To talk about Isaac and singing, you have to start pretty early in his life. He was born in 2000, and he has always loved country music. As a toddler, his favorite song was “Smokey Mountain Rain”. When it came on the car radio, he didn’t want anyone else to sing to it, since it was his song. He would often do little concerts at home, of all the songs he learned in Sunday school. Then Josh Turner’s “Long Black Train” song came out. That became the first song Isaac ever performed at church when he had just turned four years old. He ran up on stage and introduced himself and the song, then proceeded to walk all around the stage singing to the different parts of the congregation, came down the steps of the podium and back up twice, never missed a word, and made lots facial expressions. We were all dumbfounded since the only thing we had done was sit him on our lap and teach him the words to the song! He began to do special music at our home church periodically after that. We saw our first Tommy Brandt concert in Butler, PA when Isaac was five years old, and after that he only wanted to perform Tommy Brandt songs. Tommy has graciously provided tracks of his songs for Isaac since that time. He started playing guitar in Kindergarten at age six after announcing that he wanted to be a singing cowboy!

The largest crowd Isaac ever sang for locally was in 2008 at a church camp family meeting. There were around 2000 people there and when he had finished singing, he came down from the stage and said “That was fun, can I do it again!” We believe God blessed Isaac with the talents he would need to fulfill his calling to sing for Him. We hadn’t heard of the Inspirational Country Music Association, or ICM’s, before Isaac was born, but his initials are ICM! The Lord got Isaac through two different illnesses that hospitalized him as a young child. At two he was diagnosed with a rare childhood illness called Kawasaki’s disease, he had been running a high temperature and developing new symptoms one after another for ten days when the doctor figured out what he had and admitted him to the hospital for treatment. He responded well and by the grace of God has no lasting damage from the disease. Then at five he had been ill and running a high temperature for over a week. After being back and forth with the doctors saying he had the flu, we took him to the ER where they ran some tests. They admitted him the next day after finding he had salmonella in his blood stream, which is also said to be “rare”. We’ve concluded that Isaac is indeed “rare”, and God has a plan for his life that he intends to see fulfilled. So it is fitting that the first concert that he and his sister Mikayla Lynn ever performed together was at that very hospital for the Transitional Care facility in 2009 when their Great Grandmother, and an elderly gentleman from our home church were both in that facility over Christmas. They performed for the Christmas Party held for the patients. It was from that concert, that they booked their first ever Sunday morning worship concert in May of 2010. We had kept in touch with the Brandt’s over the years, and Tommy encouraged us to bring Isaac to the 2010 ICM week, where Isaac performed in the talent competition. We loved ICM week, and we were hooked; we’ve all made great life-long friends from going there. Tommy said Isaac was welcome to sing his music as long as he wanted, but it was about time he had some music of his own. So the process of recording his first album began.

Finding songs for young kids is difficult, and Isaac hadn’t written any songs for himself yet. He was blessed to be able to co-write his title track with Tommy Brandt though. 2011 brought us to Nashville twice to record, a process Isaac enjoyed very much, with Tommy producing and Larry Marrs engineering. He also got to perform at the Nashville Cowboy Church while we were there with his mentor/producer Tommy Brandt, and his good buddy Brandt II playing guitar on stage with him. His debut album “Country Boy” was released in February 2012, and he released his title track “God’s a Country Boy Too” through HMG in March. He was thrilled as it climbed to number 16 on the Inspirational Country Music Charts. Then he released the song “Faith” that summer. Faith is the first ballad Isaac ever did, and it is meaningful to him because the drummer with the “God’s Country Band” where Isaac plays banjo, has survived stage four cancer and he shared with Isaac how that song really speaks to him since faith is what got him through it all. At the 2012 Inspirational Country Music Awards, Isaac was honored by receiving the “Youth in Music” Award! It was the only time he’s ever been speechless! He also got to present the “New Artist” award with one of his fellow nominees, Emily Faith. He also attended the Artists Music Guild Awards, and was named “New Artist of the Year” and he got to be a presenter in that show also. In 2013, “Faster than a Tear Drops” was released, and it was the first time Isaac had a song break into the top 10 on the PowerSource top 100 Inspirational Country chart with a number 9 finish. He released “I’ve Got a Home” later that same year and it went to #21. It was a busy year of learning the art of songwriting, and preparing to record his second CD, “Just a Kid”. It was recorded in October of 2013, and released in February 2014. The title track was released in March, and topped out at #6 in September! Best one yet, and it was the first one everyone got to hear since his voice started changing. If you compare the two CD’s it is obvious that his voice is lower on the newest CD.

The concert schedule the past four years has been busy with various churches, festivals, fairs, rodeos and benefits. We have done benefit concerts for a local girl whose foot was almost severed in a lawn mower accident, and a baby girl born with a serious disorder. We have also done several benefits for a local Christian radio/TV station that Isaac has had the privilege of performing on a couple of times. Isaac has enjoyed participating in the Texaco Country Showdown three times and he took third place twice. Isaac has also played electric guitar and sang harmony with a local country gospel band called “In Transition”. He sang lead when they did his songs. He got a banjo for Christmas in 2012 and two weeks later started to play it in the “God’s Country Band” that plays on Sat. nights at the very church that first hosted Tommy Brandt in concert when we met him. The band is now led by a close friend, Von McCommons , who gave Isaac many opportunities to sing at the concerts his family would do locally with their southern gospel group “One in Spirit”. Von wrote “I’ve Got a Home” from the “Country Boy” CD, and co-wrote the title track for Isaac’s second CD “I’m Just a Kid”. God has very intricate plans that are fun to just watch come together over the years! Right before Christmas 2013 Isaac got to go on a ten day tour with Dennis Agajanian and speaker Will Graham. They did eleven events throughout southern California, and Isaac had the time of his life. He learned so much from Dennis who is THE fastest flat pick guitarist! Christmas 2013 brought a fiddle and a mandolin to Isaac’s collection of instruments, and it took him two months to be able to unveil the fiddle in a performance with the God’s Country Band. He plays his mandolin in our concerts, because the band already has a mandolin player! At the Chet Atkins convention in Nashville during July 2014 Isaac was blessed to get a sponsorship from Gretsch guitars! He loves the Gretsch White Falcon semi-hollow body electric guitar we got him there. He is putting together a music education presentation to share with elementary and middle school students where he can also share some historical information about the Gretsch company, and the many possibilities music can open up for you. Isaac and his sister were so excited to meet Charlie Daniels, Michael W. Smith, and Franklin Graham at the Three Rivers Festival of Hope in Pittsburgh, PA in August 2014, thanks to Uncle Dennis! These are all great people to look up to and learn from. So many people accepted Jesus Christ as their savior at that event! It was amazing to be there!

Outside of music, Isaac truly is a Country Boy! He is an avid hunter and fisherman. His biggest fish was a 22” Walleye caught in Canada when he was 39” tall. It is quite a sight to see a little kid pull in a fish only 17” shorter than himself, it almost pulled him in! He got his first archery buck (a seven point) at ten with his cross bow, and followed that the next year with a rifle buck that was a large half rack four point, and this past year with another archery nine pointer. He also got his first turkey in 2012, and in 2013 he got his second turkey. It was so big he got a full body mount. He and his Dad went on a New Mexico elk hunt in the fall of 2013 and he got a beautiful six by six on the first day! The bleached skull and rack decorate the wall of his “man cave” camouflage bedroom along with all his other hunting prizes. He won his camouflage recliner while singing at our local rodeo. He was really into racing four-wheelers for about four years, but now he just rides for fun, as the music doesn’t allow enough time and money for both. He did break his collar bone while riding in an off road vehicle during the summer of 2014. Always, always wear your seatbelt! He has also enjoyed some experience with acting and modeling, he’s always been a ham. We live in rural western Pennsylvania on a 140 acre non-working farm with lots of wooded property. He loves to camp, and spend lots of time playing with our border collie, Oreo. Isaac is a home-schooled eighth grader who enjoys anything with wheels: bikes, skateboards, scooters, dirt boards, rip-sticks, our tractor, riding mower, and off road vehicles. He’s always been a good driver of anything he can get his hands on. We truly are on the ride of our lives with this kid, and I think we’ve just begun.