Junior American Idol singer rocks Crocker Park
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published April 5, 2006

Katelyn Tarver performs at Crocker Park. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

At just 13, she performed before a national television audience on the “American Idol” spin-off  “American Juniors” in 2003. On Satuday afternoon, she performed before roughly 50 of her pre-teen and teen-age fans from the area at a free concert at Crocker Park.

The concert was part of Radio Disney’s Incubator Tour featuring artists the radio network believes have the potential to become the next Britney or Christina.

At only 16, Katelyn Tarver has already recorded an album, “Wonderful Crazy.”

But her goal is to play big arenas as part of a big-time national tour.

 “I love to perform,” she said, “so to be on a big tour with thousands of people, performing in a big arena — that would be awesome to make it to that.”

While she wasn’t among the top finalists on “American Juniors,” she did finish in the top 10. And it provided her with a memorable experience, she said.

“I’m from a little, small town in Georgia, so to make it on this big national television show was crazy,” said Tarver, who still lives in Georgia. “It was so much fun.”

She said she’s a fan of many different types of music, and her influences range form Jessica Simpson and Kelly Clarkson to John Mayer and the Beatles.

After her 30-minute concert, Tarver signed autographs and posed for photographs for fans at Borders bookstore.

Her next performance in this area will be on April 28 when she performs with Better Then Ezra at the WZKL Q92 Radio Show at the Canton Palace Theater. For more information, visit her Web site at www.katelyntarver.com.

Also performing was DEVO 2.0, a Los Angeles-based kids group patterned after the Akron-born alternative DEVO of the 1970s and 80s. The original members of DEVO rerecorded 10 of their old songs and two brand new ones with DEVO 2.0, a group of five kids aged 10 to 13. A DEVO 2.0 CD, released by Disney Sound Records and in music stores now, includes a bonus music DVD with nine tracks. For more information on the new DEVO, go to www.devo2-0.com.

On the Web:

• Official Artist Site
• Katelyn Tarver Online
• Official My Space for Katelyn