Roseland native recording his first album in Nashville

Mike Kidd looks like an average, everyday, Nelson County country boy.

Wearing faded jeans, a nondescript T-shirt and an old baseball hat, he could be anybody’s next-door neighbor.

But it’s not every day that a man originally from Roseland is recording an album in Nashville, Tenn.

For the past year, Kidd, 34, has been traveling back and forth from his home, now in Staunton, to Nashville to work on his first album, “Reel Man.” It’s something he said he never thought he’d get the opportunity to do.

The opportunity came from a chance encounter with a music industry executive.

“Anything’s possible, I believe that,” Kidd said, “but it was just shocking.”

Musical performance is something that runs in the family.

Kidd has been singing since he was 13, first with his father, Wayne Kidd, who played in a local bluegrass and country band, the Little Mountain Boys. The son would go on to sing at weddings, family gatherings and karoke mostly, he said, before joining a Waynesboro band called Shatterproof as their lead singer.

It was at an open mic night in Lexington where Kidd was singing that he happened to meet Bruce Allen, president of America’s New Artist Management. Allen gave Kidd the opportunity to sign with his label.

“When you’re in Nashville, you’re just another drop in the bucket,” Kidd said. “Everybody down there’s got a CD.

“But coming from here, to me anyways, it’s something just, I don’t know how to describe it.”

Kidd is currently in the process of planning his next trip to Nashville to finish recording songs for his first album. From there, he will join other artists, whose music is from varying genres, on a tour called “For the Heroes.”

The meaning of hero depends on each artist’s interpretation, Kidd said.

“It could be your mom, your dad, fire fighter, policeman,” he said. “The originality of the whole thing was basically for the troops.”

Kidd, who currently works for Coca-Cola, said he’ll try to hold his regular job as long as he can, but singing professionally is something he could see himself doing as a career.

“I enjoy my job, but until there’s something definite with the music, I’d like to maintain a steady income and make sure that everything at home is taken care of first,” Kidd said.

The reason he likes to get up in front of a crowd and sing? The crowd’s reaction.

“Because if you’ve ever listened to a song and it’s given you goose bumps – To think that I might be the guy singing that song that’s given someone just that feeling where it hits home.”

Plus, Kidd said, “Just to be on stage, to see people up and dancing and having a good time, it’s fun to me. I love to do it.

“I just love to see people just having a ball.”