Vocalist shares life experiences, faith though new album

Senior Carrina Lickteig recorded her debut album, The One Beside You, in 2003.

Special toThe Chart

Senior Carrina Lickteig recorded her debut album, The One Beside You, in 2003.

While some aspiring artists take their chances on “American Idol,” others find recording opportunities elsewhere.

Carrina Lickteig, senior music and general business major, recently released the contemporary album The One Beside You.

Three weeks after Lickteig took a demo tape to Russell Simms of Simms Records, Simms called her back and offered her a recording deal.

After taking up Simms offer, she recorded the summer of 2003 at Hilltop Studios near Nashville, where Alan Jackson and Dolly Parton have also recorded.

“It’s one of the oldest and best recording studios as far as quality is concerned,” Lickteig said.

She said recording in the studio was a great experience in itself.

Since she was in a sound isolation booth, she kept in sync with the band via a “huge” pair of headphones which feeds the music from the musicians.

She laughed when she recalled some of the funny sounds she overheard on the headphones. One time, during a break, she heard one of the musicians eating a bag of potato chips coming over her headphones.

While her album has mostly contemporary and pop music on it, there is one southern gospel and one contemporary gospel song.

Lickteig said she co-wrote the songs on her album, and the title track, “The One Beside You”, is one that she relates to well.

It’s about a little girl in a hospital bed. It’s her own testimony of when she was sick and how the Lord healed her.

“I felt that an angel was with me during that time,” she said. “The doctors thought I was going to die, but they figured out what was wrong.”

Lickteig has been singing for more than 12 years, but only seriously for the last three years. She loved her first voice lesson when she was ten, and she said she really feels like singing is her purpose from the Lord.

“God can use everyone in different ways,” she said. “Find what you’re good at and pursue that. Some people are teachers, some doctors, it’s finding your niche is what you’re good at.”

She’s had several people at her performances tell her they appreciate what she does and she should continue singing.

“I get a real high from doing it [singing] and blessing people,” she said. “Every day I wake up and think, ‘What can I do for others?’ I want to spend my life singing and blessing people.”

She sang in the Gospel Music City Showcase in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. The event was aired on television. She has also performed at the Special Olympics at Memorial Hall in Joplin and at churches and community events.

She has worked with Dan Anderson and City of Refuge Ministries. She sings at malls, mini-revivals and New Beginnings Fellowship where Anderson pastors.

“She is very easy to work with,” Anderson said. “She has such a sweet spirit and a beautiful voice. She is very beneficial to the ministry and work we do.”

Lickteig said her CDs are available for $10 in Joplin at Hastings and Great Expectations. If people want to preview the CD, there’s a demo at For-All-Bible.