Following her recent signing with Warner Records in Nashville, Josie Dunne ’15 has continued the upward trend of her career, snagging the opening act of Wynonna Judd’s “Stories and Song” tour, performing in Chicago, Wabash, Ind., Youngstown, Ohio, and Merriville, Ind., over the past month.

Dunne’s 25-minute sets included her signature genre-mixing tunes, performing for almost a thousand people with drummer Justin Lenoch and cousin, guitarist Ryan Silver.

“The tour was unbelievable,” Dunne said. “I felt for the first time like a recording artist. People were asking me for pictures and autographs and follow-backs on Twitter. It was unreal.” Dunne’s signing company, Warner Records, offered her this opening act, allowing her to collaborate with Judd’s songwriters. Each night Dunne and her band performed on five hours of sleep or less, ending in Merrillville to the biggest crowd of any of the shows, with a full turnout of her family and friends.

“Josie’s growth over the four shows was absolutely amazing,” Jimmy Dunne, Josie’s singer/songwriter/businessman and LT hall-of-fame member uncle, said. “Her talent and showmanship is truly astounding for a young artist.”

Josie credits her success to this support from her family and the emotion of the tour in general.

“[During the Merrillville show] we played better than we ever have before,” Josie said. “We all came off stage after our set and hugged each other and almost started crying. We knew how amazing of an opportunity we’d been given and we were so grateful to be living our dreams. It kind of hit us at that moment.”

Lenoch also surprised Josie with her own personalized drum set at the finale of the tour that she flaunted in her recent LT All-School Assembly set, making her feel “like the real deal…super profesh.”

Jimmy sees the Judd tour as a jumping off point and a source of real learning from such an experienced professional.

“It was very generous of Wynonna to give Josie this opportunity—and Josie learned a great deal from watching such a legend at work.”

But for now, Josie looks forward to taking her future one step at a time.

“I’m just going to continue vibing with my new band, trying to catch bigger gigs and traveling to Nashville to write my tail off. Keep in the groove of this.”