Colbie Caillat draws opening slot for John Mayer
By TAMARA VALLEJOS
tvallejos@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 1, 2008

Colbie Caillat, who’s opening for John Mayer at Summerfest’s Marcus Amphitheater Wednesday night, has a gig many aspiring performers would envy, and it’s all thanks to an Internet profile.

Like thousands of performers, Caillat - her name rhymes with ballet - created a MySpace page three years ago to showcase her music. At the time, she didn’t really know what the Web site was.

“My friend was like, ‘All right, there’s this thing called MySpace Music and you can hear other people’s songs.’ So he made me the page and helped me upload my music,” said Caillat, 23. “I had no idea what it could do.”

What the social networking site did was give her sweet acoustic pop music a chance to stand out. Within months, the Los Angeles native earned thousands of fans, a mention in Rolling Stone and the title of MySpace’s top unsigned artist. The buzz led to a recording contract with Universal Republic and a debut album, “Coco.”

Released last summer, “Coco” climbed to No. 5 on the Billboard charts and its first single, “Bubbly,” became an adult contemporary hit. To date, the album has sold more than 1 million copies.

Having a successful music career runs in the family. Caillat’s father, Ken, co-produced Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” and “Tusk” albums. He pushed Caillat to be more than just a pretty voice. She began writing music when she was 19, after her first guitar lesson.

“I’ve been singing since I was 11 years old, and I would do school talent shows every once in a while,” she said. “But my dad kept telling me if I really wanted to be a singer and wanted to have a career then I’d need to learn an instrument and become a songwriter.”

Actually, the performing part was the bigger challenge. Caillat’s newfound fame puts her face-to-face with her lifelong struggle with stage fright.

“I’ve always loved singing and writing songs and recording, but I had never grown up performing in front of people a lot,” she said. “It was never my thing, I’d always try to avoid it, and now I have to do it every day.”

So will she be nervous when she plays Summerfest?

“Well, I actually like big amphitheaters,” Caillat said. “I get less scared with that many people for some reason, because they all become this blob and I don’t know any of them.”

Caillat, who is part of the tour along with singer-songwriter Brett Dennen, is such a fan of Mayer that she mentioned him in the liner notes for “Coco.” Soon after the album’s release, she received an e-mail from Mayer saying he enjoyed her album.

“I freaked out because I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he knows my music,’ ” she said.

And now that she’s hitting the road with her idol?

“It’s insane. It doesn’t feel real yet,” Caillat said.

Source: jsonline.com