On June 9th, WA senior, singer-songwriter Caroline Lawlor will be performing as an opening artist for the 2016 Country Music Association Awards on the Tim McGraw stage, a performance which will be displayed to thousands, if not millions of country music enthusiasts from all around the United States.

Although a momentous achievement in comparison to the success of most high school musicians, the triumph and achievement of “Caroline Gray” (Lawlor’s stage name), has not gone unprecedented.

It was earlier this year when Lawlor was put on Nashville Radio following her performance at Loretta’s Last Call in Boston. A man from Iceman Show, a Nashville country music radio station, approached her and offered to place Lawlor on Nashville radio. He also offered Lawlor the opportunity to play at the Country Music Association Awards in June.

“At first I thought it was not real because it was too good to be true. I am so beyond grateful and honored that I am able to play this event and am truly at a loss for words. I guess I feel like I just won the lottery, that’s how mind-boggled  and humbled, and out of my mind, I am,” said Lawlor.

Having begun her musical career at a young age, Lawlor refers to her early songwriting as a healing method.

“I was bullied when I was in middle school and often found myself feeling like I didn’t have a say in anything. It was then that I started writing songs, and found that when words fail, music speaks,” said Lawlor.

While Lawlor wrote songs seeking inner strength, her mother, Suzanne Lawlor, played an active role in supporting her daughter’s career by taking control of organizational and business-related details.

“My first degree is in public relations and event planning, so it lends itself to working with different event venues and organizing her website and photoshoots and I do all of the behind-the-scenes work for her career,” said Suzanne Lawlor.

Although her family displayed unwavering support for Lawlor’s musical career, Suzanne Lawlor also mentioned the ways in which the Westford Academy Theater Arts helped lead Caroline on the road to success.

“Being a part of the theater arts department absolutely shaped her [Caroline] into the performer she is today, she thanks Mr. Towers in the credits on her EP. He attended her EP launch in Boston, along with Dean Murphy, and we were just touched that they would support a student not only inside school, but also when she’s pursuing her career outside WA,” she said.

Along with the CMA awards, Lawlor will be soon making even more visits to Nashville, Tennessee in order to co-write with songwriter Marty Dodson, who has worked for artists such as Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, the Plain White T’s, and Carrie Underwood. She will be creating songs alongside Dodson and then sending them to various artists, in hopes that one of her pieces will be adopted by a famous musician.

“I love songwriting, it’s a great way to express words when they just can’t come out. When you write a song, it can make it easier for you to understand something, to overcome it […] music is in my veins, soul, heart, mind, in my everything,” said Lawlor.