Well this is pretty awesome news coming from the Tyler Morning Telegraph earlier on Thursday! Remember when we told y'all about the American Idol auditions coming to Gilmer on August 10?

According, to the Tyler Paper, 40 audition videos were chosen and 19-year-old Robert E. Lee graduate Jewel Rena'e Kirkendoll will be one of our local faces to get a chance to meet Ryan Seacrest (among other things, like sing!).

If she is chosen in the Gilmer audition, she will then go to Dallas for the full-on 'American Idol' audition, as mentioned by partner ETX Music Competition.

The paper says Kirkendoll has been playing music since she was three, but got serious in 2013. She plays violin and guitar and played at the orchestra at Green Acres Baptist Church.


As mentioned before, the audition is open to the public but you have to buy tickets here. if that's too much for your taste, you can also catch her upcoming set this Saturday at the Rose City Farmers Market.

This isn't the first time we had some excitement about an East Texan competing against the best voices in the country. Kadie Lynn of Kemp made it to the semifinals in last year's America's Got Talent. So we know we have some great up-and-coming artists in the works out here.

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