Teen singer Kaylor Cox to share stage with major acts at Oro Valley music fest

Tucson country singer-songwriter Kaylor Cox will make her big hometown debut this weekend, opening for a slew of country and pop artists at the two-day Oro Valley Music Festival.

“I’m so excited,” Cox said this week about her two 20-minute sets on Saturday, Oct. 1, and Sunday, Oct. 2. She goes on stage at 1:45 p.m. both days.

Cox, a 2015 graduate of Oro Valley’s Ironwood Ridge High School, has only played a few Tucson shows including at Cow Pony on the east side. She was on the Jack Daniels side stage at Country Thunder in Florence last April and, as a result of this weekend, has lined up several small shows over the next couple months including appearing at the Fox Tucson Theatre Gala on Oct. 27 and the Rockin’ Recovery Music Festival on Dec. 3 at the Foothills Mall. She’s also planning a free show Dec. 4 at the Hilton El Conquistador Resort in Oro Valley.

Cox, whose voice will beg comparisons to rising country star Kelsea Ballerini, has been writing songs since she was 14. The South Dakota native who has spent 10 of her 19 years in Oro Valley, has been playing piano since she was a kid and remembers singing along to Shania Twain when she drove to dance classes and competitions with her mom.

“Honestly I thought I wanted to be on Broadway, singing and dancing,” she said. But she set her sights squarely on singing after an injury sidelined her dance ambitions, and she’s never really looked back.

This weekend she will get a chance to sing pop-country and ’80s rock covers and one original song each day: the inspirational “Stand Tall” on Saturday and her rocker “Animal” on Sunday.

“I can’t tell you how much longer she will be an opening act at 1:45 in the afternoon,” said her manager and mentor Duhamel “DJ Du” Cassell, who said he thinks Tucson should come out to see Cox this weekend, and as often as they can. “This is a chance to come and see her and see what the hype is about. She is going to grow before our eyes.”

Cassell has been working with Cox for about a year and is featuring her on his EP, set to come out by the holidays. He said he sees Cox’s career soon heading to Nashville, where Cassell for the past several years has split his time as his DJ’ing career has taken off in the years since he signed on to Jason’ Aldean’s monstrously successful “Night Train” and “Burn It Down” national tours that drew audiences topping 2 million in 2014.

”I can’t wait to see what happens six months from now, the next year,” he said. “You can just see it and hear it in her voice.”

Cox shares in that Music City dream. She’s making her first-ever trip to Nashville on Oct. 8 to get a feel for the city, knock on a few doors and figure out how to navigate the road ahead. Before long, she wants to relocate there permanently.

“I’m going to see what happens to my music career,” she said. “I figure college will always be there. I can go when I’m 35. I’m trying to put everything I have into music right now.”