Stephanie Deskins is one of the featured performers on this week’s installment of “Radio Free Charleston,” thegazz.com’s live music and animation program. This talented country songwriter divides her time between Logan and Belle and appears on the brink of a very promising career.
A 24-year-old criminal justice major, Deskins has made good use of the Internet to kick off her career. With two Web sites (stephdeskins.com and myspace.com/goldguitarsmusic), the young artist has managed to generate quite a lot of interest in her heartfelt tunes.
She has already landed sponsorship deals with Timberline Guitars, Knucklehead Guitar Strings and Morgan’s Leather Den, which custom-crafts her guitar straps. Her songs have been played on Internet radio stations based in Florida, Illinois, New Zealand and Germany, and she’s been attracting attention from some broadcast outlets.
The Internet-based Kick Radio (www.kickradio.com) has really taken Deskins under its wing.
“As an independent artist, you have to take it upon yourself to take initiative and get things done,” she said.
“I actually contacted them on behalf of my sponsors and the next thing I know, they’re playing my tunes.
“Right now, they’re spinning ‘The Fall’ and ‘When You Come Around.’ We’ll probably be sending them more at a later date once we see how well these do.
“Kick has actually booked me for an interview with their station. I was honored as being only the second artist on their station to have two songs spinning at the same time.”
Deskins began writing songs when she was just 8 years old. “About then was when I started watching the artists on the old TNN network and figured, ‘They sing and play guitar. Where do the songs come from?’ I didn’t have a concept of songwriters. I figured the artists did everything themselves so that’s the route I went — doing everything myself.”
She hasn’t been making music entirely on her own, though. She has worked with Jason Roller, the guitarist for Sarah Johns, as well as CURB Records artist Jeff Carson and Monument Records’ LoCash (seen on Tanya Tucker’s show, “Tuckerville”) among others. Deskins is looking for local collaborators, because many of the Nashville-based artists she works with spend so much time on the road.
On “Radio Free Charleston,” Deskins performs “When You Come Around.” She said: “I wrote ‘When You Come Around’ never intending for it to be released to the public, but the response was so great that I didn’t really have a choice. I’m happy about it though; the song has done wonders for my career.
“Most people listen to the song and think it’s ‘love gone wrong,’ and it could be — but that’s not what I had in mind when I wrote it. I wrote that song as a Christmas gift for a relative whose husband passed away and that’s what I meant the song to be about. But it’s open for interpretation. I’ve always loved songs that could take on more than one meaning.”
You can see Deskins along with Doctor Senator and Comparsa on Episode 27 of “Radio Free Charleston” at www.thegazz.com/gazztv. You can also read an in-depth interview with Deskins and watch a video of her song “The Fall” at the “PopCult” blog at www.thegazz.com.
Contact Rudy Panucci at rudypan@suddenlink.net.