Before getting Carrie Underwood crying on national TV, Slater Nalley was just a (very) young man turning heads and drawing crowds at Dune Bird Winery near Leland.

Bekah Bell, who has worked at Dune Bird since it opened by the end of 2021, recalls that people were thoroughly amazed by Nalley. How is it to voice comes out of to child?

“Here he was 15 years old and sang with the soul and pain of someone like Chris Stapleton,” Bell tells The ticker. “He has a lot of maturity in his voice … and there is this compilation between this young, polite ‘Yes Ma’am’ child and a tortured artist -story narrator who can ruin you with a song.”

Nalley played at Dune Bird at least 20 times over the last three summers and consistently draws larger crowds as words spread about his talents. Bell and the others at Dune Bird loved watching people discover the young man with the golden voice.

“I think people loved to be surprised,” she says. “And he is so real, authentic and friendly that you cannot avoid rooting for him.”

Dune Bird on Sunday welcomes everyone in the community to Nalley as he appears on the 23rd season premiere at American IdolThe Long-Running Smash Hit Vocal Competition Show. Manufacturers of the show made his Especially emotional audition Available in advance to promote the premiere and that is Away viral.

“They love the story and they love the song, and apparently they like my voice,” Nalley tells The ticker. “So they called me and said they should send my audition on all platforms and to get ready because it would blow up. I didn’t believe them. And then I woke up the next morning and it just went ballist. “

Nalley, now 18, is an Atlanta inborn who grew up coming to Leland in the summer, the latest for several generations of his family to do so. Leland and Leelanau as a whole have a special place in his heart and soul, he says, especially because he has always been able to find peace here.

“I love Leelanau because it makes me feel at home,” he says. “There are so much bad things going on in the world, and it can be so disappointing and so about and so overwhelming, and I think Leland is a commercial-to-Jesus (place) … It makes you realize that life is much bigger than all these problems going on. I think there is no better place in the world than Leland to realize it. “

Of course, he has played at other venues, but Dune Bird has always been one of his favorites.

“It’s like family, and everyone at Dune Bird has the biggest heart. I’ve always felt so welcome there, so loved and then prioritized, ”he says. “My music is a vessel and I would like to share with the world. And as a 14-year-old child, when someone asks you to play on their very successful vineyard, for people of all different ages to hear, it was really special to me. “

As for the now-viral audition recordings, Slater considers it as confirmation of his hard work over the years.

“I’ve always put passion into my music, and I expect everyone to feel the passion I put in my music because I work my ass on it,” he says. “When someone like Carrie Underwood, Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie meet and tear up my song, it shows me doing something right.”

Nalley is honored and glad to know that his followers gather at Dune Bird to see Idol Premiere and he can’t wait to get back north.

“Everyone in Leland is so tight. I couldn’t feel more grateful, ”he says. “It will feel good when I finally go back to my little escape from all this and live there a little, with joy in my heart that everyone who has been supported me since the first day.”

Emily Marbury is assistant manager at Dune Bird. She says the whole community is behind Nalley, which they have embraced as one of their own.

“We are often joking about it being hard in a small town because everyone knows everyone, but this is a coincidence where it is a great blessing,” she says The ticker. “We all know and love slats, so you can’t help but be excited about the Leelanau connection, and you realize that’s what makes living in a place like this so special. Everyone wants family, and then when you have an opportunity to celebrate the successes of these people, it just feels good. “

While they may not continue to send people to national TV shows, Dune Bird will continue to lean strongly into live music performance throughout the year.

”(Founders Bo and Nicole White’s) The whole vision was that this would be more than just a vineyard. They really wanted this to be a social space, and we can always look at the art of being a thing that creates society and brings people together, ”says Bell. “We want people to gather and we want people to have a connection, and music is an incredible cord for it.”

Click here For more information about the Sunday Watch party at Dune Bird.