Shoals native goes from teacher to rocker

There is a never-ending stream of aspiring musicians who travel to Nashville, Music City U.S.A., to make it big in the music business.

Natalie Quinn went to Nashville to be a teacher and ended up in a rock band.

The band she joined, Eclipse, is a Pink Floyd tribute band.

"I've been here about 15 months," the former Killen resident said in a telephone interview from Nashville.

Quinn grew up in Killen and graduated from Brooks High School and the University of North Alabama with a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in English.

She spent two years as a theater and English teacher at Waterloo High School and a year teaching theater at Sparkman High School in Harvest.

While she loved the Shoals, Quinn said her husband, Russell, found it difficult find a job.

The couple moved to Nashville where Russell Quinn found a job as a talent acquisition coordinator for Dell Computers, while his wife landed a job teaching senior English at Smyrna High School in Rutherford County.

"I really had a rough first year teaching in Tennessee," Quinn said. "The laws are different, and the teaching philosophy is so different."

While her first love is teaching, Quinn also is a musician who plays piano, organ and electronic keyboards.

"I was looking for a creative outlet," Quinn said. "I was on Craigslist, and I noticed a Pink Floyd tribute band that needed a keyboard player. Pink Floyd is my favorite band, and I'm a keyboard player,"

Quinn said she rehearsed with the band for about two weeks, learned the material and became a member of the band.

She rehearsed with the band for about four months before playing her first live show with Eclipse at the Mercy Lounge in Nashville last weekend.

"It went really well," she said. "There were well over 100 people. It was my first time to be on stage ever playing music."

Quinn said when she was a teenager, she played piano in the lobby of the Ramada Inn in Sheffield, now the Webster Hotel and Suites, and at the restaurant that once occupied the 360 Grille in Florence.

Last weekend's show was a little different.

The Eclipse show at the Mercy Lounge was the first time people actually came to see a band she was playing in.

"Oh my gosh, I was terrified," Quinn said. "I knew all my stuff. Fortunately, I didn't screw anything up."

The band went through 33 Pink Floyd classics including the entire "Animals" and "Wish You Were Here" albums and part of "Dark Side of the Moon."

The show lasted four hours.

The band's next gig is Oct. 24 in Dayton, Ohio.

While Quinn said she loves playing music, what she really wants to do is teach.

Even though she is in her 20s, Quinn admits that playing a gig and packing up piano equipment at 3:30 a.m. "is just not for me."

Quinn said she will continue to play with the band until it gets to the point where they're playing shows every weekend.

"If it's just a hobby for everybody, a couple shows a month, It's really fun." he said. "If it's a second job, it's not so much fun."

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@TimesDaily.com.