Right now, all’s fair in the world for 18-year-old country singer Frankie Justin and his band, Roughstock.
A record deal with SMG Nashville. A cross-country tour. A new EP, “Summer Lover,” produced by famed producer Larry Rogers. Upcoming shows on the Connecticut fair circuit, including scheduled appearances at the Chester Fair (on Aug. 26 with “The Voice” semi-finalist Braiden Sunshine), and the Woodstock, Hebron and Four Town fairs.
To some extent, the Colchester native — born Frankie Justin Lamprey — was born to be an itinerant troubadour. Growing up, Justin’s family sold horse supplies to retail stores across the country, homeschooling Justin and his younger sister wherever they landed.
“It was so much fun,” Justin says. “I grew up meeting so many people in so many different areas, from Connecticut to Texas to California, all across the U.S. I’ve been there.”
Much of that time was spent in Nashville, where Justin picked up the music bug. He bought his first guitar from Johnny Cash’s nephew and learned a few chords.
But roughly half of Justin’s childhood was spent in Connecticut. Enter the Music Bureau, a Salem music store owned and operated by musician Matt Bureau, who taught there from 2001 on before buying it in 2005.
At 11, Justin walked in and asked for lessons. Bureau suggested they write a song together; it was called “Grandpa’s Story.” Lessons went on for about a month, then the Lampreys were gone.
“I had no idea where this kid lived,” Bureau says. “He said, ‘We’ll be back.’ I said, ‘When?'”
When you meet Justin, you’re hit by his warmth and exuberance. It’s hard not be swayed by it.
“Growing up, my whole life, I’ve just been a positive, happy person,” he says. “I always loved talking to people. I’m a people person. I love just hanging out and talking.”
The second thing you notice: Justin speaks with a gentle country twang. Wait, this kid is from Connecticut?
Justin found his voice as a singer and began performing in public. One year, at the Haddam Neck Fair, he sang a George Strait song. A woman approached and explained that she suffered from depression.
“She said, ‘You made me so happy,'” Justin’s mother, Christine, says. “That really struck a chord with him: ‘I can make people happy.’ It grew from there.”
At 12, Justin entered a singing contest at the Hebron Fair and won first place. With Bureau, Justin formed Roughstock; they’re still performing together.
Early on, Justin received some important advice from an industry contact.
“He said, ‘Frankie, everything you do should be a stepping stone.'” Christine says. “Every time we made a move, we thought about it: ‘OK, now we’re here. How do we get to the next level?’ That’s how he didn’t get in a rut.”
Homeschooling insulated Justin from social pressures, but he always had local friends. “I was never sheltered inside my house,” he says. “I was always with friends, working on music.”
Good fortune followed Justin on his travels. A few years ago, Bureau accompanied Justin on a trip to Nashville and observed some uncommon occurrences.
“I can tell you a few stories,” Bureau says. “He had a better chance of winning the lottery than some of the things I saw happen every day. I feel like I opened [The Music Bureau] so that he could walk in and we could do this. … It’s bigger than us.”
Justin’s trajectory — competitions and fairs at 12, playing venues with Roughstock at 13 and 14 — continued to ascend. At 16, he opened for Nashville singer Easton Corbin; they’ve remained friends. Last year, Justin and Roughstock opened for country band Parmalee at the Hebron Fair.
“Everything is working toward goals. It’s on the way up.”
What are those goals? Among them, hard work, for its own sake. It’s in his family; in business, Justin’s dad doesn’t cut corners. Justin’s 15-year-old sister works equally hard to excel at theater. “It comes from his upbringing,” Bureau says, “from his parents and grandparents.”
Fortunately, Justin escaped being pigeonholed as a child star.
“I sang songs that were mature, and I was always mature,” Justin says. “I never sang that bubblegum stuff. I never wanted to be that, so I never tried to go after that. You got what you saw. I never wanted to be that cute act, like a little kid. I was always working on my career.”
Justin also progressed as a songwriter. “I was showing him how to write, and then he started writing his own songs that were equally as good as anything I’d ever written,” Bureau says. “Now, they’re top-notch. He works at his craft. Same with his guitar playing. I never had a student that worked as hard as him.”
Roughstock has spent much of the past five years touring in Connecticut and in other states. They’ve played the Hebron, Woodstock and other local fairs. Justin travels to Nashville often; at 15, he scored a publishing deal with producer Brien Fisher, who passed away in 2016.
This winter, Justin signed a record deal with SMG Nashville.
“It’s what I’ve been working for for seven years,” he says. “Now we have a lot of work to do, but this is the opportunity. I’m so excited about it.”
The next step, Justin says, is getting radio airplay. He and Roughstock are putting together a cross-country tour, and his first single, “Summer Lover,” was released to radio stations on Aug. 7. “It’s already starting to make some noise,” Justin says.
The best part? Justin feels SMG Nashville signed him for him, not to turn him into someone else.
“They really believe in me and the songs I’m writing and what I’m doing. They’re in it for me. But if there’s something I’m doing wrong, I want them to tell me. I don’t want to waste time. I’m always open to input from a trusted source.”
FRANKIE JUSTIN AND ROUGHSTOCK perform at the Chester Fair in Chester on Aug. 26 at 7:45 p.m. with Braiden Sunshine. chesterfair.org He also performs at the Woodstock Fair on Sept. 2, the Hebron Fair on Sept. 8 and the Four Town Fair in Somers on Sept. 17. More fair info at ctnow.com/ctfairs
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the date of Frankie Justin’s concert.
