To anyone who might think that home-schooling will stunt a child’s cultural growth, we’d like to introduce Camille Sanders. The 15-year-old Hill Country native has lived in the same house all her life, in a rural area far from any city. Her parents are not musicians, and Camille did not sing in public until she was 13, but she has learned ballet dancing and five musical instruments (some self-taught), has performed for large audiences at several Hill Country venues, and even appeared on television in San Antonio last year. This summer, she was accepted into an elite Los Angeles acting camp run by Adrian R’Mante of the Disney Channel’s Suite Life of Zach and Cody.

       Of course, Camille has had a number of serendipitous factors to help in her fast-track career. The first may have been her grandfather, an economics professor named Howard Yeargan (but known to Camille simply as “Da”) who used to play the piano and sing at churches. Da and “Ma” (Susan Yeargan) formed a partnership with his parents to buy a campground on the Frio River in 1970; and it was here, to Yeargan’s River Bend on the Frio River, that former teachers Paul and Beth Sanders moved in 1992.

       “Caitlynn (Camille’s older sister, now in college) was six months old, and we didn’t want to put her in daycare,” Beth explains. “We moved here to manage the campground.”

       Camille was born four years later; she has lived here all her life, and has never been to public school. “I was even baptized right here in the river,” she recalls. She works summers in the campground office, and some of her best friends are campers who come back each summer to camp at River Bend, but she does get away from the campground sometimes, participating in activities with a home school co-op.

       And now she performs! She began learning very early to play the piano and sing with her beloved Da (her other grandparents are Caddo and Ruby Sanders of San Marcos). When she was nine years old, she began to take violin lessons with local music teacher Dick Walker. “It was quickly apparent that Camille was a remarkable person,” Walker says. “She has already surpassed the level most people achieve in a lifetime, and if she continues to perfect her skills, nothing would surprise me.” She began to play the violin at churches to accompany Da, then played for diners at a steakhouse in Vail, Colorado, which happens to be managed by her mother’s first cousin. Soon she was opening for big-name bands at the House Pasture Restaurant in Concan. Last year, she began singing in public; now singing is a main part of her performances.

       By now, she plays five instruments: piano, fiddle, guitar, mandolin and banjo; she hopes soon to learn the steel guitar. Her guitar skills came quite abruptly, when she was asked to open for Gary P. Nunn. With just a month to learn, she taught herself in her own room; her performance went off without a hitch.

       A few weeks later (July 7, 2009), she was featured on KENS5’s “Great Day S.A.” TV show in San Antonio. Then family friend Roddy Peeples, himself a well-known radio broadcaster, recommended Camille to country music promoter Tracy Pitcox, of Brady, who invited her to appear at his Country Oprys in Mason and Llano this spring. She was an instant hit.

       Camille sings all kinds of country music: classic, gospel and modern. Her favorite singers are George Strait, Alison Krauss, and the Jonas Brothers. She also likes Brad Paisley and Alan Jackson (although she used to call him “Apple” Jackson). If she couldn’t perform, she thinks she’d want to be a zookeeper (she loves flamingoes!). But she can, and does, perform, so she auditioned for a slot in an acting camp run by Adrian R’Mante (of the Disney Channel’s Suite Life of Zack and Cody) in Los Angeles. Only 50 applicants were accepted, but you won’t be surprised to hear that Camille was one of them. She traveled to California this summer.

       While Camille has many interests and talents, music is her first love, and she hopes that it will become her career. She already has a demo CD prepared for groups or venues which might be interested in hiring her (for bookings, call Paul Sanders at 830-591-7791 or email ten107@hctc.net), and was hoping her “real” CD, recorded in Nashville a couple of months ago, would be ready before her 15^th birthday this October. She has already opened for well-known singers like Pat Green, the Bellamy Brothers, Barbara Fairchild, and has sung with Kyle Park, Cory Morrow, Randy Rogers and many others. She even sang for former governor Dolph Briscoe!

       On December 11, she'll be giving a special performance at a Cystic Fibrosis fundraiser in memory of a neighbor who succumbed to the disease in 2006, just before her 14th birthday. Kelsi Robinson's parents, Greg and Michelle, started a foundation called "Kelsi's Kind Heart" to honor their daughter's memory and to help find a cure for cystic fibrosis (see www.kelsiskindheart.com for more information on the foundation and the Uvalde fundraiser).

       This may be the first you’ve heard of Camille Sanders, but it probably won’t be the last. As violin teacher Dick Walker says, “We don’t know yet how good she is.” It will be very interesting to follow her career.

By John Hallowell

John Hallowell is the past editor of several Hill Country publications. He has been exploring the Texas Hill Country for almost 20 years.