On the Cover of Rolling Stone

A long time ago, in a galaxy far away, Lelia Broussard was a 15-year-old with big eyes and a big voice, living with her mom and her little brother in Chester County and trying like hell to be a rock-and-roll star. I chronicled her quest in a 2008 profile in which I ate her mom’s gumbo and chili and pralines (all very good) and wondered about the hazards of raising a prodigy.

Every now and then, in the years since, I’d stick Lelia’s first CD, Louisiana Soul, into my computer and listen to her quirky, lovely, oddly adult voice and lyrics (which her mom believes she channels from another life).

I’d check up on Lelia once in a while, keeping an eye on where she was playing. She moved out to L.A. a few years back; there have been more albums since I went to the down-home release party for her first one back in 2007. Sometimes I hoped she’d make it in the music business; sometimes I worried she would.

Now, I guess, she has. She’s one of 16 acts chosen by the editors of Rolling Stone to face off for the chance to appear on the magazine’s cover this summer. You can check the artists out and rate Lelia, who’s 21 and all grown up now, here. The first round of voting closes on March 2nd, so get busy! And catch this video of Lelia strolling through Brooklyn with her friends and strumming her ukelele on her song “Satellite,” about a lonely robot girl.