HARRISONBURG, Va. (AP) — On a dewy recent morning, a clear, confident voice rang sweetly over the sparkling James Madison University quad, accompanied by the adept strumming of a guitar.
Rays of morning light beamed across senior Caitlin Fernandez's thick, dark, curly hair, her broken-in cowboy boots and crisp white Dolly Parton T-shirt — all things she takes pride in.
"I live by (Dolly Parton)," Fernandez said, citing a quote about self-expression attributed to the country singer. "Every day, when I'm putting my boots on and I don't see people on campus wearing boots, but I'm like, 'Just be who you are on purpose. Just do it and don't apologize for it.'"
The singer and guitarist performs on campus and at venues throughout downtown Harrisonburg,
Born in Del Rio, Texas, and raised just outside of Miami, Fernandez said she was steeped in Hispanic culture and country music traditions in equal measure. Her Mexican American mother played a steady stream of American country canon songs in the car and at home, she said.
"My mom raised me on (country music)," Fernandez said. "Being from Texas and Florida that's just what I'm rooted in. That's home for me, it feels natural to play country."
But, she observed, the two rarely overlapped.
"I really want to be a representation for Latin Americans in country music," Fernandez said. "Growing up, I didn't see that very often. A lot of people that I know by name are just now busting into the scene."
Fernandez doesn't just dabble in different hobbies.
Seriously picking up the guitar within the last year, Fernandez went into the Tuning Fork — a downtown Harrisonburg music repair shop — for a few lessons with owner Sean Waddington, a Harrisonburg musician.
"It was like her second or third lesson and I had to go up front to help a customer," Waddington said. "I heard her back here singing and I stopped in my tracks. I ran back here and I was like, 'Keep doing that.'"
Fernandez said her first "real" performance was busking on the cold front stoop of the Tuning Fork, which Waddington said he encouraged her to do.
Taking Dolly Parton's fearless words to heart, Fernandez said she began playing on the cold sidewalk. As she did, the day and the people walking by just melted away, and it was only her and her guitar.
"When I am performing, there is nothing else in the world I would rather be doing," Fernandez said.
A senior graphic design major at JMU, Fernandez said she broke out of the campus bubble by visiting the open mic night at Clementine Café in downtown.
There, she said she met local musicians Rebecca Porter, a country singer-songwriter who released debut EP "Prime Rainbow Conditions" in February, and Charlottesville-based producer, musician and songwriter Ryan Garst, and she began to admire Appalachian music traditions, too.
"It's a different kind of beauty," Fernandez said. "The more that I listen to (artists who perform) country, folk and Americana based on the Appalachian tradition, the more I feel like I was meant to be here to get that taste of it."
In addition to Waddington, Fernandez said the other artists have taken her under their wings, introducing her to other local artists and supporting her as a musician as she's gone on to perform at the Golden Pony and Brothers Craft Brewing Co., among other venues in town.
Fernandez's graphic designs can also be seen on signage outside of the Tuning Fork, where she volunteers occasionally, just to learn more about music.
Along with becoming a music industry graphic designer, Fernandez's goals for the coming years are clear.
"To keep working hard and to proudly represent my heritage and my family," Fernandez said. "And to be a force to reckon with in country music."
Then, she turned to wrap up her cover of Marc Cohn's 1991 soulful soft rock song, "Walking in Memphis."
