Barnett’s got talent

Above, Miranda Barnett
-Photo Furnished

After 183 auditions over two days, the Local 6 Talent Search is over and Lyon County native Miranda Jo Barnett – daughter of Randy Barnett of Eddyville and the late Brenda Barnett – made the cut.
“I just almost didn’t even go,” Barnett said in an exclusive interview. “I got up Sunday morning and thought, what are the odds that I’m actually going to make it to the final three out of all these people who are going to be waiting in line, hundreds of people, and something just told me that unless I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried, I’d never know. I remember right before Mom died one of the last things she told me was ‘I don’t think you need to give up on singing. I know that God has a plan for you. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t think it’s time yet, to give up on that dream.’
“That goes through my mind all the time, especially Sunday when I was thinking ‘do I go stand in the rain, and the cold, and do this, or just say there’s no chance,’” Barnett said.
“And, too, I teach special needs students at Graves County High School, and every day someone is telling them they can’t do something. Every day I am trying to teach them and convince them there’s absolutely nothing they can’t do if they believe and go after what they want. What better way to practice what you teach than to go for it?” she added.
“They were only supposed to take the first hundred. You had to wait outside, then you moved up closer to the building, and toward the door, then inside the door to a waiting room, then to another room before you even got to the final room where you got your number! It was like a maze you had to go through to even get a number, and I made it into that final room. They reached the hundredth person before I got up there and I thought ‘well, it’s over, I didn’t get here early enough’ but the lady in charge came out and said they were going to audition everyone who had made it into that room.”
Barnett was number 127, and from the moment she got her number, she felt something inside that that was a miracle in itself. “I think somebody bigger than me is in this,” she said.
Barnett had recording opportunities in Nashville after graduating college, but felt the Lord wanted her to pursue mission work in Brazil instead. After spending two years there, she returned and began teaching. She’s glad to see opportunity knocking on her door again and hopes this is “the big one.”
“That has always been my dream since I was little, to sing and tell my story,” she said. “It’s bigger than I can comprehend at this time. Maybe it’s time for me to really pursue music, and who’s to say... my ultimate goal is to let people know what I believe in and to share that with the world. And if I can sing and let that shine through me and do what I love all at the same time, well that would be a dream come true.”
“I’m just tickled to death, and so proud of her,” her father said. “She has what it takes to go all the way, and I’m just so glad she went and auditioned and I got to be there and see her. Both my kids are great singers and musicians – when Miranda or Josh play and sing, well, that’s as good as it gets for me.”
Barnett said she was thrilled to see him in the audience, even though he thought he might have a heart attack from all the nerves.
“He has always been there for me, and ever since I was a little girl he’s told me there was nothing I couldn’t do if I put myself out there and tried,” she said, “And seeing my Daddy out there in that audience, and knowing he has always been there for me and he always will.. well, that’s my Daddy and he’s real special to me. He’s my number one fan.”
Barnett went through two rounds of auditions. In the morning she sang “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” accompanied on piano by her good friend Kyle Howard. She got the callback in the afternoon and the duo jumped in the car and headed back across the river to Metropolis.
“I had planned to sing the same song for round two, but on the way there a good friend called me and asked if she could pray for me. Of course I said yes and put her on speaker phone, and when she was finished Kyle looked at me and said “Miranda, I don’t know what it is, but after she prayed, I think we might need to do a different song.’”
She called a friend in Metropolis and asked if she had a piano. The friend didn’t, but had an uncle who did, and the next thing Miranda knew she was in the home of a complete stranger, trying out songs. She decided on a slower ballad, “Strawberry Wine,” and ultimately the judges said that was a good decision.
Barnett and the other two finalists, Kim Butwell of Karnak, Ill. and Morgan Smith of Paducah, move on to the auditions in Atlanta for “America’s Got Talent” on February 20. The hit show has aired for two seasons, and coincidentally both seasons’ winners have come from this area. Neal Boyd, an insurance salesman turned opera singer of Sikeston, Missouri and Kevin Skinner, an out of work chicken catcher and part-time country crooner from Mayfield were the grand prize winners for season one and season two, respectively.
If she makes the cut in Atlanta, Barnett said she’ll be on a plane to Los Angeles.
Whether she’s California bound or not, Lyon Countians have long known that Miranda Barnett’s “got talent.”