While country music seems to be awash with teen sensations these days, Tammy Cochran is one artist who brings back the true nature of country. She has been through love and losses in her life and turns those experiences into emotion-filled music. Helping her get a leg-up in the country music industry was her upbringing. Country music has always romanticized the small-town lifestyle, which Cochran had growing up in Austinburg, Ohio. She was one of three children but the only one to make it to adulthood since her two brothers had cystic fibrosis. Although neither of her parents were musically inclined, they were fans of music and introduced Cochran to country music.Young Cochran was singing early on in church and entered her first talent contest when she was 12, which she won. Her brothers' illness brought her family even closer together and helped Cochran delve deeper into music as a way to cope. She was in bands during high school and received training after graduation to be a secretary. She soon travelled to Nashville to pursue her dreams, but had a bit of culture shock as it differed immensely from her small town life. She played around Nashville and also had a brief marriage in 1996 that ended only a couple of years later.She was discovered as a songwriter soon after and signed with Warner-Chappell. Her songwriting served her well as she started making her own album. Her self-titled debut hit stores in 2000 and had reached number 27 on the country charts by 2001. Her follow up album, Life Happened, came in 2002 and did even better than her debut, also making it onto the Billboard 200 at 95. She switched labels after the album and released Where I Am on Shanachie Records in July of 2007.
