'Small Town, Big Heart'

This story appeared in the May 18 edition of The Anderson News.

When she starts singing it's sometimes hard to remember Mikaya Taylor is just completing fifth grade at Robert B. Turner Elementary School.

But the local girl, who has been performing the country and bluegrass music for about a year might be the perfect mix of youthful exuberance and a maturing voice that is turning heads.

“Was your day good today,” Taylor asks with a huge smile.

As she did in November for an interview about her new-found success, Mikaya gives the impression she's a typical, talkative 11-year-old girl.

Until, that is, you push in her new CD.

“Gentle river take me away
to the time of happier days
All I need is love and company
Gentle river bring him back to me.”

The Allison Krauss song is the first of 10 on Mikaya' just-released project. The CD, “Mikaya Taylor: Small Town, Big Heart,” is a collaboration between Mikaya, her mother, Traci Taylor, Old Town Recording Studios of Berea and Blind Dog Studios of Crestwood.

Local musician Kevin Chilton plays banjo on the CD.

The album is a collection of classics including covers of songs by Krauss, Loretta Lynn, Emmylou Harris and Ralph Stanley among others.

Among her favorites is a cover of the Osborne Brothers' bluegrass hit, “Listening to the Rain.”

Mikaya says she has been singing that one just over a month, or just in time to put it on the CD.

“It seemed like everyone kept asking when she would have one. Even the festivals were asking. We decided we had better get one,” Traci Taylor says.

Mikaya is scheduled to sing at the Bardstown Bluegrass Festival and the Festival of the Bluegrass at the Kentucky Horse Park in June. She also has several other dates scheduled.

Since her story first appeared in The Anderson News in December, Mikaya has been an invited guest for a gathering of Tomorrow's Bluegrass Stars in Nashville.

“That was so much fun! I met Nathan Stanley,” she says of the grandson of the bluegrass music legend.

Traci says the trip, which covered four nights, was paid for by some local sponsors.

In the last few months, Mikaya has also gotten a new guitar for Christmas and received a new mandolin as a gift from some members of a Georgia-based group, Recycled Grass.

All the while, Mikaya was working toward her new CD, which was recorded over 17 hours in three sessions from April 10-30.

“It was fun!” Mikaya says with a giggle. “I only messed up once. It was hard to do because the band had never played together.”

In addition to Chilton, band members on the CD include musicians who have worked with bluegrass legends like Bobby Osborne and J.D. Crowe.

And listening to the CD, one can understand why Mikaya's mom says, “Her voice has changed. It has gotten so much more mature.”

Mikaya's calendar has begun to be a bit more busy with bookings, many being around Lawrenceburg, but she has also been contacted about appearing at many area venues, including the Capital City Opry in Frankfort.

Mikaya's success also led to a bit of celebrity status at Turner Elementary. “(Principal Wayne) Reese started telling some of the teachers, they told some other teachers and they told some of the kids,” Mikaya laughs.

“Now some of the kids want her CD,” Traci smiles. “Her school work comes first. That is why I don't book her too much.”

Currently, Mikaya doesn't have her own band, something her mother is pursuing.

But even with her maturing voice, Mikaya is still an 11-year-old.

“I want a hoverboard,” she giggles.

It's something not every kid has.

Even fewer have their own CD.

About “Small Town, Big Heart”

Mikaya Taylor's first CD includes several country or bluegrass classics, including covers of Loretta Lynn's “Blue Kentucky Girl” and Dolly Parton's “Jolene.” The CD also has some newer songs such as Darrell Scott's “You'll Never Leave Harlan Alone,” which has been covered by Brad Paisley, among others.

The CD costs $15 each or two for $25. It can be purchased online at mikayataylor.com, messaging Mikaya Taylor on Facebook or by emailing kentuckysingingangel@gmail.com.

Restroom directive greatly impacts sports

This column appeared in the May 18 edition of The Anderson News. 


     I wonder what would happen if sometime during the spring, a thoroughbred horse owner concluded that his prized 3-year-old colt really identified as a filly.
     Could he petition to let his horse run in the Kentucky Oaks or the Black-Eyed-Susans Stakes? Or if he wanted to still run in the Triple Crown races, would he get a 5-pound weight allowance?
     Absurd? Of course, it is.
     But it’s no more absurd than the directive out of Washington last week that could greatly affect sports as we know them.
     While much has been said about President Obama’s administration sending a directive to allow transgender access to bathrooms, the letter sent to school systems across the nation last Friday goes much further than where someone can relieve himself. In the “Dear Colleague” letter, you will find some of the most ridiculous gobbledygook to ever come out of Washington.
     And that is saying something.
     The nine-page document, footnotes and all, can be found online at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201605-title...
     The portion of the letter most are debating is headed “Restrooms and Locker Rooms.”
     The section says schools may offer separate facilities on the basis of sex, i.e., a boys’ room and a girls’ room, “but must allow transgender students access to such facilities consistent with their gender identity. A school may not require transgender students to use facilities inconsistent with their gender identity or to use individual-user facilities when other students are not required to do so. A school may, however, make individual-user options available to all students who voluntarily seek additional privacy.”
     The letter makes it very clear that “gender identity” is to be equated with “sex.”
     In other words, what you feel is what you are.
     The letter also deals with athletics, saying that schools can sponsor sex-segregated teams but a school can’t “adopt or adhere to requirements that rely on overly broad generalizations or stereotypes about the differences between transgender students and other students of the same sex (i.e., the same gender identity) or others’ discomfort with transgender students.”
     So, what we have to look forward to is a boy who claims he’s a girl demand to join the girls’ basketball team and have access to the locker room.
     Think it can’t happen? Think again.
     Several states already have laws allowing student-athletes to compete based on “gender identity.” While Kentucky has no such law, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association already has a transgender and cross-gender policy.
     Earlier this year, a transgender student at Fremd High School in Illinois won access to the girls’ locker room. According to the “Chicago Tribune,” a large number of parents were predictably upset at the ruling, which was based on an interpretation of the Title IX act of 1972.
     Whether the student was seeking access for gym class or for a scholastic sport does not matter.
     What is so bothersome about the directive is that local officials have often tried to provide accommodations as a compromise.
     Several media colleagues have told me about area schools that have had girls on their football teams in recent years. While that does not mean those girls are identifying as boys, there is a principle in that the schools provided separate dressing room facilities.
     At Anderson County High School, the policy is if someone identifies as a transgender, a private restroom facility is provided.
     But, according to the directive, that’s not good enough. If a biological boy identifies as a girl, he should have the right to the girls’ locker room and vice-versa.
     That is utter insanity.
     From this corner, it is more than just where someone goes to the bathroom. It’s common decency. Gender dysphoria, the clinical term for those who fell they are the opposite sex, is listed as a disorder in psychiatric manuals.
     Do we really want treatment of a disorder by discounting the rights of privacy, modesty and decorum and replace them with social engineering in locker rooms?
     And, of course, if schools don’t allow such nonsense, they risk losing federal funding.
     It is interesting that Johns Hopkins University, a pioneer in performing sex change surgeries, no longer performs them and the longtime psychiatrist in chief there has been a vocal opponent of the surgery for several years. Of course, those who want to promote this discount that information since it doesn’t further the agenda.
     The irony of this nonsense is that while this total rejection of morality affects scholastic sports, the games provide some insight into the fact that the sexes are very different.
     Take basketball where a high school team with a 6-2 center would likely be feared in the girls’ game but draw yawns when the boys take the court. Even the ball the girls use is significantly smaller than the one for the boys. It was a great move as it recognized some differences.
     Or take track and field. Last week, I attended the regional meet and looking at the results, the top girls’ performances would be well back in the standings for the boys. That doesn’t demean the girls or say the boys are superior.
     It does acknowledge there are fundamental biological differences that God created. The emotional differences are just as great.
     Unfortunately, it looks like those in power in Washington and their cronies want to ignore reality.
     My hope for the students, many of them athletes, is that the local school board will have the courage to stand with the many, including Gov. Matt Bevin, around the country against this politically correct nonsense.
     Common decency and morality applies to everything in life.
     Including the sports world.
     Back to that confused thoroughbred. Growing up on a farm, I learned you can alter a colt and it will change his behavior, sometimes dramatically. But it doesn’t make him a filly.

Christian teachers deserve our prayers for their work in a ripe mission field

 When I carried a note pad into the Anderson County High School gym for that first basketball game I covered as a member of the media, I thought I would be writing about sports and talking with sports figures.

What I quickly found out and am reminded of nearly every day is the fact that my writing is usually about people. There have been good people, shady people and people who would fall somewhere in between on the character scale.

And most of those people are teachers. 

My job is with a small-town weekly newspaper. That means I spend a lot of time around high school sports. 

Make that A LOT of time spent with teachers. They might be coaches to most people, but usually, they are people who have what amounts to a second job at the field. During the day, most are teaching history or science or math.

And I see the good ones in action doing what they do best, which is impacting the lives of young people. That's real coaching. It's real teaching.

I see it first hand almost every day. 

My wife, Stephanie, is an elementary school teacher. Just like those good coaches I had watched for years before I met her, I found that her greatest desire is to positively impact young people during the time they are with her. 

From the number of hugs she gets when we are out and about – “That's one of my former students,” she usually says after one of those moments – I would say she is often successful. 

I'm partial to teachers, probably because an aunt spent most of her life educating kids about reading and writing – her specialty – and most importantly about life.

But things have sure changed in the classroom.

For example, when a kid cursed a teacher in my aunt's day the consequences were having a mouth washed with Lava soap or a paddling – or both – along with a conference with a parent who repeated the punishment, now a teacher can talk to a kid or have a conference with a parent, but little else. It's not necessarily a change for the better.

Through my elementary school years, we started the day with a Bible passage and prayer. It was the same for many people I know, but not now.

And while I lament that “secularists” and “progressives” succeeded in removing those precious acts of faith and the heritage of faith in our nation, it is still possible for Christian teachers to be influential in the spiritual lives of children. 

Obviously, teachers can be an example. Over the years, I have had several coaches share their desire to be the light of Christ through their programs. The same can happen in the classroom.

We live in a world where some kids sometimes come to school from homes where one or both parents are on drugs. Kids live in homes where one parent, sometimes both, is missing. I could go on and on  but will refrain. It's depressing enough as it is.

It's why I have often said one of the greatest mission fields in thew world today is the American public school system. 

Let me interject I have nothing but admiration for the many Christian schools in America today. The ones I am familiar with do a marvelous job. But theirs is a different mission and different environment than the public schools. Parents choose to send their children to the private schools where the climate is friendly to Christianity.

Christian public school teachers serve in an environment growing increasingly hostile to Christianity, yet they somehow share the light of Christ the best they can.

Too often, we see stories of public school teachers seemingly in the profession to further a political agenda or more interested in the pay rather than performance. While there are certainly educators who fit those descriptions – I have met several – it is unfair to lump them with those hard-working souls who go above and beyond what should be reasonably expected simply to make the life of a child better.

And there are countless teachers who do that with their commitment to Christ as the blueprint for their mission.

Those people deserve our applause. And our prayers.

No gift is sufficient

Today, March 1, is my wife's birthday. I won't tell you how old she is, nor will I tell you what I got her. I'm just not very good at picking out gifts.

We have sort of an agreement. At least I call it that.
Since I am fashionably-challenged – how is that for a politically correct word – I tell her to please never expect me to buy her a gift of clothing as it will most likely be a) wrong color, b) wrong size, c) wrong fashion or d) all of the above.

The real answer is that I could never, ever give her anything close to what she is worth.

Just recently, I put together a special section in my work at The Anderson News. The occasion was Anderson County High School basketball coach Glen Drury reaching 500 wins in his career. That, in itself, is a huge accomplishment at the high school level, where seasons are much shorter than the colleges and pros. The fact that he did it all in one place is almost unheard of. But because it was such a big deal, it was decided to give that 500^th win some special treatment.

I contacted several former players and coaches in the area for comment. One constant that kept coming up was the importance of a great family that understands the time demands and unique characteristics of the job.

And it made me think of my own life of long trips to some small town in the middle of nowhere, too much fast food and too many late nights to get the job done. Without a special person, it wouldn't happen.

Saying that Stephanie is special is a major league understatement. There are many times when I ask myself what she saw in me.

But I am glad she saw what she did.

We are both old school to varying degrees, but we met online. Really, we did.

Both of us had been divorced and we had some of the same fears of our relationship but soon realized we were usually on the same page.

We had numerous mutual friends and one of them, my high school basketball coach, Wayne King, had a part in our wedding.

Over the years, we have become a team. Instead of staying at home when I have game nights, Stephanie decided to come along with me. She's been invaluable.
One winter, I developed a blood clot in my leg after a surgical procedure. That was a problem in my work as I am usually standing and taking photos at ball games. Hiring a photographer would not have been economically feasible, although I used a free lancer on occasion. The answer was I taught Stephanie how to use a camera.

She eventually became proficient enough to have one of her photos published on the worldwide Little League website.

And because of the fact that I am hearing impaired, she often listens in to interviews, especially those taped in places with much background noise.

I really don't know what I would do without her.

My work can be fun. When I have branched out from sports writing, Stephanie has been there with me as I interviewed Country Music Hall of Famers Duane Allen and Joe Bonsall of The Oak Ridge Boys, TV personality and comedian Tim Lovelace and she's opened our home to rising country singer J.D. Shelburne. Through my work we got to meet one of our favorite musicians, Paul Martin, and his delightful family, the Martin Family Circus.

But something tells me she would be just as happy attending a high school softball game as she would sitting on press row at Rupp Arena or sitting backstage before a concert.

Happy Birthday, Steph. It's been a crazy and incredible 10 years together. I can't wait to see what is in store for the future.

And I hope you like your birthday present, even though it can't come close to saying what I want. So this will have to suffice.
You really are the best.

A ministry on the sports page

(Recently, I was asked by my undergraduate alma mater, Mid-Atlantic Christian University -- formerly Roanoke Bible College --  to write a short column for their newsletter. It was to be about my work as a writer in a series, "Ministry in the Marketplace." Enjoy!)

When I packed my car for that drive to Elizabeth City, N.C. in August of 1977, I really wasn't sure where my life was headed, but making a living sitting in a press box or walking the sidelines of a high school football field was certainly not on the map.

I was heading to Roanoke Bible College for a year to be better grounded in my faith, but thought I would eventually be playing cowboy, managing a farm somewhere. Working as a sports writer was not likely.

Newspaper work means mult-tasking today.

Admittedly, I had always been drawn to the media. Even as a kid, I read the local papers and watched the TV news every day.

But by the time I arrived in Elizabeth City, I had just become a smack-talking sports fan extolling the virtues of the Kentucky Wildcats to anyone who would – or would not – listen.

My life changed. I served several churches in North Carolina and Kentucky, eventually landing back in my hometown of Lawrenceburg, Ky., where I started attending high school basketball games for the first time since I had graduated nine years before.

On a whim, I paid a visit to The Anderson News, the same weekly newspaper I had written for as a high school student. I simply asked the editor for a chance to write again.

Admittedly, I was thinking more about a way to get into games free and maybe make a little money doing so. To my surprise, I left the office that day with some reporter's notebooks and a press pass for the big game Saturday night.

Over more than 30 years, that paid hobby evolved into a full-time job. Much has changed in the newspaper business. My bulky old Smith-Corona typewriter bit the dust years ago. Today, I sometimes file stories from my smart phone and provide in-game updates on Twitter.

And over that time, I began to see one of those lessons I learned in college come to fruition: Almost anything can be a ministry.

Even sports writing.

With former Clemson football coach Tommy Bowden.

I never went back to school for specialized journalistic training. In retrospect, that might have hindered professional advancement, but it is also a blessing in that I developed my own style, based on who I am and how my faith drives me. Undoubtedly, the foundation I built at RBC has played a major role.

I simply read.

I devoured every kind of writing imaginable, from weekly papers to the Washington Post to Christianity Today. And while my writing appears in a secular publication, it has a distinct Christian flavor.

It is just who I am.

Several years ago, I was riding around the golf course with a local minister. I shared that I sometimes miss the pulpit, but he replied, “I think you are where you need to be. I am convinced you reach more people through your writing.”

That’s debatable.

What I do know is that having the freedom to tell Christian stories in a secular publication is priceless. I have told the story of a high school softball star that had not missed Sunday School from the day she was born. I offered a Christian viewpoint when the high school football coach was told he should not pray with his team. When another softball player hit a home run to send her team to the state tournament, I made sure a picture of her showing the “John 3:16” written on her eye-black was prominent in the paper.

Oak Ridge Boy Joe Bonsall shared his faith in our interview.

And my writing has expanded to non-sports work and I have been able to share the faith of some major country music stars who were going to be in the area.

There are times that eating too much fast food, driving too many miles and working too late makes me wonder if it is worth it.

But recently, a young man contacted me to see if I would be interested in sharing his parents' story of leaving Kentucky for the mission field.

“We wanted you to be the one to tell their story,” he said.

I was deeply touched and humbled.

That's because God really can use any profession to share His story.

Even a sports editor. 

Celebrating, tearfully

Steve and Vickie Haddix will be taking their dogs, but not much else, to Haiti.

(Not long before Christmas, 2015, it was my privilege to sit down with Steve and Vickie Haddix, who have answered a call to work at Alex's House Orphanage in Haiti. This is their incredible story, which appeared in the Dec. 23, 2015 edition of The Anderson News.)

The celebration will be much different when Steve and Vickie Haddix entertain their family Christmas night.

Much, much different.

Steve's parents will be there. So will Steve and Vickie's two sons, their wives and the four grandchildren. They will gather at a house that has been virtually stripped of its furnishings. There are a few folding chairs and a borrowed table in the house.

There will likely be tears. Lots of tears. “Most definitely,” says the Haddix's son, Jonathan.

Most of all there will be love. It's a love of family superseded only by a love for God.

“We told Kate, our oldest grandchild, in the middle of November,” Steve says. “She is seven and she was sitting in my lap. When I told her we were going to Haiti, she put her hands over her ears and said, 'I'm not going to let you tell me any more to make me cry.'”

Steve's voice breaks. To his right, Vickie has tears streaming down her cheeks.

Steve sighs, then smiles, “You talk about tearing your heart out.”

After living in Lawrenceburg for 25 years, Steve and Vickie Haddix are on their way to Haiti. Steve will be serving as the Director of Missions for Alex's House Orphanage, a decision that was bathed in prayer.

The Haddixs know it is the right move. They know the events that led to Steve applying for a position he would never have envisioned just a few years ago. Steve and Vickie have seen everything that has happened since accepting the position two months ago.

Everything has lined up. Everything.

Some would call it coincidence. To the Haddixs, there's not a chance of that. It's the God they love answering prayers in a mighty way.

Steve, who currently serves as children's pastor at Hope Community Church, will say good-bye to his church family on Jan. 3. Steve and Vickie board the plane for Port-au-Prince two days later. All they will be taking are a couple of suitcases and their two dogs.

Difficult decision?

The Haddixs learned of Alex's House through Hope Church several years ago.

The mission's founder is Bill Howard, who had been serving as pastor of a church in South Carolina. “God had laid it on his heart to start an orphanage in Haiti,” Steve says. “He had to find Haiti on a map.”

According to Steve, Mr. Howard went to Port-au-Prince where he met three young men, including one named Alex.

“Alex had a vision to get kids off the streets of Port-au-Prince,” Steve says.

On Jan. 12, 2010, about two weeks after Howard returned to South Carolina, the devastating earthquake rocked Haiti. Official estimates put the death toll at 316,000 people.

One of them was Alex.

The orphanage bearing his name soon opened.

Steve visited Haiti with a group from Hope Church in 2013. It was eight years after Vickie and their youngest son, Jonathan, took a 10-day mission trip to the country.

“My first trip, it smelled like a garbage dump,” Vickie says. “That was when I was coming out of the airport and getting on a bus.”

But something stronger than the smell lingered in Vickie's mind.

“She came home and said, 'You've got to go to Haiti,'” Steve recalls.

He was not about to budge. Driving a bus for the Anderson County school system and working with kids at Hope, Steve felt he was doing just fine in Lawrenceburg. He smiles, “I said, 'No, this is my mission field.'”

Steve finally broke down in February, 2013, joining some church friends for a mission trip. “After going, I wanted to stay another week,” Steve says.

While that was impossible, he did manage to head back to Haiti in March. “I wanted to finish the work of the month before,” he says. “We knew we wanted to do more. We just didn't know what it would be.”

The conviction came to fruition when Howard offered Steve a position at the orphanage.

“Someone asked if it was difficult to make the decision to move to Haiti,” Steve says. “We didn't make the decision to move there. We made the decision to be obedient.”

The Haddix family is living the teachings of Jesus, found in Matthew 10:37, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

They are also living the teaching of Matthew 25:35-36, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Once he visited Haiti, Steve was convicted of those words of Christ. “I don't see how anyone can go there and not have a life-changing experience,” he says.

Real life change

Steve and Vickie are not looking for accolades. They simply want to continue a walk that started with Steve sitting in his recliner back in 1998.

While he and Vickie had been raised in the church in their native Breathitt County, they'd drifted away. “Vickie said we needed to find a church for the boys,” Steve remembers.

“Steve was just working and surviving. His focus was on the family,” Vickie says.

At the time, the oldest son, James Michael, was 14 and Jonathan was 8.

“We weren't going to church anywhere but I watched Jeff Eaton on TV on First Baptist every Sunday. I made the statement, 'If he ever starts a church, I am going to try it out.' About two weeks later, Jeff announced he was starting Hope Church.”

Even after making the vow, Steve balked. “I didn't go. I was still making excuses,” he smile.

Eventually, Steve followed Vickie to the church. They got plugged in and began working with children.

“I started going to Hope because of Jeff Eaton,” Steve says. “I stayed because of the Jesus Christ I found.”

New step of faith

That relationship has taken a new step of faith with Alex's House. As Director of Missions, Steve will be responsible for coordinating work for more than 30 churches that travel from the United States to work in the field.

“We will have the whole week planned out,” Steve says.

The orphanage obviously has children, but, as Vickie says, “They are not up for adoption. They will get an education there at the orphanage.”

Steve explains that the orphanage's desire is to instill a love of the home country and making a difference there. “The need in Haiti is dire,” Vickie says.

“It is hard to explain unless you have been there,” Steve says, “but there is a growing desire and a hunger for God's word.”

Yet the poverty is gripping.

“In the U.S., we pray over our food before we eat,” Steve says. “In Haiti, they pray for their next meal.”

Vickie actually got the new venture rolling. She had seen an e-mail from Howard, the Alex's House founder, advertising an opening for the Director of Missions. She mentioned it to Steve.

“We were sitting in at Wendy's when I read the e-mail that Vickie had mentioned,” Steve says. “I texted Bill about it. He got back with me and said he was traveling but we talked about the position on the phone the next day.”

Steve sent his resume and soon after he was making plans to move to a Third World country on a gigantic step of faith. Most simply can't understand leaving the security of a home with family close by for a country steeped in poverty.

“We were having a yard sale here in Lawrenceburg,” Steve says of their effort to dispose of some of the family possessions. “A man who was a Haitian native came by. I told him we were moving to Haiti. His only question was, 'Why?'”

Vickie adds, “It makes no sense what we are doing.”

Or maybe it really does.

“If God hadn't taken care of it, we are not going.”

Steve and Vickie Haddix believe if God wanted them in Haiti, He would take care of everything.

The family had a Chevy Malabu to sell. “We took the car to a dealer in Nicholasville but couldn't agree on the price,” Steve says with a laugh. “He asked about our truck and bought it.”

It was the truck that Steve had planned on keeping around a bit longer.

The Malabu wasn't advertised for sale, but at the yard sale in early November, a neighbor inquired if there was a prayer request. “I told them to pray we could sell our car,” Steve smiles. “They asked, 'What kind of car? Can I take a look?' They ended up buying the car.”

But there was still the issue of getting around town for two more months.

No problem. A church friend loaned Steve a truck while Vickie is driving Steve's dad's car, a 1986 Chrysler LeBaron convertible. It gets her where she is going.

The only glitch was their house. The Haddixes have called Lawrenceburg home for 25 years and wanted to keep some ties to the town, meaning they did not want to sell.

“We asked at church for people to pray that we could rent our house,” Steve said of that October day. “Someone told me, 'I ran into someone in Frankfort. They have been praying for somewhere to move in Lawrenceburg, but they have kids and don't want to move until January.'”

It should come as no surprise who will be living in the Haddix house while they are in Haiti.

“There is just no way someone can say this was not God working,” Steve says.

Vickie adds, “As for renting our house and selling our cars, if God hadn't taken care of it, we aren't going.”

Steve and Vickie Haddix know some question their decision.

“We have been told we are crazy for leaving our salaries and our grandchildren,” Steve says. “We even had someone tell us we were selfish.”

Steve chuckles.

“Jeff Eaton said, 'Crazy people follow Jesus,'” he says.

But they also know things will get difficult.

“When Bill Howard talked with us, he wanted to make sure we were on the same page,” Vickie says. “He did not want someone dragging me to Haiti. We have been shoulder-to-shoulder through all of this.”

Their family is in Kentucky.

“Selfishly, I could say I wish they weren't moving but they are a picture of selflessness. They are an inspiration to me and I fully support them,” says Jonathan Haddix, their youngest son.

“I think what confuses people is they think we chose to do this,” Steve says. “We chose to be obedient and this is the door that opened. We have a desire to stay here. We love our family, we love our jobs. We love Lawrenceburg. But we have a greater desired to be obedient to what God wants.

“It is hard to leave the kids and grandkids. We will not see the grandkids at every ball game or cheer competition or dance recital. God told me it is not about what I am not going to see them do. It is about what they will see God do through us.”

Typical 10-year-old, extraordinary voice

Recently, I was privileged to meet 10-year-old Mikaya Taylor and her mom, Traci. What an incredible story of her improbable start in music!  Mikaya is already getting noticed in the business but she's a normal girl with a powerful voice.  This appeared in the Dec. 2 edition of The Anderson News.


In many ways, it would seem that Mikaya Taylor is your typical 10-year-old girl.

“Do you want to ask me some questions about my dog,” the fifth-grader from Robert B. Turner Elementary School asks.

She proceeds to go into detail about Zoe, her 7-month-old Doberman Pinscher, who hops on the couch to get some hugs and return the love. “She has a big nose,” Mikaya says, “but she’s a good dog.”

Mikaya has a passion for Chinese food and loves to talk about sports, too. “My favorite colors are the ones for the Florida Gators,” she says. But her love is for the Kentucky Wildcats, which should be no surprise since her grandfather, Mickey Gibson, played in 17 games for Adolph Rupp’s top-ranked basketball Wildcats in 1963-64.

Mikaya Taylor and her dog, Zoe.

Mikaya loves to talk. When asked if she ever gets in trouble at school for talking too much, she giggles and covers her face in embarrassment. “They say she is a social butterfly,” laughs Mikaya’s mother, Traci Taylor.

She just looks like a typical fifth-grader.

Until she starts singing, that is.
There is nothing ordinary when Mikaya belts out a few lines of a country classic.

I am a poor wayfaring stranger
While traveling through this world of woe ...

The chilling voice almost makes one forget this is a 10-year-old.

I’m going there to my mother
She said she’d meet me when I come ...

Make that a 10-year-old who got her first taste of performing publicly in May but in just over six months, has done more than turn heads. She’s performed on a world-wide radio show, been booked for one of the world’s biggest bluegrass festivals in 2016 and has been invited to sing in Nashville in February.

But it’s been that kind of a year for a child who wants a four-wheeler for Christmas and whose start came when her mom would stop what she was doing around the house when Mikaya started singing.

“She was always singing in her bedroom,” Traci says. “I am her mother, but I thought she had a beautiful singing voice.”

The music would be anything from pop – Mikaya claims to know the words to all of Taylor Swift’s songs – to country or bluegrass.

Mikaya Taylor sings "Wayfaring Stranger" with Kevin Chilton.

And the break came in May when long-time friend Kevin Chilton and his band, Custom Made Bluegrass, were playing at the Woodland Arts Festival in Lexington. Chilton asked Mikaya to the stage where she let go with a rousing version of “When You Say Nothing At All,” a song recorded by both Allison Krauss and the late Keith Whitley.

Nervous?

“I would have to say, ‘Yeah,’” Mikaya says.

It apparently did not show as representatives of the Festival of the Bluegrass were in attendance and booked Mikaya for one of the 2016 gathering at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Since then, Taylor has been wowing country and bluegrass fans around central Kentucky. Her songs include a cover of Dolly Parton’s mega-hit, “Jolene,” in addition to classics from Emmy Lou Harris and Loretta Lynn.

That’s something for a kid who counts the pop group “One Direction” as her favorite group.
It begs the question, “Why bluegrass?”

“That is what Michael Johnathon asked me,” Mikaya giggles.

Johnathon, a Kentucky-based folk singer, is the creator and host of the popular “WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour” which is broadcast on public radio and television. It originates at the Lyric Theatre in Lexington and is beamed worldwide on the Armed Forces Radio Network. His motto is, “You don’t have to be famous to be on WoodSongs, you just have to be very good.”
About five months after Chilton called Mikaya to the stage at Woodland, she was singing on WoodSongs on Oct. 19.

Mikaya and Michael Johnathon at Woodsongs

“Ruth McLain Smith of the McLain Family Band recommended her to me,” Johnathon said in an email. “WoodSongs is used in schools nationwide, complete with lesson plans, and for the past couple years I’ve been featuring children performers. They don’t win anything, they are not judged, but they get a chance to be on a national broadcast with seasons, touring performers. In that light, we look for WoodSongs Kids who sound like themselves, who smile a lot, who love music and their place in it. Mikaya fit all those things to me."

And, true to Johnathon’s signature phrase, Mikaya was very good.

“She was flat out adorable and a mighty fine singer. The audience loved her,” Johnathon recalls.
And the WoodSongs appearance provided the simple answer to why Mikaya is singing bluegrass these days. “It just seems that is where the doors are opening for her,” her mother says.

Chilton, an Anderson County resident known throughout central Kentucky for picking his banjo, was impressed, not just with Mikaya’s talent, but her stage presence. “She’s 10 years old but she is very professional,” he says. “When she gets up there, she takes over and does her job.”

That was apparent the weekend before Thanksgiving when Chilton’s group was opening for the renowned bluegrass group, The Grascals, in Clay City. He called Mikaya to the stage, where she wowed an audience that included several of the Grascals.

Mikaya Taylor singing with The Grascals in Nov. 2015.

Mikaya only knew the group from what her mom had told her, but quickly became acquainted as The Grascals also called the young lady to the stage. Despite never practicing together and being unfamiliar with each other, the stars and the 10-year-old delivered a crisp rendition of “I’ll Fly Away.”

Here is a link to the performance.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uSadSxvToA

It has all happened very quickly for a young girl who says, “I was surprised people wanted me to sing for them. I was just singing and mom listened,” Mikaya says.

Chilton initially got Mikaya on-stage. Smith gave her a recommendation. Johnathon and the Grascals have given her a break, but if things work out, some more of the big names in bluegrass and country music might hear Mikaya. She’s been named one of Tomorrow’s Bluegrass Stars and is one of 126 kids, age 18-and-under, from across the nation to participate in the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America’s gathering in Nashville from Feb. 4-7.

Whether any of her her favorite singers will be around isn’t known but Mikaya says bluegrass legend Rhonda Vincent is her favorite artist of the genre. If she met Vincent, Krauss or Harris?

“I would freak out!” Mikaya says.

It is just what a visitor needs to be reminded again that despite her success, Mikaya Taylor is still in elementary school.

Traci Taylor says she has no worries about her daughter being overwhelmed by her whirlwind rise. Traci says her daughter is very active in church and is well grounded. Plus, Traci is trying to make sure things stay in perspective.

“I have had a lot of festivals contact me, but I am not going to let her go all summer,” Traci says. She is working on a demo CD and is taking bookings for 2016.

For now at least, the big time will have to remain in Mikaya’s dreams.

She wants a bus for travel, but also wants to give to others.

“When I get my bus,” Mikaya says, “I want to go to Florida at Christmas and give a lot of kids presents. Kids that don’t have much.”

Chances are they will talk about Mikaya’s dog.

And undoubtedly, they will sing.


Hearing Mikaya Taylor
Mikaya Taylor is off to a fast start in the music business and will be featured on the television version of WoodSongs Old-Time Radio sometime during the coming season. The show is available on KET.
The radio version of Mikaya singing at WoodSongs will broadcast on WEKU – FM, 88.9, or WUKY-FM 91.3 on Dec. 19.
Her mother, Traci Taylor, has taken to social media to get the word out. Traci runs a Twitter account, kysingingangel and has a Facebook fan page, Mikaya Taylor.
Traci has also posted videos on YouTube on the channel “Mikaya Taylor Musician Band.” She also has a website, mikayataylor.weebly.com.
For more information, email kentuckysingingangel@gmail.com.

Looking for Nashville, looking for a band
Traci Taylor says her daughter is looking for a sponsor to help defray the costs of what promises to be an expensive, but worth it, trip to Nashville for Tomorrow’s Bluegrasss Stars.
Taylor also says she is looking for musicians to form a band to perform with her daughter. Young musicians looking for some experience are encouraged to contact Traci at kentuckysingingangel@gmail.com.