Scout recorded an album at Raney Recording Studio in Drasco, and then learned about a way to be heard overseas. "We got in touch with a guy in Texas, his name's Rick, and he's in touch with 600 radio stations," she said. "He distributes mixed (compilation) CDs."
That led to a working relationship with Doug Deforest in Cherokee Village, who also makes compilation albums, which include songs from various artists. Deforest, when working in Nashville, was the producer of more than 100 albums and hosted the "America's Country Magazine" television show in 1990 and 1991.
Deforest tweaked Finch's album at his Lake Paradise Studio and, for a fee, included her song "Right Back Here to You" written by former Batesville bootmaker/songwriter/performer Bo Riddle and Jackie Julio, on the HotDisc album that is being played overseas. Riddle and Julio who also wrote "Soulmate," wrote "Play It By Heart" with Shelia Fox for Finch's CD titled simply "Scout," and Riddle also wrote "Cold Window Pane."
Musicians on those songs include Tim Crouch on acoustic guitar, fiddle and mandolin; Deforest on bass guitar; and Andrew Frye on piano and keyboard. Jon Raney of Raney Recording Studio in Drasco, engineered, mixed, and mastered the CD. Deforest served as vocal engineer and Becky Coffee and Deforest performed background vocals. Pre-recorded soundtracks were used for cover songs, which include "Sweet Dreams," I Fall to Pieces," Walkin' After Midnight," Difficult Kind," "Someday Soon," "Broken Wing."
Scout took piano lessons when she was younger and played French horn in the band for four years. She is now learning to play guitar and learning to write songs, but says, "At this point in time, singing is on the front burner and songwriting is on the back burner, but to really succeed in the music business, you have to write you own songs and that's what I'm work towards." Songwriting is another way to express yourself, she added.
Scout and her mother plan to attend a Country Music Festival in Berlin, Germany later this year as recommended by Deforest, in order to meet people that are influential in Country music in Europe. Although Finch is not scheduled to perform, she expects to learn more about the music business overseas and make some important contacts.
Deforest will be at the festival with performer Todd Fritsch, who is gaining attention nationally and internationally. Fritsch will perform and have a booth at the three-day festival, Bev Finch said. "Doug said we could stay at their booth and hand out Scout's CDs and publicity photos to deejays, booking agents, and media people that came by," she said. "Doug said that they would introduce us to all those people as they came to meet Todd."
Scout's music isn't the only thing taking up her time these days. "She has a 3.93 GPA and she works 25-30 hours per week at Kelley's Restaurant, so she's a busy girl," her mom said. "She was also last year's Miss Teen Batesville. I guess that she outgrew that tomboy stage!"
