Loudonville aspiring country artist gets TikTok boost with Britney Spears remake
LOUDONVILLE − A village resident is getting noticed thanks to TikTok, a '90s Britney Spears hit and his love of country music.
Jeff Stauffer, 26, figures his pursuit of a country music career caught a break recently with his country version of the pop song, "... Baby One More Time."
Stauffer and his wife, Sarah, have lived in Loudonville the past five years after both growing up in the Shreve area of rural Wayne County. Sarah Stauffer promotes her husband's work and encourages him to try new things to move his career forward.
One of those new things involved Jeff Stauffer turning the Britney Spears massive hit into a country song.
“It started as a spur of the moment, kind of goofy idea,” said Stauffer, who worked for five years on the Loudonville Police Department before giving up police work “so I could spend more time on music."
He now works as a technician (CNC operator) at a machine shop in Wooster, Midway Swiss Turn, which gives him more time to concentrate on his music.
'... Baby One More Time' country version gets more than 1M views on TikTok
“I made a recording, and listened to it again and again, finally deciding 'it doesn’t sound bad',” he said. “So, I threw together a cover of it to run on TikTok, and it went over unbelievably well, with more than 600,000 views — far, far more than anything I had posted before.
“A lot of people commented that I should produce a full cover of the song, so I teamed with my brother, Kyle, him playing a pedal steel guitar and me my guitar, and on Jan. 18, posted it on TikTok,” he said. “A lot of people know it is out, and as of Jan. 27, it had had 1.4 million views, the most of any video I have produced.
“The song also was streamed on YouTube and noticed by the producers of Whiskey Riff, a country music magazine,” he continued. “They notified my by phone that they were doing a story on it.”
Sarah Stauffer said her husband recently produced his first album. She said he started playing under the influence of his grandfather, now in his 90s, “who is a huge country music fan.”
Jeff Stauffer started playing the piano, and later a mandolin in a band with his brothers, Kyle and Luke. He actually had lessons on the mandolin, which they use when playing bluegrass music.
“He actually got his start with gospel music, and became fluent with the guitar after we were married in 2017,” she said. “Our goal is for him to become successful enough with his music to be able to do it full time. A lot of people already follow him, and our goal is getting more people to become fans of his music.”
Stauffer's Wooster fans have been supportive
Stauffer still performs with his brothers and has started playing at the Ugly Bunny Winery near Loudonville. His next show is scheduled for Feb. 25.
“Kyle usually joins me there, and it has become a nicer and nicer place to perform,” he said.
Sarah Stauffer works at Golf Ball Manufacturers in Loudonville. Living with them are two dogs, a yellow Labrador and a border collie.
They met in Shreve, where Sarah worked at Scheck’s IGA.
“I’d make it my business to stop by buy something from her every day, long before we started dating,” Jeff said. “I probably did that for six years before we started dating. We were married in 2017.”
Sarah noted “the folks he works with in Wooster are tremendously supportive of Jeff’s music. After they registered his one-millionth view of his cover on TikTok, they had a party for him at work.”
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Meet Jeff Stauffer: Loudonville country music hopeful shines on TikTok
