The North American Country Music Association, International’s “Entertainer of the Year” is Bec Silveous, also known as Rebecca Kiernan.

A former member of the Morrow County Potholes Band, the songwriter, performer, guitar player and author is prolific in her performances and writing ambitions.

“After the band broke up, I started performing karaoke, singing along to popular songs at the Cactus Club, which is where I started my singing career,” she says. “That led to a contest in Centerburg in the summer of 2013. I didn’t make the grade, but that didn’t stop me from following my dream of a singing career. I followed that with a run in a contest at the Big Walnut Grill in 2015, where I decided karaoke wasn’t my bag, and I started writing and performing my own work.”

Regularly performing in her sparkling multicolored hoodie, and flower flocked jeans at several venues in Morrow, Delaware, Westerville and Columbus area, Bec made a name for herself locally before stepping into the national spotlight.

This Morrow County native, recently won the NACMAI’s title of “Entertainer of the Year” for her presentation of her original song, “Ask Me if I Care” as well as her song “Gatlinburg,” in March 2018.

To qualify to compete in the NACMAI, she first had to earn a high enough score in the Buckeye Country Music Organization of America competition in 2017. “I have been singing and playing since I was 15 years old,” she explains. “I am now 69. I entered the contest against 500 others.”

She notes that many others only sang along with prerecorded tracks.

“I can sing karaoke, but I choose to perform with my guitar and my original songs. My expertise is in songwriting.”

Although her guitar playing days started at the tender age of 12, her singing career didn’t begin until the early 2000s, and has proceeded to blossom into her now single performance act.

Now the wife to husband William, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother shares her talents not only in song but also in print, with her self-illustrated book, The Grasserhop’s, and other short stories of poetry, available on www.blurb.com under her name Rebecca B. Silveous. She says she enjoys discovering old poems that she then sets to music.

Bec entered seven of her own original songs into several categories in the John Lennon songwriting contest last year, an international songwriting competition comprised of 12 categories ranging from Country to Rock. And this year just missed out on getting her music video entered into the Tiny Desk contest.

You can and her current CD titled “When the Leaves Fall,” available on cdbaby.com, Spotify, I-Tunes Amazon.com, and other venues for mp3 download or hard copy CD, under the name Rebecca Kiernan.

This buckeye didn’t appear to fall far from the tree. As she put it, “I am Ohio.”

Bec Silveous, also known as Rebecca Kiernan, named by NACMAI as Entertainer of the Year.
http://www.morrowcountysentinel.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2018/05/web1_Resized_20180516_154613.jpgBec Silveous, also known as Rebecca Kiernan, named by NACMAI as Entertainer of the Year.

Staff Report