PERFORMING FULL TIME: Odessa singer, songwriter continues to build her brand

Feb. 24—Kacey Greathouse has been singing for most of her life.

In recent years, the native Odessan has been building her brand as she has now made singing and playing guitar her full-time job.

The longtime Odessa country singer now stays busy performing at different restaurants and clubs in the area.

She'll be performing from 5:30-9:30 p.m. tonight and tomorrow at Venezia's Italian Restaurant in Midland.

It's one of the places that she's been coming back to perform at since this past fall.

"I've been performing at Venezia's for awhile now," Greathouse said. "I started back around October-November. But they've been really busy and have kept me booked several times a month since which has been great. It's a beautiful atmosphere. It's a great crowd and it's really laid back. They're very sweet. The crowd is very happy whenever I perform there. I can't remember if they reached out to me or if I reached out to them but the whole process has been a lot of trial and error."

Greathouse's venture into music all started when she was singing in the praise band at her church, Tanglewood Baptist. in which she still performs regularly.

"I learned to play guitar with the help of my brother (Troy Greathouse)," Greathouse said. "It was mainly so that I could learn how to start accompanying myself and writing my own songs. As far as performing professionally, June will be two years that I've been full time performing. Before that, it was just not a lot of professional performing. I just jumped into it and thank God it worked."

Before making music her full-time job, Greathouse said she helped do tax work.

Her favorite style of music to listen to and play is Americana or folk style with country undertones.

She grew up on 90s and 2000s country, listening to Shania Twain and Faith Hill.

"Those are quintessential ladies," Greathouse said. "I mostly listen to the Americana and folk but I get a lot of inspiration from country music especially the older style that I grew up on."

However, not having an agent and doing everything on her own including promoting herself has been a challenge but a welcomed one.

She says she also been grateful for her followers in the Odessa-Midland area.

"It really is a business in being self-employed and finding those leads for yourself," Greathouse said. "I'm starting to get more people contacting me which is amazing. It takes that pressure off some. I can adjust to where I need to. It's been really nice. The local community has been so accommodating."

She also performs gigs outside of the area.

Next month, she'll be mostly in Lubbock.

"I have a few local shows but I'll be in Lubbock every weekend," Greathouse said. "I play in Big Spring pretty often, especially in the warmer months. They have some great outdoor venues. But I've also played at the Hotel Settles."

She aims to be able to perform outside of West Texas with her sights set on the Metroplex and beyond.

"Slowly but surely, I'm trying to get further and further out of the local scene and more into the Dallas-Fort Worth scene," Greathouse said. "But it takes time and it's been pretty good to have the local support. I don't have any plans on stopping performing locally. Odessa's my hometown."

When Greathouse first made the switch to performing full time, she talked about some of the difficulties in getting started.

"At first it was pretty hard," Greathouse said." It was difficult figuring out how to go about getting gigs and making those contacts. So when I first started, I was putting in a lot of mileage on my car, going around and trying to meet people. But then I figured out that wasn't the best way to go about it."

Since then, Greathouse says she's been using email and social media more to try and set up gigs and get

"That's been easier especially with trying to get further out of town," Greathouse said. "I don't feel the need to drive to Lubbock or Andrews or Monahans and try to figure out what the live music venues are and try and go there and catch somebody because a lot of those are night gigs so going there during the day was not super productive, I'll just say that. It's been a lot of trial and error and figuring out what works and going with that and adjusting as I need to. It's been a learning experience."

As far as the songwriting process goes, Greathouse has always loved being able to write her own music.

"That's the driving force behind performing for me," Greathouse said. "It was to get to perform my own songs. I love to perform covers that I everybody loves and songs that I love but my main goal is to release my own songs and release my own music and perform. I try to keep my songwriting really introspective and just kind of personal."

She says she'll also gage the crowd before a performance and see what the environment is calling for.

"But there are several listening room type places where I feel very comfortable performing original music and encouraged to do that," Greathouse said. "That's been nice as well. It's nice to not just be a living jukebox."

Some of the biggest music stars that have had an influence on Greathouse include Ashley Monroe.

"I think she's a great songwriter," Greathouse said. "I'm really drawn to Ruston Kelly as a songwriter. I really try to find people that are writing songs. The Civil Wars, I know they're not together anymore but John Paul White and Joey Williams, they were big influences early on when I was just starting to write. People who are writing deeper meaning types of songs and songs that can go lots of different ways or that can be interpreted to that person specifically, that's what I'm drawn to."

What she loves the most about music is the way people respond to it.

For Greathouse, it's a universal passion for a lot of individuals.

"Whether they play or listen or write, I think music touches people in general," Greathouse said. "It's something that a lot of people love. So I really like being the provider for that, especially when it's original music. Then, I really like to see the way people respond and hear feedback like 'oh, I relate to that' or 'I feel the same way about that'. That type of thing. That's what makes it easy to keep going. Music's always been my passion. It's the process of getting to do what I love to do and I feel very lucky and blessed that I get to be a part of the scene."

For more information about Greathouse and her music, go to her Facebook page at tinyurl.com/mpjwddty.