Babe of the Month - US Country Songstress Kaitlyn Baker

Gorgeous singer/songwriter Kaitlyn Baker was born on 23rd November, 1994 and raised in the small coal mining town of Pound in Wise County, southwest Virginia, USA with a population of just over 1,000 people.

Blue-eyed beauty Kaitlyn still lives in Pound with her parents and younger sister. She is in fact a coal-miner’s daughter. Today her father, Lyndon Baker, heads his own logging firm, but for five years he mined coal. Kaitlyn grew up with musical influences all around - her grandfather played banjo, her grandmother sang Loretta Lynn songs, and Kaitlyn's mother Tammy says that she used to sing before she could talk.

"My whole family has either been in the mines or associated with the mines" says Kaitlyn.
Her music is all about home and the coal-packed mountains where she was raised.

When it comes to her influences, Kaitlyn says that two stand tall above the rest: "My favorite artist has always been Elvis Presley. I grew up listening to a lot of older rock music, bluegrass, and country. I also listened to a lot of Martina McBride. She’s such a classy artist, and her voice is so powerful. I’ve always looked up to her."

Kaitlyn began singing in church at the age of seven and had finished three independent albums by the time she was 14. Then, at 14, still on her own, she delivered a country record called 'Sure Feels Like Home,' featuring songs written by various Nashville songwriters. By age 15, Kaitlyn was making regular trips to Nashville to write, record and perform her songs. "I was always in the studio" she says:
"If I wasn’t doing shows, I was in the studio."


In January 2014, 19-year-old Baker signed a contract with Nashville’s Silvercreek Records and she plans to release her first album through Sony/RED later this year.

Steve Pope, a veteran of Nashville’s music scene and now the vice president of Silvercreek’s Nashville operations said of Kaitlyn: "The Lord has blessed her with a great voice. The passion in her delivery makes her songs believable and she has a big heart."

The singer describes her songs as "mountain-y with a flash of bluegrass, a healthy dose of fiddle 
and a driving rhythm."
"We want them to sound rootsy," she says. I want people, when they listen to it, to be like, "Oh, I went to Virginia and back today."

All along, Baker has won applause - for the shows, the CDs and for a recent song 'Coal Train.' Kaitlyn says: "It’s such a good feeling to have so many people message you, call you, tell you how proud they are of you!"

'Coal Train' is an upbeat song Kaitlyn co-wrote with her manager Scott Arnold. With its searing guitar riffs and spine-tingling fiddle playing, Kaitlyn sings the story of a young man who leaves home in search of a better life, only to return to his roots years later.
The music video (below) for the catchy 'Coal Train,' is set near one of Pound’s historic markers and sings of the coal trains that have rumbled in and out of Wise County since the late 1800's - a tribute to her hometown.

The very talented and beautiful Kaitlyn Baker with her song and video titled 'Coal Train'

Kaitlyn has performed at venues throughout Virginia, Kentucky and Nashville, and has co-written songs with several established Nashville songwriters, including Silvercreek Records’ resident songwriter Janet Miller.

She has also opened shows for country singers Sammy Kershaw , Doug Stone, Billy Currington, Rhonda Vincent and Brett Eldredge, as well as for the country band Sawyer Brown.

You can download Kaitlyn's outstanding debut single 'Burn' on iTunes - a real life story about burning down memories at the end of a relationship, which she co-wrote with Scott Arnold.

Good luck to the new Princess of US country music, a small town girl full of big dreams! Xxx

You can follow Kaitlyn on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram or visit her website

Part Two of The World's Wackiest Sports - Ferret Legging

What do coal miners do for fun in Yorkshire, England? They partake in a sport that involves these three things: trousers, a ferret, and the ability to endure a fully fanged ferret shoved inside one's trousers.

The sport is surprisingly simple:

Contestants tie their trousers at the ankles, then drop two ferrets inside and fasten their belts to prevent the animals from escaping. The man that lasts the longest wins.

Lest they have sneaky contestants, judges make sure that the ferrets aren't sedated and the contestants aren't drunk. The ferrets must have a mouth's full of teeth - unfiled or otherwise blunted. Their nails mustn't have been clipped. Oh, and in case anyone asks: no underwear, please. The trousers must be loose so the ferret can move from ankle to ankle.

The sport involves little innate talent, except for the ability of ignoring a nasty bite to one's ....... well, you get the picture!

Indeed, before entering a competition, males "whose families are not yet complete" are required to have written permissions from their partners.

The ferrets are occasionally put inside the contestants' shirts in addition to their trousers. An attempt to introduce a female version of the sport—ferret busting, in which female contestants introduced ferrets down their blouses—proved unsuccessful.

So how long do you think people last with ferrets rummaging around in their trousers? A couple of seconds? A few minutes? Half an hour?

On 5 July 1981, retired miner Reg Mellor, from Barnsley, set a new world record time of five hours and twenty-six minutes at the 'Annual Pennine Show' at Holmfirth, Yorkshire. He had practised the sport since his youth, but had received no recognition until he set the new world record.

Mellor, who had hunted with ferrets in the dales outside of Barnsley for many years, had grown accustomed to keeping them in his trousers to keep them warm and dry when out working in the rain. Mellor's "trick" was to ensure that the ferrets were well-fed before they were inserted into his trousers.

Frank Bartlett, a retired headmaster, and Christine Farnsworth, broke Mellor's record in 2010. The pair managed five hours and thirty minutes, raising £1,000 for the Whittington Community First Responders.

Ferret legging has existed for centuries. Following a brief resurgence in popularity during the 1970's, ferret legging has been described as a "dying sport", that according to a 2005 report published in the 'English Northern Echo' newspaper, is being replaced by ferret racing, in which the animals race through a plastic pipe.

Although the sport is now uncommon, you don't have to trek to the coal country of Yorkshire, England to find the sport of ferret legging - a national 'ferret legging' competition has been held at the Richmond Highland Games and Celtic Festival in Richmond, Virginia, USA, since 2003,

In 2007, the 'Manitoba Ferret Association' held a ferret legging competition in St. Vital Park, Winnipeg, Canada to raise money in support of the organization's shelter for homeless ferrets.

According to Kelly Yager of the 'Manitoba Ferret Association,' the animals actually like small, confined spaces.

Marlene Blackburn, who works with the 'Ferret Rescue League' to ensure that no ferrets are harmed in the sport, claims that during the years the competitions have been held in Richmond no contestant has ever been bitten, although some may get a few scratches.

Jay Lugar, spokesman for the Richmond Highland Games & Celtic Festival, said ferrets are "generally very harmless, fun-loving creatures."

Louis Mahoney of the 'Richmond Times-Dispatch' newspaper said it is "sure to bring a laugh."

The magazine 'Cracked' listed it as the fifth "most baffling" sport in the world.

Rick Reilly, American sportswriter for ESPN, a worldwide leader in sports coverage, tried ferret legging as part of his quest to find "the world's dumbest sport" for a book he published on the 4th May 2010 called "Sports from Hell."