NEW MUSIC: Meet Meaghan Smith

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"I have a hard time watching American Idol," Meaghan Smith tells me. It stands to reason - while her first album is scoring rave reviews, Meaghan was at first too petrified to even perform. "If I had been on American Idol," she says, "I probably wouldn't have tried to do anything again. " She knows the judges are going for the most extremes for TV, but as a shy person she says, "Anybody that gets on stage or even just tries, I respect."

"I used to have really bad stage freight," she reveals. "I just really wanted to try and perform. I never thought I'd actually do anything with music at all." She muses, "Everything's been kind of a shock, quite frankly."

She was able to face her fear of performing after hearing sage words from one of her favorite singers, Patty Griffin. "I found this interview she did where talked about her stage freight," Meaghan explains. "She said the only way to get over your stage freight is to go through it and let yourself suck until you don't suck any more."

Finding the courage to give it a go, Meaghan did just that. "It took me about 4 years before I could comfortably get on stage without completely freaking out," she says. "I did open mic nights to try to put myself out there and get over my shyness. I've always loved music; my issue was just being able to share it with other people."

Now that she's out in the world, living like a rock star, "I just play and do my thing," she says.

Her thing is currently promoting her first album. "I made it myself, I recorded it by myself," she says of her debut. "Then it got into Warner's hands."

Her album, The Cricket's Quartet, is out now.

Wes Ferguson is a Hollywood lifestyle blogger and published author. Follow him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Westopher