Lone Star Talent: Andrew Plank

After a long day of fly-fishing just outside of Breckenridge, Colo., last summer, the Plank family, who were visiting the area from Flower Mound, were ready to head back to their vacation home. But Andrew Plank, then 15, wasn’t ready to call it a day. He asked his parents to stop in town because he had plans. The young singer-songwriter had a gig to play at a Breckenridge bar.

“I thought, are you kidding me?” Janel Plank, Andrew’s mother said. “But he booked it, so we showed up in our fishing gear, and Andrew played his gig.”

Andrew may have been new to the Breckenridge scene, but he’s become a regular act around Flower Mound. He’s played at top venues like Marty B’s in Bartonville, Lava Cantina in The Colony, Prairie House in Lewisville, and plenty of open mic nights at the Fort Worth Stockyards. With a gig line-up like this, it’d be easy to think Andrew has been playing forever. But the now 16-year-old began playing acoustic guitar and singing only two years ago—and writing his own songs just a year and a half ago. 

While he’s already played at some impressive local venues, Andrew has his sights set higher, like playing at Billy Bob’s in Dallas and someday in Nashville. “I want to play at the Grand Ole Opry,” Andrew said. “I want to make a living off music and hit it big.”

He’s doing everything he can to make it happen, and he’s doing it on his own. In an era of helicopter parents and mom-agers, Andrew networks on his own with venue booking agents. 

“I definitely used to get nervous,” Andrew said of speaking with venue managers. “I would just walk into a place and say, ‘Hey, here’s my stuff. Go check it out. I’d love to play here.’ ” With enough repetition—and success at scheduling performances—his nerves have calmed.

The Planks credit Andrew’s burgeoning music career to his own initiative and God for giving their son innate musical talent and a distinctive, raspy baritone voice. This tone, remarkably mature for his age, conveys a sense of world-weariness that belies Andrew’s young age. 

Janel said Andrew’s always been perceptive. “Even when he was younger, he could read a room,” she said. When he was baptized by his Young Life leader a year and a half ago, he called Andrew “an old soul.”

Andrew’s love for singing and songwriting started when he and his grandfather, the late Roger Day of Double Oak, went pawn shopping and bought a guitar. Andrew didn’t immediately take to it. When an ankle injury and concussion sidelined him from baseball, Andrew turned his attention to the guitar. He found instructional YouTube videos and began teaching himself how to play songs from his favorite artists, like Tanner Usrey, Tyler Halverson, Braxton Keith, and Stoney Larue.

Now he can learn songs in a day. “You’d think he’d been playing them for a year, but he just learned it the night before,” David said.

This uncanny ability to hear a song and learn to play it quickly is a trait he shares with Roger, Janel’s father, who passed away from COVID-19 in August 2021. Andrew and his grandfather, whom he calls Papa, had a close bond, and Andrew took his death hard. Focusing on music has been therapeutic for Andrew.

“When my father died, it was a hard, heavy, quick grief. Andrew was grieving so much because he was literally one of Andrew’s best friends,” Janel said. “That’s why the picking up the guitar and grieving through playing was so impactful.” 

Andrew has written two songs about his grandfather and finds that creating his own music helps him process emotions. “It can be hard to get your feelings out, but with songwriting, I feel like it becomes easier for me, and I can just put my feelings out there in the song,” Andrew said.

As Andrew wraps up his sophomore year at Marcus High School, he plans to continue playing as often as he can. He’s saving the money he earns from gigs to record in a recording studio so he can share his music with others. 

“I just want to put out some cool, unique music that no one else has. A lot of people make their own music, and if you write a song, it’s different from any other song that someone’s ever written,” Andrew said. “I just want to do my thing and have unique music out there that entertains people.”

Want to hear Andrew live? He posts his music and his schedule on Instagram (instagram.com/andrew.plank.music/) and Facebook (facebook.com/andrew.plank.music).