Opal Skye

Talent competitions sometimes come down to heavy makeup, big hair and sexy costumes, but Skye Pollard didn't win first place in the Z104.3 SingFest competition at the Towsontown Spring Festival with feminine wiles.

"I'm not a glamorous, feminine girlie-girl by any means," said the 20-year-old music education major at Towson University. "I'm a jeans and T-shirt kind of girl and, if I have to, a pants-suit kind of girl."

But she still lured judges into choosing her over 70 other contestants, awarding her the $300 prize and airline tickets to audition for Fox TV's "American Idol."

Head judge David Provini said the vote was unanimous.

"There were a lot of good people," he said, "but she stood out."

When Pollard opened her mouth to sing, "Whoa, she was amazing," said Towson Chamber of Commerce executive director Nancy Hafford, whose organization sponsors the festival.

The public can judge for itself at this year's first Friday Night "Feet on the Street" block party May 14, when Pollard will sing during intermission.

For the competition, Pollard sang "Summertime" from the musical, "Porgy and Bess" during an audition at the Recher Theatre, then for the finals sang a Melissa Ethridge song, "Bring Me Some Water."

Winning was "one of the most amazing feelings ever," said Pollard, who grew up in a small town in northeast Arkansas, Marked Tree.

Pollard has been singing for 14 years at festivals, fairs, school talent shows and churches. She recalled singing in the Mid-South Fair Youth Talent Competition, just as Elvis Presley once did. In fact, Graceland and Memphis are just 40 miles or so from Marked Tree.

She is nervous before any performance.

"If I'm not nervous, it would be time to give it up, as if I didn't care," she said. "I take a lot of pride in my music."

She sings rock and blues -- and Southern rock every now and then.

"That's just a little bit of twang instead of all twangy," she said.

She gets a great deal of joy from singing and playing her electric guitar.

Her desire to share that joy is why she enrolled in TU's new four-year music education program. Though she had been successful, she felt she had false starts majoring in biology, deaf studies and health science.

"Nothing gave me the gratification and joy that music does," she said. "I love kids; for some reason they just flock to me. In the church nursery, it seems like I always had a little posse of children following me around.

"And I love teaching -- you are constantly learning something new each day to stay ahead of the game."

Meanwhile, she shares her music as the lead singer in Opal Skye, a band she formed three months ago. Its four members -- "We're still looking for a bass player," she said -- all are seasoned players and have some connection with the university.

The band plays blues, rock and Southern rock in and around Towson. In fact, the band will play at the Towson University Book Store on May 14 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., to drum up business for a book buy-back event.

Pollard is not sure where the next auditions for "American Idol" will be (the tickets are good for wherever the auditions are held). She is grateful that her flight voucher is for two seats, she said. Openly gay since her senior year of high school, she will take her partner with her.

"She's my support system, my cheerleader, my groupie," she said. The two moved to Baltimore in 2007.

"It was the farthest place away from Arkansas we could afford at the time," she said. "The Bible Belt is a little bit more conservative; down there they are not too friendly to a gay person who is out."

She likes Towson, where she works in TU's book store part-time.

"It's kind of a small town with a big city twist," she said. - Loni Ingraham