Taylor Austin Dye, fulfilling her childhood dream, embraces country … – User-generated content

October 6, 2023

By Andy Furman
Point/Arc

She fulfilled a dream by opening for Wynonna Judd at Renfro Valley Entertainment Center. That was in April, of 2022.

Taylor Austin Dye will star at the Point/Arc’s Fifth Annual Boots and Brews, Saturday, October 14 at the Newport Car Barn (1102 Brighton Street). Doors are set to open at 6 pm.

She is no stranger to the Bluegrass State – in fact, she’s a native of the small southeast Kentucky town of Booneville.

Taylor Austin Dye (Photo provided)

And, she is no stranger to music, either.

“I have always loved music,” she told Matthew Patania in an interview. “According to my mom, I would start swinging my feet and babbling in my car seat whenever she would turn Hank Jr. or AC/DC on in the car.

“When I started school just before I turned five, I had severe anxiety and I hated school. I would cry every day, nonstop, until it was time to go home.”

The crying stopped, she said when she saw a man with a guitar in the hallway, and she was fascinated.

“I told my mom, and she immediately signed me up for lessons. Since I was only five, Mr. Wilson (teacher) decided to start me out on the fiddle. He pulled me out of kindergarten classroom for 30-minutes-a-day and I quickly started learning old fiddle tunes such as Camp town Races, Boil Them Cabbage Down and Yankee Doodle.”

The moment she picked up a microphone, she knew that she was destined to sing. “I wanted to be a rock star, I wanted to be just like Hank Jr.,” according to Taylor. “I just always knew it. I never had a backup plan. I went to college and studied music and there was no backup plan there obviously. So, I thought well, if I don’t make it, I don’t have other options. That makes you work a little harder.”

Taylor Austin Dye has taken her talents from writing whiskey-soaked lyrics to singing to instrumentation to provide a unique sound that sets her apart from other newcomers in country music.

She says, “What you hear, is straight-up, honky-tonk attitude and what you see is just the same.”

From the young girl who performed at the age of five to opening a sold-out show for fellow Kentuckian, Wynonna Judd, Taylor Austin Dye has her sights set in country music.

In 2022, she was named one of Kentucky Country Music’s Music Acts to Watch and has proved that she deserved a spot on that list.

Boots and Brews is sponsored by B105 Radio – and Granite World. Tickets benefit The Point/Arc, and are a $50 donation, by calling 859-491-9191 or www.thepointarc.org.

The Point/Arc was founded in 1972 by a group of parents fighting for the educational rights of their children, who were diagnosed with an intellectual and developmental (I/DD) disability. The mission —to help people with disabilities achieve their highest potential educationally, socially, residentially and vocationally. More than this, The Point/Arc has been an organization that identifies gaps in services and provides care and support to fill these gaps – even when government funding sources are not available.