The first time you hear Mila Mason talk about her life-long dream of becoming a country singer, you can almost see the little girl with big blond curls singing to an imaginary audience. Some may say it’s a dream that started fifty years before Mila was born with a grandmother who loved music and passed that dream on down to her daughter, Mila’s mother. Her mother took the dream one step further, working as a singer and touring all over the country, often taking the children along. Soon the dream was passed to the next generation when, at the age of six, the Kenner Company used Mila’s picture on the Kenner toy jukebox.
Bitten by the "bug, Mila persuaded her mother to take her to auditions. Mila reflects, "When I was 8, I remember being dropped off for a Bob Hope special. I sang a Carole King song ‘I Feel The Earth Move.’ I took tap-dancing, ballet classes, acting... anything. My mother supported me all the way! Since she was an entertainer herself, she just loved the whole business and was totally absorbed by it."
From time to time, Mila lived with her aunt and grandmother just outside of Dawson Springs, Kentucky. Mila proudly professes she even knows what "setting" and "spiking" tobacco means - "hard work, that’s what it means!" After high school, she moved to Nashville to sing and write songs.
One of Mila’s first mentors was Harlan Sanders, writer of the George Jones hit "If Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)." She got her foot in the door singing demos for Sanders and various other writers. "I pestered everyone in town about writing," she admits. "When you’re that young, you don’t know anything about being cool and laid back." Mila eventually scraped enough money together to record her own demo, which ultimately led to her opening a concert for George Jones.
When she was 19, love postponed her music dream. She married and though the marriage ended, it produced two lovely children, Kipp and Zel, who are the loves of her life.
For the next few years, Mila worked outside the music business, picking up jobs where she could find them. But Mila could not deny the dream in her heart - the ancestral one of becoming a country singer, the same dream that took roots two generations ago in Dawson Springs, KY.
Once again, Mila started knocking on doors and volunteering to sing demos for various publishers and song writers in hopes of being heard by someone at a record label. She also sang jingles - including one for Visa. Taking advantage of her early acting training, Mila appeared in several music videos. Her professional and personal achievements did not go unnoticed. In one of it’s promotions, Revlon proclaimed her "Tennessee’s Most Unforgettable Woman."
But as so often happens in Nashville. Mila got her big break in a roundabout way. "I was working in a mall as a fragrance model. You know, stopping people and asking them, ‘Would you like to try a squirt of this? Everybody there just hated that job and everyday, we’d all get the want ads and look for something else," she says. One of her friends and co-workers discovered that Mila was using her lunch breaks to drop off demos and pitch her songs. That friend turned out to be the sister-in-law of the daughter of producer Blake Mevis, whose credits include George Strait, Keith Whitley, Lorrie Morgan, and Vern Gosdin. Through this contact, Mila was able to give Mevis a copy of a song she had co-written with the legendary Kostas.
Mevis became an instant Mila convert, volunteering to produce a session for her. In March of 1995, Mevis and Vena Seibert of Lapis Management set-up a showcase for her at a local club. Two record labels expressed interest in signing Mila, but she and her manager continued to shop for the "right" deal. After playing golf with the Vice President of Atlantic Records, Bryan Switzer, Mevis gave Switzer a copy of the CD he had produced on Mila. The next morning, Switzer called Mevis and said, "I can’t get this CD out of my machine!" Mevis inquired, "Why, is there something wrong with it?" Switzer responded, "No, I love it so much, I just can’t get it out of my machine!" Switzer requested to see Mila perform. Mila’s team soon set-up a showcase exclusively for Atlantic Records executives. Within an hour after the showcase and over a glass of champagne, Switzer offered Mila a recording contract.
"Finding songs for this album has been a joy," Mila exclaims. "The only problem we’ve had has been narrowing them down to just 10 or 12 songs. But every step has been fun - the publishers have been so nice. It seemed like everyone in town was searching for songs for me. There were people pitching me songs that weren’t even from their publishing company and writers pitching songs they thought were ‘me’ that they didn’t even write! And of course, working with the people at Atlantic Records has just been unbelievable! Their support and enthusiasm has made this project a thrill!"
Just like Mila, we all have dreams. Some of them are persistent dreams that just won’t go away...Some of them are postponed dreams that have been put upon a shelf... some are reemerging dreams that come back time after time... and some of them are real dreams. And when they are, they come true. As you listen to Atlantic Records’ leading lady, Mila Mason, I think you’ll agree; Mila’s dream has come true - she IS a country singer.
Source: http://www.milamason.com/
