East County woman faces the pressure of American Idol

She's a local, and therefore East County's Mylon Shamble knows she will get the questions.

People will recognize her ... perhaps neighbors, maybe those who have seen her sing, or even former classmates at Lakewood Ranch High School ... and then they will ask.

"So what's happening with American Idol?"

It's time for a polite smile, and then the face.

"I've developed the face thing," Shamble said with laugh. "People will say, 'She's doing the face.'"

The face is her way of saying she can't say anything. American Idol episodes are in the bank, and people will have to watch the renewed series, which had its ABC version debut on March 11. Shamble, who said she doesn't know when she will appear, wasn't part of the opener. But her appearance is coming.

Would she be on the second show on March 12?

Again, the face.

At 25, Shamble clearly is enjoying her moment whether or not she can discus it. People can learn more about her soon enough, and that's OK. She wasn't on the March 12 show either. The wait continues, and so will the questions.

There was a time when Shamble, who graduated from Lakewood Ranch High in 2011, didn't like sharing personal items about her life. That wreaked havoc with her songwriting, since she likes to write autobiographically. 

"I was very guarded," she said of her early attempts at songwriting which came during her college days at Florida Atlantic.

It probably helps when it comes to American Idol's nondisclosure agreement.

Even so, as time has passed, Shamble has become more open, and she says her future songwriting attempts will show it.

So could she share a few items about herself?

"I always have been somewhat different," she said. "And I don't always fit 100% into the crowd. People would call me free-spirited.

"I don't care about being famous ... I just care about making great music. I guess my story is simplistic. I love the beach. I love those hole-in-the-wall bars. I have a Great Dane, a Yorkshire-Schnauzer mix and a mutt. I'm such a dog person."

She hopes to be an artist, and whether that means being a singer, a writer or actor, or all of the above, doesn't matter. The opportunity is the thing.

She has that opportunity now with American Idol, which returned with new judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. But it has taken a while to develop.

A 5-foot-9 basketball player at Lakewood Ranch High, Shamble didn't take music seriously until she was attending Florida Atlanta. Some of her buddies had formed a band, Tips for Karma, and they needed a lead singer. She joined them.

Since then, she has been trying to "make my life as happy as I can be" and performing does that for her. 

After graduating from Florida Atlantic with a degree in arts and humanities in 2017, she continued singing in clubs, and she took a job at Modern Gents, a craft beer joint/barbershop in Sarasota. The place boasts that it has put "the bar back in barbershop" and Shamble tends the bar there.

"It's the best," she said. "I love beer. I love talking to people."

Her audition for American Idol took her to Savannah, Ga., where she sang for the celebrity judges. Was she intimidated?

"Not the least bit," she said. "If you go in thinking about what other people say, you will be doomed from the beginning."

But millions of people are watching, and in some cases, can't it be rather embarrassing?

She won't even go there. She isn't about to criticize anyone with the guts to put themselves out there.

"Maybe their sound isn't meant for that specific show," said Shamble, who has been back at her East County home living with her parents, Pat and Julie Downing. "And we need people to shake it up, people who don't have a typical sound."

She insists just being part of the show, for however long, has been worth the effort.

"It's a connection I've always had," she said. "Meeting new people, hearing their stories. I'm grateful just to have my name involved and I'm taking it day by day. It definitely has been fun. I was in a room with the best of the best. I'm not the only one trying to make it."

In terms of the songs she loves to sing, Shamble said she likes to set the mood in a room. That might mean a Janis Joplin tune, some old Doo-wop ("Where you wear your heart on your sleeve."), definitely some Prince or even a Johnny Cash number.

She won't be singing her personal favorite, a Christina Aguilara song, "Keep on Singing My Song."

"Vocally, it's challenging," she said. "It's not easy to sing. I am a closet lover of that song."

She loves the song so much, she has a tattoo on her foot of some of the lyrics.

What are they? You might get the face.

Just watch the show, and perhaps you will find out.