Tad Dreis

Tad Dreis is following a lyrical path to success.

Since graduating in 2000, Dreis and his guitar have traveled the college and coffeehouse circuit. He characterizes his tunes as "three-minute, Sixties-influenced acoustic power pop." While he looks for a recording executive who will sign him to a contract, he is enjoying the life of an itinerant musician.

His self-penned melodies have struck a chord. Dreis has played more than 250 solo dates over the past four years. He's recorded two CDs, won second place in the Los Angeles SongLounge.com songwriting contest and performed on N.C. Public Television's "Carolina Calling."

Recently, he won National Public Radio's All Songs Considered Open Mic contest and Eddie's Attic Open Mic Shootout in Atlanta. He now goes on to the finals of the Eddie's Attic contest—the same competition that landed singer/songwriter John Mayer his first record deal.

Like many Moreheads, Dreis used his summer internships to further his eventual career. He learned the business side of the record industry in a job with Mammoth Records's legal department. During his travel/study to Ireland, Dreis picked up the tricky art of accompanying traditional Irish fiddle music on his guitar—skills he now incorporates into his music.

Dreis jokes that if he makes it big one day, he'll have some tough choices to make, "mainly about my hair and clothes, and whether to incorporate a hip-hop break into my folk songs or go for more of a shallow post-grunge teen angst market."

Until such decisions must be made, Dreis is immersed in making his career a success: setting up gigs, working his fan base and producing new songs. To earn extra cash, he teaches private guitar lessons (he realized after a Morehead public service summer teaching a classroom of middle-schoolers that private, one-on-one instruction is more his speed).

"It'd be great if the industry caught on to my act," Dreis says. "But if not, I'm still doing what I love."