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The 17-year-old singer, who is one-third of the Trenton family act The Wilkinsons, is currently playing "the corndog circuit," as she calls the group's tour of summer fairs.
However, it appears the wholesome-looking trio, which is rounded out by Amanda's 15-year-old brother Tyler and their father Steve, is about to get a major upgrade.
The Wilkinsons are the favoured new kids on the block heading into next Monday's Canadian Country Music Awards at Ottawa's Civic Centre (CBC-TV, 8 p.m.) where they share a leading six nominations, including for album and single of the year, alongside veteran acts Shania Twain, Terri Clark and Prairie Oyster. Five-time nominee Paul Brandt is hosting the ceremony.
"We were blown away," admits Amanda, down the line from a U.S. tour stop recently. "We were like, 'What?' because they told us we had six (nods) and I think we tied with Shania Twain or something. That is so weird! It really is 'cause we've been watching the awards forever since we were like really little. We would sit in front of the TV in our little flannel pajamas, eating popcorn. And to actually be there is a really cool thing."
Actually, The Wilkinsons were at the CCMAs last year in Calgary, where Twain -- a no-show this year due to a promotional duties in Europe -- was the big winner with six awards, but nobody knew who they were.
Their breakthrough single, 26 Cents, which went on to become a No.1 country song both in Canada and the U.S., had just been released from their debut album, Nothing But Love.
What a difference a year makes.
The Wilkinsons have now sold 500,000 copies of Nothing But Love worldwide, including about 38,000 in Canada, and were even vying for a Grammy Award earlier this year.
"It was so wild going back to Canada," says Amanda of a recent show in the nation's capital, where they played at the Civic Centre where the awards are being held.
"There was about six, seven thousand people there and they stood up and everybody was singing the words to 26 Cents with us -- the whole audience. And they stood up after the song, and it took everything in my being not to cry."
NO EXPECTATIONS
The trio are also up for two trophies -- group of the year and the Horizon award -- at the Country Music Association awards on Sept. 22 in their new home of Nashville, where they moved two years ago to pursue their musical dream.
"We're going to be attending that too," says Amanda, who adds they'll be performing The Yodelin' Blues at the Nashville awards. "So a lot of really exciting things are coming up."
As for the CCMAs, which will see The Wilkinsons open the show with their latest single, Nothing But Love (Standing In The Way), Amanda says she has no expectations.
"Everybody always says it's the nomination that counts. And it sounds cliched, but it really is. Because for us, we talked about it before. The nomination is that little pat on the back, where people are saying, 'Keep up the good work.' If we don't win a single award, just to have that recognition, that's all that really matters to us."
Next up for The Wilkinsons is taking some time off between October to mid-January, before a 28-date, cross-Canada tour begins with Brandt.
Still, during that period they will be recording their followup album in Nashville using the same producers from Nothing But Love.
"We have about 16 songs that we're just really excited about," says Amanda. "We're going to have to pare down and find which ones that we're really ecstatic about," says Amanda.
"And the lead singer from Lonestar wrote us a song called Jimmy's Got A Girlfriend, and we just flipped out over it. So if you get the new album -- it'll probably should be out around January, February -- look for that song. It's really infectious."
Kinda like 26 Cents?