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That was the first sign Charissa had a special gift.
At 3 years old, Charissa started singing songs, which in itself is not all that unusual, but the way she sang them was beyond her years. “It wasn’t a typical baby voice,” Donna said. “It was good and on key.”
When Charissa started taking dancing lessons, again she showed an uncanny grace and rhythm.
“She just excelled at everything,” Donna said.
Well, there was one thing. Charissa was shy, painfully shy, bury-her-head-in-mom’s-knee shy. But the strange thing was, they discovered when Charissa started doing dance recitals that her shyness melted away when she got on stage.
“As shy as she was, she loved to be in that spotlight,” Donna said.
When she was 7 years old, Charissa sang in front of an audience for the first time, laying a little country karaoke on the crowd at the Country Thunder music festival. They didn’t want her to stop. And in a way, she still shows no signs of stopping.
Now 11 years old, Charissa is the reigning Wisconsin champion in the Colgate Country Showdown, the best known country music singing competition around. She was the youngest contestant to ever make it to the finals, the first non-adult winner and the first to win with a unanimous vote of the judges.
People wondering how to pronounce her name should just think “charisma.” It sounds like that, and she’s got plenty of it, too, judging from a phone interview she did from her home in Dodgeville, Wis.
She didn’t show a trace of her former shyness, fielding questions like a show-business veteran, which she is, in a way. She already has recorded three independently released country/pop CDs and a Christmas CD and has performed as an opening act on shows that featured country music stars including Trick Pony, Jo Dee Messina, Lonestar, the Oak Ridge Boys, Billy Currington and Confederate Railroad.
Last year, she began performing with the Auburn Sky Band, a group that includes her older sister, Renee Strauss, on backup vocals and Renee’s husband, Rick, on harmonica and backup vocals. Rick also runs the sound board and helps Donna with bookings and publicity.
In late June, Charissa and the Auburn Sky Band — after a Saturday evening appearance at Onalaska Sunfish Days — will perform at the Porterfield Country Fest, sharing the same stage as Gretchen Wilson, Billy Ray Cyrus, Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington.
Did we mention she’s 11?
Like a lot of 11-year-old girls these days, Charissa is a big fan of “Hannah Montana,” the TV show starring Miley Cyrus as a young singing sensation trying to have a normal life by hiding her true identity. Luckily, Charissa doesn’t have to hide her identity from her classmates at Johnsburg Junior High.
“They’re supportive,” she said. “They think it’s really cool, but it’s not like I’m completely different.”
While Charissa doesn’t have Hannah Montana’s identity problems, she does share her performing abilities, and Charissa has done a number of Hannah Montana tribute shows. She likes playing with her own band better, though.
“It’s more entertaining and more exciting,” she said.
In addition to singing, Charissa also plays guitar, piano and drums (she’s first chair in the percussion section of her school concert band). And she has taken up writing songs, recently completing her second effort.
One of the tricky things about being an 11-year-old singing sensation is finding songs she can sing that don’t sound weird coming out of a pre-teen. She favors upbeat songs that work well for audience participation, and she likes to stick with the country.
“Country is my favorite kind of music,” she said. “It’s just a lot of fun, but I don’t sing anything inappropriate.”
Reba McIntire, Shania Twain and Sugarland come to Charissa’s mind when she’s asked about her influences, but she mentions them after her family and the Lord. “God is my No. 1 inspiration,” she said.
Charissa’s career could soon be jumping up another level. This summer she’ll be working on a new recording project — “Chasing the Dream” — with Michael Yerke of Live Nation and award-winning sound engineer and producer Hank Neuberger.
Donna said the hope is Charissa will be signed by a major label so her next CD can get wider distribution and her career can really take off. That might mean no more Johnsburg Junior High for Charissa, with a tutor taking over, but Charissa is set on giving a music career her best shot.
That also means things get turned upside down for the Mrowka family sometimes, but Donna said the tradeoffs are worth it.
“It’s very fun, very rewarding ... We’ve met a lot of great people along the way,” Donna said. “Yes, there are times we want to pull our hair out, but we get through it.”
Donna emphasizes that Charissa’s career is what she wants. “What we love about her is she is very silly,” Donna said. “A lot of the comments we get, people notice that they can tell she’s doing this because she loves it. She’s happy before the show and after the show.”
Contact Randy Erickson at randy.erickson@lee.net or (608) 786-6812.
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