Caitlin Nicole Eadie has more in common with Hannah Montana than she'd ever like to admit.
Just like the country music superstar on the hit Disney show, 16-year-old Eadie is an All-American high school girl. She gets good grades, takes advanced placement classes and wants to go to law school one day. She has a high school sweetheart, and she's on a first name basis with all her neighbors in her hometown of Lake City.
Weekends, however, are a completely different story.
Then she can be found on any given stage in Florida singing country songs with her acoustic guitar.
Eadie said she's shy and introverted, but all that goes away when she steps on stage to sing.
Her mother has two names for her - The hazel-eyed, bleached-blond teenager is Caitlin, and the fiery performer with the "old soul" and concrete voice is Nicole.
"It gives me a rush. Whether I'm singing for my parents or a bunch of people at a stadium it just gives me the best feeling," she said. "Nothing else I do gives me that feeling. It's never enough. I'm addicted to singing."
Eadie doesn't share the details of her double life with her high school friends. She's worried that they won't accept her, or they'll be critical.
"There are really exciting things going on, and I just prefer to keep it to myself," she said. "I just want to do what I do and enjoy it and not have everybody telling me what they think about it."
Eadie's popularity as a country singer is rapidly growing. Her MySpace music page has 25,437 friends, she's on the cover of the current issue of Muse Revolution Magazine, and she recently moonlighted as an anchor for "American Music Video Network," a 24-hour country music channel.
Even though Eadie is only 16, her love for country music started when she was much younger.
As a girl, Eadie heard her grandfather play a cassete tape of "I Will Always Love You," by LeAnn Rimes.
She was blown away by the power and range of Rimes voice and was inspired to start singing herself.
That Christmas, her father bought her a "an old clunker of a karaoke machine. The kind with the speaker on it and the corded microphone."
She would lug it around the house and sing her little heart out to anyone who would listen. Her parents quickly intervened.
"Basically my mom said, 'Listen, Caitlin. You can't be going around the house singing like that. You're gonna have to get voice lessons or something,'" Eadie said.
She took voice lessons for a month but lost interest when her teacher tried to steer her toward Broadway singing.
"My heart was in country music," she said. "I just wasn't interested in anything else at the time."
Eadie said singing was not easy at first, but her desire to get better, instilled in her by her parents, drove her to keep trying no matter what.
"It was not a natural thing for me," she said. "It was hard, hard work."
These days, Eadie has a debut CD, "Country Girl," in which she co-wrote four of the 10 songs. She performs about 60 shows per year at various festivals and fairs, and she has opened for Tim McGraw and Jason Aldean, two of country music's biggest superstars. She said being a country girl is all about attitude.
"I just live in a regular house with a bunch of neighbors. But the thing is, I'm country," she said. "The way I talk. The way I sing. I've just been around it for so long. It's how I carry myself."
Eadie will bring her particular brand of country music to the Gainesville Downtown Plaza, 111 E. University Ave., for the "Free Fridays" concert series where she'll be playing a mix of cover songs and original material. The show starts at 7 p.m.
Eadie said people can expect some high-octane country excitement, and they should be ready to have some fun.
"I can't describe it. You have to come see it for yourself," she said.
