Hannah McGarity has tried to make the most of this unusual year.
She spent her quarantine time finishing up high school (graduating from New Creation Christian Academy in June) and working on her music. A vocalist who also plays piano and guitar, she started practicing to add the ukulele to her repertoire while at home over the past several months.
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Although she is taking college classes online while working a couple of part-time jobs, her top priority is her music. She is using several social media outlets to promote audio and video performances of some of her original songs.
The video for “I’m Broken Glass,” a rock-and-roll song she wrote, was shot in Nashville and can now been seen on her YouTube channel. She hopes to make another one for her ballad “If I Were Yours” in the next couple of months. These projects are self-produced, as she does not have a recording contract right now.
Having loved to sing since she was a small child, Hannah first sang in front of an audience as a 13-year-old in a talent show while attending Creekside Christian Academy. She sang “God Bless America.” In addition to taking voice lessons at Creekside, she connected with a vocal coach in Macon who routinely took students to sing in a local establishment in that area.
In the years since, she has performed at such venues as the Forsythia Festival in Forsyth, the Peach Blossom Festival, and at Oconee Idol in Greensboro where she finished in the top six. She made two separate trips out of state to audition for the television show “the Voice” and also tried out for “American Idol.”
“I didn’t make it at any of them,” she said. “But it’s all fun.”
Locally she enjoys singing in the adult choir at Glen Haven Baptist Church and has participated in a few events in the county in recent years such as “Henry’s Got Talent.” That video is also on YouTube.
The COVID-19 shutdown has curtailed many planned activities for 2020. Hannah’s next scheduled gig is in October at the Elbert County Fair. In the meantime, she is busy on her Instagram and Facebook pages she has created especially for her music.
