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Join me on a journey to Locust Grove, Oklahoma population 1400. Locust Grove is about 50 miles east of Tulsa and it houses DJ’s. “I grew up in that hamburger joint, and it's still my favorite hamburger,” Mica states with a smile. If you want to know singer/songwriter Mica Roberts, you are going to have to get to know Locust Grove. You have to close your eyes and envision hometown America.

When I asked Mica to help me know her Locust Grove she said, “It’s full of real people with real jobs. They are hard workers. It is a small town and it is honest.” When Mica speaks of Locust Grove, she smiles. She is transported to her family farm, the farm she still calls home.

The farm and this studio is where Mica’s love for music flourished. In fact, music took precedence over everything. She participated in the school band, choir and related activities. “I took music classes at night at Tulsa Junior College during my junior and senior year in high school.” And then, even with five prestigious music scholarships on the table, Mica hit the road.

“I bought a trailer and gypsied for four years before moving to Nashville. I worked amusement park shows, at campgrounds and on a cruise ship,” Mica states. “And although I was always grateful for the scholarships I let pass, I never looked back and thought that I made a mistake.”

When Mica arrived in Nashville she did everything she could to get a job. “I just wanted to stay there and support myself,” Mica recalls. “I waited tables and sang in a local club called the Bull Pen Lounge.” It was at the Bull Pen that Mica met a person who would greatly influence her music career.

But, we’re not ready for that part of her story yet. Nine years after arriving in Nashville this hard working girl from Locust Grove got her shot. “I got a job singing background vocals for Faith Hill and I toured with her for 4 years,” Mica recollects. This ending led to many beginnings. “After that tour finished, I toured with Martina McBride, Jessica Andrews and Billy Bob Thornton.”

While on tour with Billy Bob, Mica found herself back in Oklahoma. “We opened for Willie Nelson. Billy knew I am a huge fan of Willie so he took me onto his bus,” Mica says. With her Stardust album in hand, Mica glided onto Willie’s bus. “I was just sitting on the bus, asking Willie to sign my favorite album and Toby Keith walked in. What a day.” However, Toby didn’t recognize Mica.

After all, she wasn’t singing at the Bull Pen. And she certainly wasn’t serving him a beer.

“Once he figured out who I was,” Mica says with a laugh, “he mentioned that he would be adding background vocals to his live show and he asked if I would be interested. That was in 2003 and I have been with him ever since,” Mica says. Maybe it’s working with a kindred “Okie” spirit that makes Mica feel at home in Toby’s camp or maybe it’s because he lets her be exactly who she is.

And just who is this new addition to Show Dog Nashville? Read her lyrics and you will know. Listen to the soulful strength of her voice and you will hear. Watch her engaging energy as she performs and you will see. She is a tapestry of lessons that life has granted her, lessons that are held together with the strong threads of hope, persistence and joy, a tapestry that has withstood loss, sadness and fear, an unfinished work of art to someday find solace in the one place that brings Mica the greatest sense of peace: home.

Mica Roberts Oklahoma roots have recurrently carried her back home. Although she resides in a suburb of Nashville, Mica still owns the family farm in Locust Grove that she grew up on. “That farm is my safe – place. It is something that I could never give up because it is a part of me.”

Everyone needs to have that place, a place where it is okay to be exactly who you are. It is evident that Mica can be every aspect of herself at her farm; the daughter who cared for her parents, the rocker who backed Billy Bob Thornton and Toby’s Whiskey girl who can easily stand next to him, not behind, and declare, “How Do You Like Me Now!?”

Author: Erica Connell