'Lifetime' of inspiration: Pleasanton's Lauryn Marie releases new collection of songs

[Animous]

 

Lauryn Marie Hedges, 19, is known around Pleasanton as the young songstress who regaled everyone with "Our Home," a song she wrote and performed as the city celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2019.

"What a place to live -- In Pleasanton," she sang at anniversary gatherings and in a video made for the occasion.

Lauryn Marie performs her original song, "Our Home," during the City Council ceremony celebrating Pleasanton's 125th anniversary in 2019. (Photo by John A. Benson Photography)

Since then, she has graduated from high school and gone off to college, singing and composing all the way.

"I've been singing pretty much my whole life," said Lauryn Marie, who performs under this name. "I started piano in the second grade, and wrote my first song when I was 11."

"I moved around a lot growing up and moved here from Indiana in middle school -- I went to Harvest Park for only a semester, then went to high school at Amador," she recalled.

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Soon after moving to Pleasanton, she released her first song, "Lemon Tree," and began posting songs on her YouTube channel.

"I started in the eighth grade with one nice microphone and have done research and found what things help me create better," Lauryn Marie said. "I bought a pair of nice speakers for my last recording."

She joined Pleasanton's High School Music Collaborative and through that worked in a range of musical programs at the Firehouse Arts Center.

"That was where I met people with the same interests as me," she said. "I feel like a lot of us songwriters and singers sit alone in our bedroom. It's great to get everybody out and together and have everybody share that."

Lauryn Marie left last fall to attend Belmont University in Nashville, where she is majoring in songwriting and minoring in music business. About half of the classes were online, she said, but she was thrilled to be there and living in a dorm.

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"I've met so many other singers and songwriters who are so creative and so encouraging," she said. "It's amazing to get to bounce ideas off each other."

"High School Musical Collaborative was helpful because Nashville is so focused on collaborating, with an advanced understanding of how to do that," she added.

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