Multi-talented Hadlie Jo is set to open for Tracy Lawrence and Chris Cagle starting at 7 p.m. Sept. 28 at Momentum Bank Ballpark.
The Midland RockHounds are hosting the concert and proceeds will benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Permian Basin.
Hadlie Jo, now 16, has been performing since she was 12. She has been writing songs for five years.
“I first started out in June of 2020. I played my first open mic night at The Destination in Midland and after I got my first applause I just fell in love with the stage and the audience and performing. That’s where my journey started and I’ve been performing ever since,” Hadlie Jo said.
Her parents, Susie and Charlie Pritchard, go to gigs with her.
She took the songwriting class taught by Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, Larry Gatlin, last year.
Hadlie Jo said she had met Gatlin previously and he told her about the eight-week class at UTPB.
“I got to go and that was my first college experience and it was great. I learned so much from him,” she said.
Songwriting began during COVID.
“It was quarantine. I was sick and in and out of the hospital. I was kind of missing my friends and getting to go and do things. Mom got me a notebook and said how about you start writing your feelings down in your notebook, so I did and those feelings started rhyming and the rhyming started turning into songs. So I was writing songs before I could even really play an instrument,” she said.
She now plays guitar, piano, banjo and mandolin and she’s learning to play the fiddle.
Hadlie Jo performs a lot of songs by singer-songwriters, a little classic country and sometimes she’ll throw in a little bit of Stevie Nicks.
“But I’m pretty traditional country,” she added.
She’s met a lot of performers in the music business.
“I record in Nashville all the time, too, so I’m constantly meeting new singer-songwriters, musicians, producers, mixers etc., in Nashville, not only Texas. Wherever I go, I’m guaranteed to meet some person in the music business,” Hadlie Jo said.
Hadlie Jo’s music can be found on all the streaming platforms — Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube, for example.
She’s liked country ever since she was “little bitty” and she likes listening to Bible nursery rhymes. Her dad would also play rock music around her, which she also enjoyed. Hadlie Jo heard “Every Rose has Its Thorn” by Poison.
“I love the acoustic guitar and I said that could be a country song, so then dad started letting me listen to more classic country and I’ve just always loved it. My mom’s always listening to it as well,” Hadlie Jo said.
She’s also been listening to Tracy Lawrence since she was little, so opening for him is thrilling.
“I think it’s so amazing. It’s an awesome opportunity and I’m super excited,” she said. “I hope that I get to meet him and that he hears me sing. I would love to hear some feedback and some constructive criticism from him, (I’m) super excited to just watch and learn from him and share the stage with him,” Hadlie Jo said.
She’s currently attending South Plains College to study in the commercial music program. Originally from Jena, La., she and her family lived in Midland for nine years and moved to Levelland last October.
“It’s excellent; absolutely amazing,” she said of the program. “I got invited to be part of the bluegrass ensemble at South Plains when I was 15, so i would come every Tuesday and Thursday. My mom and I would travel from Midland and I would come up here, do a full school day of classes and the ensemble and we would go back home. I did that my whole first semester.
“My second semester, I was in the (South Plains College) Country Jukebox Band … and did more classes. This is my third semester. I’m in theory and a cappella. I really like to do the different ensembles to get a feel of the different things that I can learn. I’m a dual credit student, so therefore I’ve graduated from high school, but at the time I started at South Plains, I was still in high school so I got dual credit,” she said.
She is expected to receive her certificate for commercial music this spring, but she’s planning to go back for a couple more semesters to take classes in sound, videography and lighting.
Hadlie Jo typically does gigs six or seven times a month and wants to keep going.
“I’m not an emotional person. Of course I have feelings and I have emotions, but if I hear a sad song I’m not going to cry. If I watch a sad movie, I’m not going to cry. It takes a lot for me to really feel any emotion, except excitement or happiness. So whenever I’m performing, singing my original songs, I really love to watch the crowd connect to the songs that I’ve written. They come up to me and say, oh I really felt that. I connected to it because of this reason. I love hearing their different examples, so I love taking people on emotional roller coasters throughout my set,” she said.
She’s glad proceeds from the concert are going to the Boys & Girls Club.
“I think it’s amazing. I love to give back any opportunity that I can, whether it’s charities or donations … I’m always there for it. I just love helping people, so whatever I can do to help the community wherever I’m at, I’m in for it,” Hadlie Jo said.
When she performs Sept. 28, her service dog Lucy, a Belgian Malinois, will be with her.
“She’s definitely the music dog … She goes to school with me; she goes everywhere with me. Whenever we go to school, if somebody’s talking a lot about the same thing, trying to teach you something or you’re learning this scale on the piano and you hear a wrong note, she will roll over and put her paws on her nose and groan and she will not stop until you finally get it right,” Hadlie Jo said.
“If we’re in the studio and I have to keep singing the same thing over and over to try and get it right, or try and experiment (with) different things, if she doesn’t like it she will do the same thing” and make a disapproving noise, she added.
She needs the service dog as her body doesn’t produce antibodies to fight off illnesses and infection.
“I had plasma treatments every week at home. I do it all myself … What that basically all means is that I don’t have a functioning immune system like a normal person that can fight off sicknesses and stuff, so basically my immune system is broken. The plasma treatments are my prosthetic immune system that help me fight off illnesses and infections.
“From the plasma treatments, I have migraines occasionally that can be debilitating at times. I’ll forget who I am, where I’m at, what’s going on and that gives me anxiety because it’s scary … Lucy will get on top of me and make sure I’m calm and she’ll put me to sleep so I can sleep it off. But now she’s gotten so used to me and being around me that she knows in my body chemicals that something’s going to hit me before I even have a clue … She’ll come up; she’ll nudge me; she’ll get in my lap; she’ll stare me in the eyes; she’ll lick my cheeks; she’ll do something or she’ll go to my mom and alert my mom and I’ll go ahead and take something like Advil and then just a normal headache will hit,” she said.
