Top Texas country singer/songwriter headlines Saturday at Rabbit Fest

By LYNETTE SOWELL 
Cove Leader-Press 

Texas singer/songwriter Curtis Grimes will be taking the stage Saturday night at Fester’s House and will bring his brand of music to Copperas Cove. 
Grimes, who appeared on season 1 of the hit television show “The Voice,” has had 11 number-one hit singles on the Texas radio charts, a number-one hit song on the Power Source Country Christian Chart, along with more than 30 million streams on Spotify. 
His awards include New Male Vocalist of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Entertainer of the Year and Country Christian Song of the Year, twice, at the Texas Regional Radio Awards.
The Gilmer, Texas native attended Centenary College of Louisiana on a scholarship for baseball as a pitcher, and his shift into music was a surprise, even to him. He discovered his own special connection to music when he moved to San Marcos, and picked up his roommate’s guitar and figured out how to play many of the songs he’d heard on the radio, then started writing songs. 
He said about 80 percent of his songs are  his own. His hit single “Home To Me” was picked up by Supercuts for a national commercial spot with a cameo acting performance by Grimes, and his first hit single in Texas was “The Cowboy Kind.”  
“I didn’t grow up playing music, I grew up playing baseball. But, I got introduced to some good writers in Nashville after I did The Voice, and it just kind of grew from there. I got in the room with other people who made me better as a writer,” said Grimes. 
Then, in 2008, after playing local small gigs, he won a battle of the bands contest at Stubbs in Austin, where he won a 15-minute opening spot for the Kenny Chesney/LeAnn Rimes tour.  
Things then got into high gear for him when he got a spot on The Voice, in 2011. 
Celo green was the one who turned around; I was thankful that anyone turned around. 
Grimes said he’s looking forward to coming to Copperas Cove and has taken the stage in the Central Texas and Killeen area before. 
He said he enjoys stages, large and small, wherever that may be, such as a festival he sang at in upstate New  York. 
‘We’ve done them all over, places I never went growing up. I used to think New York was just like Manhattan, but I played at one in New  York, there was a demolition derby, and it felt like Texas. People are happy to have you come and play for them. I really enjoy it.” 
He will be playing songs from his new self-titled album that officially releases July 30. 
Aside from the music, Grimes said one of his passions is to support the nonprofit, Ten Finger Ministry, which he started in 2017 in honor of his grandfather. He donates all the sales from his 2018 gospel album, Faith Based Country Volume 1, to Ten Finger Ministry, which helps distribute Bibles to those who don’t have them.