Albemarle's Kellie Pickler Set For Music City, Album Debut

Small town Kellie Picker is taking her act to the Music City.

The "American Idol" finalist will make her Grand Ole Opry debut Friday night. That comes just four weeks after the bubbly blonde moved from her home town of Albemarle to Nashville.

"I'll always love Albemarle," Pickler, 20, said in a recent phone interview with The Charlotte Observer. "It's where I grew up and it's where my heart is, but since I was a little, I remember dreaming about moving to Nashville -- Music City -- where the people I looked up to have lived."

Pickler's debut album -- "Small Town Girl" -- is scheduled for release Tuesday. She co-wrote five songs on the CD, detailing her life growing up in Stanly County.

Her upbringing gave her plenty of material: Pickler's mother abandoned her as a child and her whereabouts remain a mystery. Her father recently finished a three-year prison term for stabbing a man, although she reconciled with him in an emotional public ceremony last May.

"I sat down and just started writing all these lyrics," Pickler said. "It just came to me. I'd never really written songs before. But if you can write a diary, you can write a song. It's what your life is about, your feelings, your emotions."