Lila McCann

McCann has been performing since the tender age of four. She begged her parents to let her sing on stage with her father’s band, the Southlanders, a group of military buddies who still perform their mix of country, bluegrass and oldies in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. But when the time came for little Lila to take the microphone, she experienced her first bout of stage fright.

McCann told POLLSTAR, “I wanted to sing so bad. I had been begging my parents forever. So I practiced for a few weeks and then, right as I was about to go on … I go, ‘I’ll be right back. I have to go to the bathroom.’ And my mom goes, ‘Lila, they just called you.’ And I said, ‘Well, tell dad I’ve got to go to the bathroom.'”

The elder McCann announced to the audience that his daughter had to take care of some business and she’d be up on stage in a few minutes. “My mom came in [the bathroom] a few minutes later and she goes, ‘Lila, they’re waiting for you. You need to come out now.'” In a typical four-year-old fashion, Lila stood her ground and said, “I’m not coming out.” She said her mom was practically begging but then turned the tables and said, “Well I’ll just tell dad you don’t want to sing.”

The threat of missing her stage debut was enough to make McCann reconsider — but not without a catch. She told her mom, “No wait. There’s this really cool Barbie doll and if you buy it for me, I’ll get up and sing.” Her mom said the Barbie would be hers if she came out of the bathroom, and she did. She’s been entertaining crowds ever since.

Things started to get serious for McCann about five years later when she met the woman who would become her manager and close friend — Kasey Walker.

Walker was in Tacoma visiting family and came down to the Eagles Lodge where McCann was performing with her dad’s band. Three months later, Walker rang up the McCann family and she’s been working with McCann ever since. By the time Lila turned nine, Walker had helped assemble a top notch business team, and also got her a gig at the Palomino club in Hollywood.

McCann speaks about the business people she has worked with as friends, rather than as influential music business executives. Names like Seymore Stein, Sylvia Rhone, Rob Light, Bernie Driscoll and Rick Shipp often come up casually in conversation.

Stein is credited with “discovering” her at the Palomino and he was instrumental in getting Kyle Lehning, former co-president of Asylum Records, to sign her to the label.

Light, a close friend of Walker’s, believed in her talent right away. She worked with the L.A.-based CAA agent a bit but ultimately signed with William Morris Nashville, where Driscoll and Shipp are her agents.

McCann said the two WMA agents are “pretty cool,” and she is smart enough to take their advice on the development of her touring career. They landed her an opening slot on George Strait’s Country Music Festival, which is doing stellar business. They’re also keeping her busy this summer with a run of East Coast and West Coast fair dates.

However, like most teenagers, McCann has her priorities. When the agents sent her a tentative list of summer gigs, McCann noticed there was a conflict with her cheerleading camp. “I looked at my schedule and there’s all these dates they were trying to book. [I] called and said, ‘You can’t do that; I’ve got to go to cheer camp.’ So I do have a little bit of say, but that’s their job and I try to let them do it.”

McCann momentarily thought about sacrificing school in favor of a tutor so she could stay on the road but ultimately reconsidered. The high school sophomore actually enjoys her “normal” life and plans on staying in school until she graduates. After that, she said she’ll probably spend a few years touring before going to college.

But McCann doesn’t think her weekend and holiday touring schedule will be detrimental to her career. “If people really like you a lot, they’ll wait around to see you live or in concert, as long as you keep making the records,” she said. “Look at Shania [Twain]; she has not been on tour once and she’s sold millions and millions and millions of records.”

Like Shania, McCann also has been selling a lot of records. Her debut CD, Lila, has sold a respectable 400,000 copies since its release last year. And Lila has produced three hit singles, “I Wanna Fall In Love,” “Down Came A Blackbird,” and “Almost Over You.”

With that kind of radio and retail success, a lovely voice and a good head on her shoulders, it’s no surprise that Lila McCann has made a place for herself as one of country music’s brightest young stars.