Chely Wright started singing in bands at age 11 and within a few years had formed her own band, County Line. The summer before her senior year in high school, she went to Branson, Missouri and landed a job in the Ozark Jubilee. At her grandfather’s urging, she auditioned and won a job in a musical production at the Opryland theme park. She took her final exams a week early and moved to Nashville. Eventually, Harold Shedd signed her to Mercury/Polygram, and her first album was released in 1994 on the corporation’s Polydor label. She was named top new female vocalist by the Academy of Country Music. Her 1997 album featured the hit “Shut Up and Drive,” and the title track to her fourth album, Single White Female, hit No. 1 in 1999. She released her follow-up album, The Metropolitan Hotel, in early 2005. After a long tour, Wright took an extended break from recording and finally re-emerged in 2010 with Lifted Off the Ground. In 2016, she followed that up with I Am the Rain. Chely Wright continues to knock it out of the park on the road.
