Plenty of musicians dream of fame, but what about a sustainable career? That’s what Paula C Snyder has built for herself, from musical beginnings in Motown-era Detroit to entertaining adults, seniors, and children across North Carolina.
Her story isn’t one of overnight success or viral moments but rather of recognizing opportunities, such as performing at Catholic weddings and delivering singing telegrams with customized lyrics. She has hitchhiked across the country with her guitar in a laundry bag, navigated the transition from booking hotel circuits and, ultimately, landed in North Carolina. At every step, Snyder has consistently turned her passion for music into a source of income through sheer resourcefulness and determination.
When I sat down with Paula, I was curious about how she has maintained her decades-long singing career. In a world where artists bet on going viral, her advice was simple: learn how to be in business. It was powerful to hear that from someone who has not only survived but thrived in an industry known for crushing dreams, one gig at a time.
Who were your biggest musical influences growing up?
Paula: My dad was the musician in the house; he played violin and got us singing along. We listened to all kinds of music — classical, folk songs of the day, Broadway — and had sing-alongs with the extended family after every big gathering. That influence of music around me got me hooked without thinking, “Oh, I want to be a musician.”
How did that environment influence your music taste?
Paula: As I started to develop my voice, I practiced by singing with Barbra Streisand and the musical Funny Girl, Julie Andrews and the musical Camelot, to name a few. And then, my sister turned me on to Joni Mitchell, and that was a different thing.
I listened to people like Laura Nyro. I really loved the bluesy, jazzy rock that she released. People were doing her songs during the late 60s and 70s, but listening to her sing them was very emotional. That got me more into the emotional flair of singing, presenting the story, not just the song.
I enjoyed all kinds of music, but was definitely influenced by Broadway artists and female singers of the day. I enjoyed listening to Dionne Warwick, The Association, Judy Collins, Janice Ian, and others. I would say more melodic “classic” sounds over “trendy sounds” and rock.
How have you made a career for yourself as a singer?
Paula: When people asked me what I wanted to do, I always said, “I want to be a singer.” I didn’t know what that meant to me. I didn’t translate that into becoming a famous singer. I knew I liked to sing. It made me feel good.
I’ve always been good at seeing opportunities and falling in, but I was not that strategic about it. It started when I was in college, as an OT student, and one of my classmates asked me to sing at his wedding. And I said sure.
They allowed popular music at this Catholic church ceremony, so I sang “Annie’s Song” by John Denver, “Wedding Song (There Is Love)” by Noel Paul Stookey, things like that. I went in with my guitar and I played for this wedding, not expecting to get paid. And the priest asked me afterwards if I’d like to come back and do some more weddings. I was still in college at the time, but when I’d come home to Detroit, he’d have something almost every weekend. And he paid me!
In 1971, I was upset with my boyfriend, packing my guitar and everything I owned in a laundry bag, and took off hitchhiking across the country. At first, I went to Cleveland, where I had an old youth group friend in Shaker Heights. The next morning, I made a sign “Going West” and got a ride from a guy about my age.
He dropped me off at I-80, and there were a lot of people on the road, so we’re sharing fruit and rides. If someone picked up one person, they’d pick up three. And I made it all the way to California by sleeping in unusual places and keeping my head up.
That sounds easier said than done!
Paula: I made it home alive, didn’t I? [laughs]
That trip was also when I wrote my first song. I was stuck in Winnemucca, Nevada, on the side of a road at dusk, and no cars driving through. I’m trying to decide if I’m going to sleep with the critters in the desert or jump into the next car. On that trip, I’d met someone from the Minneapolis area. He said if I was traveling that way to stop in — and I did. So I ended up there, wrote this song, and then got bored and went back to school.
I wanted to perform, so I walked around campus and I asked people to pay me and they did. I realized I had the opportunity to make money at singing, rather than being famous. So when I graduated from college, I started asking places like bars, hotels, and NCOs [Non-Commissioned Officers’ clubs in the Naval bases around San Diego]. People hired me, and then rehired me.
Eventually, a scout found me in Riverside, California, and he asked me to go on the road. But that was just when I met my first husband, and I didn’t want to leave without him. He was a good musician, so we worked up an act as a duo and got booked on a hotel circuit around the country. We did that with a manager, and then I started booking our shows, writing letters, and making long-distance calls.
We decided to settle in Boise, Idaho; my husband wanted the mountains and the streams, and I wanted a place big enough or growing enough to have an entertainment agency. At the time, Idaho was a right-to-work state, but there was a musicians’ union. I eventually was on the board of the union, and some of the merchant groups that did wedding parties and stuff.
I closed my business and moved back to Michigan, but the musicians I had booked before I closed still wrote to me and sent me commission checks.
That really says something. How did you end up in North Carolina?
Paula: My daughter and I moved here in 1992 after my father died. I tried to get up with the local musicians’ union agents, but people were not responding to me the same way here as they did out West or in Detroit.
A friend asked, “Well, have you tried seniors and healthcare?” I tried it out and it took a while to get the hang of what they were looking for, but I’ve learned how to entertain and customize for that crowd. When someone asked, “Can you entertain kids?” I fell into that. My dad kept us engaged as kids. I felt good when he was around, and knew that kids like to feel seen and be heard.
With that in mind, I went back to basics, and then I took a little bit of training with Music Together out of Princeton, New Jersey. It was about parents and kids, even babies, sitting in a circle with everybody else, singing and all doing these things together. They had a specific program, where I learned more about keeping kids engaged in groups as Grandma Paula.
It’s impressive how many ways you’ve managed to monetize this skill and passion.
Paula: I find different niches. When people asked me to do singing telegrams, I said yes and started to customize those. I’ll talk to people and find out what they’re trying to convey, then I either pick the right songs, customize lyrics, or totally re-write them. I’ve done medleys where I take bits and pieces and make them really clever. I don’t get paid as much as I would like to be that creative, but I do them because I love to do them. I love that creativity.
I only take jobs I can plan to follow through. Obviously, if there were an emergency, what can you do? I was once hired to do a singing telegram in High Point but someone rear-ended me and totaled my car. It was time-sensitive, had to happen that day, and I was prepared to just give their money back. But my husband helped get my car to the shop and drove me to High Point. I did the gig and got a five-star review.
That’s a ringing endorsement!
Paula: I’m always focused on the experience. I love going into someone’s house to play the guitar and sing in the background for a couple celebrating their anniversary. I love that kind of stuff. It’s all about opening that opportunity and putting yourself out there in a different way.
Now I find myself mentoring people all the time. Everyone’s writing songs, putting their content out independently. It’s a competition and a crapshoot. Back in the day, to get a record deal was hard enough. But in this environment, where a select few might go viral, what happens if you don’t?
I make a living. I can’t bet on going viral to make a living. It doesn’t mean you won’t. It doesn’t mean that you can’t dream of that. It doesn’t mean that you can’t position yourself to do it. But if you want to be in the business, figure out how to be in business.
Most of this interview has been loaded with good advice. Is there anything else that you would tell someone who wants to make a lifelong career in music?
Paula: If I’m going to put something out there, I’d like it to be something that people are going to want to listen to, right? Or something that people are going to want to read, in your case. You have to be commercial enough to be acceptable. It doesn’t mean you have to be everybody else. You still have to be yourself and find your niche or your direction.
Also, if you get stuck somewhere, what do you do? You can lie down crying, call your parents, and ask for a plane ticket home, or you can do something else. I made and sold beads out of bread in San Francisco. [laughs] There’s always something we can do. Allow yourself to be open to those opportunities and to think beyond what you’re expecting.
As the world changes, it’s hard to know what to expect anymore. In 1979, it would’ve cost me $10,000 to create a computer database for my agency. Now we can keep track of things on our phones. You have to be persistent (like trying to win levels in Candy Crush). It might be overwhelming at times, but believe in yourself and persist to achieve what you want.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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