Singer Uses Experiences To Hit Right Chord In Waukesha

WAUKESHA, WI—"The Prince Will Show Up Somehow," 22-year-old Catelyn Picco’s original song, is about a young woman moving on from the wrong man. The soulful song strings together a story of a woman being confident the right person is out there.

Picco spoke to Patch about what inspires her and has helped her in her music career, whether it’s her own experiences or what she hears around her.

"It was a clever way to spin my love of Disney movies and country music,” Picco said of her song. “When the line ‘The prince will show up, somehow’ popped into my head, I immediately started to think of Cinderella and how she had to wait for Prince Charming to find her with the glass slipper.”

The song also references the "frogs I've kissed" a nod to “The Princess and the Frog.”

Picco’s musical talents showed long before she learned how to play the guitar.

The singer and songwriter graduated from Waukesha West High School in 2017 and Wisconsin Lutheran College in June. But she’s been singing since she was a little girl.

Music is in her blood. Her mother, Loretta Picco, teaches private piano lessons. Picco started with piano lessons and one day picked up a guitar.

"I started strumming on the guitar when I was in third grade but my fingers were too small. I gave it up until I was 12," Picco told Patch.

In her teens, she started to write original songs.

"I kicked into it when I was in high school and enjoyed it more," she said.

Her inspiration comes not only from her own life but from others, whether it be in real life or from a book or TV show. She listens to what people are saying and will jot down a good line for a possible song.

"If I can share a story someone can connect with that is super amazing and important. It is an amazing channel to use to connect with others in an audience," Picco said.

Performing for crowds

At 15, she performed in her first open-mic at the now-former Sprizzo Gallery Caffe in downtown Waukesha.

"From that moment I just kept gigging and performing for crowds," she said.

Picco kept setting goals for herself to work up to, beginning with singing three songs during an open mic and moving on to perform sets that were between an hour or two-hours.

She became more comfortable by performing at coffee houses and farmers markets and then started to eye the bigger stages at events like church festivals.

Picco has performed at Summerfest, the Wisconsin State Fair and the Waukesha County Fair. Her big dream is to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where some of the biggest names in country music play.

What she remembers from her earlier days performing shows is how the support from the Waukesha community helped calm her stage fright and nerves.

"It's a community. The musicians in Waukesha. Those nerves went away because they were so encouraging," Picco said.

Other local musicians were helpful and not competitive about getting all the gigs.

Besides her original songs, the singer has a setlist filled with artists like Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and Imagine Dragon to name a few.

She wants people to see her as a friend and not as a stranger singing while they drink coffee.

To make her shows more personable, Picco tells stories about herself and getting the audience involved in her performance. She distributes toy instruments to children and asks them to play along.

"Thanks to COVID-19, the toys are in a box in my basement right now,” she said. “I hope one day to bring them back out.”

One song she penned during the pandemic was titled "Just Wear a Mask," which she said was not a political statement.

"Wearing the mask was important but I thought there were so many things that rhymes with the word mask," she laughed.

When she isn't singing, Picco can be found hanging with her friends, thrift shopping and enjoying a macaroni and cheese pizza.

Picco's EP titled “Strong and Courageous” is available for streaming on Spotify. For more information and updates about Catelyn visit her website or follow her on social media.