Bryant’s fast at work on a second album that promises to continue her ascent. She enlisted Chuck Howard (noted for his work with LeAnn Rimes, Hank Williams Jr. and Trick Pony) to produce part of the album. One already-completed cut, “I Wanna Be Unhappy In The Hollywood Hills,” is being considered for a spot in ABC’s My Name Is Earl. In addition, she’s working with Charlie Fox on a country version of his classic “Killing Me Softly” (made famous by Roberta Flack and by The Fugees), and Fox is producing a pair of new songs written specifically for her with Arnie Roman (who’s had hits recorded by Trisha Yearwood and Celine Dion).

Inspired by James Taylor, Shania Twain, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire and the Lynyrd Skynyrd-associated Van Zant, her new songs are helping to establish her as an artist with both a thoughtful persuasiveness and a gentle-but-effective sarcastic streak.

“You look at Lynyrd Skynyrd, you look at Reba, you look at Garth, they all invented themselves,” she explains. “It’s true artistry. They put out who they are and America loved it.” Bryant’s story is one that many working Americans will find familiar, grounded as it is in a blue-collar work ethic and in its balance of heart and mind. Born in New York, she was raised in Towanda, Pennsylvania, in the center of the picturesque Endless Mountains.

“My father’s 100% Italian, so every Sunday was pasta day and church,” she recalls. “It was very Midwestern, as far as family values and small-town atmosphere. We’d get snowed in, although we had to have 10 inches before you missed school, so we prayed for 12 inches. I realize now how special it was to grow up in a place like that, very untouched.”

The family was quite musical. Her father was a classical tenor and he often sang songs at the house while her mother accompanied on piano. An aunt received a full-paid scholarship to the prestigious Juilliard School of Music, and another aunt studied music at Penn State. Bryant’s parents divorced when she was 12. Out of necessity, she became quite industrious, working throughout her remaining high school years and handling two jobs—plus some print modeling assignments—to pay her way through college at the University of South Florida. She became an executive for Kohler, developing a program that significantly increased the company’s market share in new-home construction. She was confident, pragmatic and sensitive, and all those elements helped her succeed in a predominantly male line of work.. “I would walk into an office and if there were family pictures, I knew that the man or woman wanted to do small talk before we got into the meeting,” she notes. “ If there were no pictures, just awards and computer paper, I went right to the business, and it worked. I learned to read people right away. ” The Columbine school shooting in 1999 inspired her to develop the Nancy Ferro Learning For Life Foundation, and through her work with the children the program mentored, she realized she still had her own dream to develop. By the beginning of 2001, she’d relocated to Nashville and thrown herself full-force into a country music pursuit.

There were no illusions: She didn’t expect to have a recording deal within six weeks or for jaded executives to cancel their evening cocktails for a chance to see yet another unproven talent. Instead, she put her nose to the figurative grindstone, writing, performing, networking and building her reputation in increments. “I didn’t just hang out at clubs all the time,” she says. “I did it a different way, but I still did my homework and came up through the trenches.”

When she got her chance at a recording deal, Woman Enough was not a simple exercise in self-glorification. A chunk of the proceeds from that album and merchandise sales was donated to the Learning For Life program, and the material was chosen with their potential impact on the listener in mind. The songs are invariably positive or reflective in a manner that encourages self-examination and personal growth.

“Lyrics make a difference,” she explains. “What you say means everything. That’s where your heart is.” Moving forward with Charlie Fox and SId and Marty Krofft Pictures, Bryant is working on her second album and the TV show, which is already in development. Bryant is confident that every step in her journey will assist not only her freshly minted career, but also aid the kids that mean so much to her.

“By me following my dream and helping them get to theirs,” she says, “that’s as cool as it gets for me.”