Stealing Angels

Stealing Angels

Stealing Angels is an American country group composed of Caroline Cutbirth, Tayla Lynn, and Jennifer Wayne. Their debut single, "He Better Be Dead," was released to radio on July 12, 2010, and debuted at #59 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It is the lead-off single to their upcoming debut album, produced by Paul Worley and set to be released in early 2011 via Worley's Skyville Records label.

Biography

Stealing Angels was founded in 2007 when three girls, Caroline Cutbirth, Tayla Lynn, and Jennifer Wayne, were recruited for a reality show titled All in the Genes, which would focus on the ups and downs of the descendants of famous relatives; Cutbirth is a descendant of Daniel Boone, Jennifer Wayne is John Wayne's granddaughter, and Tayla Lynn is the granddaughter of Loretta Lynn.

In 2008, after supporting one another in their attempts to find solo careers, the three decided to become a group. They released their debut single to country radio in July 2010. The song, "He Better Be Dead," managed to debut at #59 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the week of July 17, 2010. It will serve as the group's lead-off single to their upcoming debut album, which will be released in early 2011 via Skyville Records.

Caroline Cutbirth

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Caroline, a Texas native, knew from early on that she was a singer. She sang everywhere she went. She sang in the church choir, and became a featured soloist. She sang in the city choir, and she sang just about anywhere in Waco that anyone would let her. The girl just loved to sing!

Although she sang from early on, she was a late bloomer when it came to the love department. “I had my first kiss when I was in the ninth grade, and I didn’t have a boyfriend until I was a senior in high school. “I went to elementary, junior high and high school, and one year at Baylor University living with my folks in Waco.” But all through those years she knew in her heart of hearts that she was going to have to leave Texas behind for a higher calling: Music.

Caroline packed her bags and kissed her mom and dad goodbye and headed for the bright lights of Nashville, Tennessee, Music City U.S.A. She went with their blessing, provided she would complete her college education. She graduated from Belmont University, located at the foot of Music Row in Nashville, with a major in English and a minor in Music Business. “There was so much that I didn’t know about the music business when I got to Nashville” she recalls. “I thought all of the record labels were in huge skyscrapers somewhere. I thought they were run by skinny men in tight black suits and big fat ties. That’s so not the way it is!”

When she first started looking around at what really went on in the music business she became depressed. “I was just another blonde singer. I didn’t know how to get into the business in a way that would make me stand out.” She learned quickly. And, she worked hard at it. Caroline began interning from the time she started her sophomore year until the time she graduated. She interned for the record labels, which she discovered mostly weren’t located in some remote skyscraper, but right down the street from her school. She worked for publishers, management companies, all sorts of music related businesses all over Nashville. Finally she interned at a publishing company on Music Row that was run by Victoria Shaw, a well respected hit songwriter. Victoria not only allowed Caroline to intern for her, but when Caroline graduated she gave her a songwriting deal and began to set her up to write with some of the greatest songwriters in town.

Jennifer Wayne had moved into a house with one of Caroline’s best friends. Jennifer and Caroline became close friends as well, and it wasn’t long until they discovered that they loved to sing and write together. “When Jen and I merged together, that’s when things musically began to really happen for the both of us”.

Cutbirth also co-wrote Sarah Marince's debut single "In the Meantime."

Jennifer Wayne

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Jennifer Wayne grew up in Hollywood. Her grandfather was John Wayne. Instead of following in her grandfather’s footsteps, Jennifer Wayne, from Hollywood, California, has always had her heart set on singing country music.

Jen spent her childhood years in southern California. From the time she was twelve years old she was playing tennis at an extremely high degree of competence, and was a nationally ranked player from twelve through eighteen years of age. But from the eighth grade on, Jennifer also begin to sing in front of anyone who would listen. “I knew I could sing. I would sing in the shower. I sang in plays at school. Everybody said I had a great voice, but at first I didn’t think I would ever do anything with it, because tennis was my thing.”

Jennifer’s parents had divorced when she was young, and she moved with her father to Las Vegas at the beginning of her high school years. She continued to sing and she continued to be active in sports. She won the Nevada State Tennis Championship her senior year. She took her first “professional gig” when she was eighteen. She thought she might be the only “singing tennis player” around until she met a boy who was the number one ranked tennis player in the world and who also played keyboards. Jennifer Wayne and Bob Brian and his brother Mike started a band called The Brian Brothers Band. They played at all of the tennis tournaments in and around Las Vegas and California.

She moved back to L.A. and attended two years at USC, then moved on to U. C. Santa Barbara on a “full boat tennis scholarship”. After graduation, she needed a job. Jen began teaching tennis at the famous Beverly Hills Tennis Club, where she met many people in the entertainment business. The music business pros fascinated her, but she felt that she didn’t really fit in. “Nobody was interested in country music in Beverly Hills”. No one that is, except for entertainment impresario Merv Griffin, who was a long time family friend. Merv’s first professional interview was with Jen’s granddad John Wayne, and the two remained fast friends all their lives. When Merv Griffin heard Jennifer Wayne sing he was so impressed that he started a country record label just for her!

It was time to move to Nashville. Jennifer packed her clothes and her guitars and her tennis rackets into a ________, and headed east to begin a new life and a new career. “I found a house on Craigslist. I knew no one when I got to Tennessee.” She began working on her debut album with legendary bluegrass artist Carl Jackson serving as producer. “It was a great experience” she now recalls. “The time in the studio with Carl was precious, but I hadn’t developed my sound, and looking back, the record we made together wasn’t really me”. Before the record could come out, Merv passed away and the label was dissolved.

Other forces were at work however. “She had already met one of her future “angels”. “Caroline Cutbirth was the second person that I met in Nashville.” They began to write songs together and encourage one another. Jennifer had an idea to do a reality show about three granddaughters of legends who come to Nashville to make it as singers. She was John Wayne’s grandchild, Caroline was a direct descendant of Daniel Boone, and Holly Williams, another new friend, was Hank Williams granddaughter. Holly eventually decided it wasn’t for her, and they thought the idea was dead until they were introduced to Loretta Lynn’s granddaughter, Tayla Lynn.

The show was to be to be about three women, three lead singers who were friends, and the interaction between them. Although initially they didn’t have any desire to be a group, as time went by they discovered they had a magical chemistry between them. Their airtight harmonies and their songwriting led them to the inevitable. They became “Stealing Angels”.

Tayla Lynn

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Tayla grew up in the heart of Tennessee, near the capital of country music, and her country bloodlines are impeccable: Her grandmother is Loretta Lynn. Her father Ernie sang and played the guitar in Loretta’s band, and Tayla was crawling around on Loretta’s bus before she could walk. “I can’t remember a time that I wasn’t in the wings in some town somewhere watchin’ my “me-maw” and my daddy on stage”. Couple that environment with her pure natural talent and you have the makings of a star. “I started singing as soon as I opened my mouth” Tayla recalls. “I’ve never wanted anything other than to be a singer and a performer”. And she certainly knows how to do both: She not only has a very unique vocal style; she lights up like the fourth of July every time she takes the stage. “Performing is my passion, even above singing.”

Riding the roads with her grandmother and singing were the happy times for Tayla, but her childhood was full of dark ones as well. Her parents had divorced six months before she was born. Her mother married and remarried several times; once to a man who was physically abusive to Tayla. She was carted back and forth between Loretta Lynn’s ranch 80 miles southwest of Nashville and various houses in Franklin, Tennessee where she stayed with her mother. For a long time she lived in a junk yard. Her only comfort was the music she fantasized about creating and her only friend was a little donkey who grazed out back by the rusting cars and the wrecked pickups. She would sing to him, and dream she was on stage. This was an extremely important period for Tayla. “It had a lot to do with the troubles I was about to get into and also later with my artistry”.

Somehow she managed to graduate from high school in Franklin. After her grandfather (Mooney Lynn) died, Tayla moved in with Loretta Lynn full time. Although her grandmother wasn’t really aware of it at first, Tayla had a dark secret: she was in the throes of addiction, cocaine and alcohol. She spent several years at the bottom, scraping just enough money together to feed her ever growing habit. Finally, inevitably, the police arrested her. She was in the projects, looking for another fix when they handcuffed her and took her to the county jail in downtown Nashville. “_In the back of that cop car I was relieved because I knew it was finally over”

From that dark place she began her long, slow climb back into the light. She began to attend twelve step meetings. She moved into a halfway house. “When I got sober I had to get a job. No one would hire me ‘til I went down to (The Country Music) Hall of Fame. I began guiding tours and talking about my grandmom and all the other country stars that were like family to me”.

Tayla also began to write music. She met Leslie Satcher, one of the greatest female country writers of our time, who took her under wing, and even more importantly, she was introduced to James House, another brilliant singer/songwriter. James immediately saw the flame of talent blazing within Tayla Lynn. He in turn produced some music on her and began to introduce her to the songwriters and movers and shakers on Music Row. She also “hooked back in with granny” and hit the road as a background singer.

One day Anastasia Brown called Tayla and said she had a couple of girls that she would like Tayla to meet.

Discography

Singles

Year	Single	Peak positions	Album
		US Country
2010	"He Better Be Dead"A	48	TBD

^ACurrent single.

External links

• Stealing Angels Official Website