By Kalena Reynolds | Staff Writer
From Magnolia to murals, the city of Waco has recently seen a revolution of art and creativity spring from its streets. Local artists and songwriters Holly Tucker and Jennifer Pisarcik are two glowing examples of the talent that lies within the city.
Tucker is a singer-songwriter from Waco who recently released a new album, titled “You’re Gonna Know My Name.” She discovered her love of music at age 7, when she went on stage for the first time at her church.
“From that moment, I just knew that that’s what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” Tucker said. “I didn’t know exactly how that was going to look, but from there on out, my parents knew how to kind of foster that in me, and they wanted to get me on every appropriate stage that I could be on.”
With the help of her parents, Tucker took her first trip to Nashville at 13. Deciding to explore her passion more deeply, she began writing songs at 15.
“Because I’m an independent artist, I’m always trying to come up with new songs and get ready for new albums and new radio releases,” Tucker said.
Tucker graduated from Baylor in 2015 with a degree in speech communications and a minor in Spanish. When she was a sophomore, she auditioned for “The Voice.” After receiving a callback for the show, she ended up among the top six competitors.
“I had a full class load at the time, full professors and everything, and they all knew, and they were all super excited and proud of me,” Tucker said. “They said, ‘Hey, we’ll give you your assignments through email — however we need to make it work.'”
Tucker also released a three-song EP through Baylor’s since-defunct record label, Uproar Records.
Tucker is now a full-time artist and a worship pastor at a church in China Spring. She’s gearing up for a tour this spring and has new music coming to follow up her recently-released album.
Meanwhile, Pisarcik is a singer-songwriter from Mineola who pursued music education and vocal performance at Baylor. She said her time at Baylor challenged her as a musician and pushed her to gain independence and life skills.
Pisarcik, whose stage name is JP, first started taking piano lessons as a child but got kicked out because she kept playing by ear. After much persuasion, she began retaking music lessons, and her love for the art form began to blossom.
“After my time at Baylor was done, I started teaching music, and I decided that I didn’t want to do that,” Pisarcik said. “So I started writing, and I started networking with other songwriters and writers in Texas.”
Once Pisarcik honed her love of songwriting and performing, she began crafting a circle of other artists to collaborate with and found a love for the music scene in town.
“I also networked with people here and just found that even though Waco, Texas, isn’t Nashville, Tenn., there are still people here in this community that are very talented and are wonderful musicians,” Pisarcik said.
Pisarcik said the art community in Waco has seen a recent revamping, with credits due to “Fixer Upper.”
“When I came to Waco, you didn’t even go downtown. It was sketchy, and it was like a ghost town,” Pisarcik said. “Now, since [Fixer Upper] moved in and kind of made it a little upscale of an area, it’s kind of pushed new industry and opportunities for people who wanted that opportunity to have the traffic from the visitors.”
Pisarcik now regularly performs at all types of venues around Waco, ranging from wineries to Baylor events. She also continuously writes and creates music with other artists.
