At 19, aspiring country music star Crystal Sands of Arbutus already has a Texas-based sponsor, Nashville producers and an album she hopes a recording company will buy.

Whether or not she wins fame and fortune as a singer/songwriter, however, this Western School of Technology and Environmental Science graduate also has a plan B. Like one of her favorite musicians, the late Tammy Wynette, Sands has earned a cosmetology license and now has a gig cutting hair at a salon in Linthicum.

"I got that because Tammy Wynette had (a license)," she said. "The whole time she was doing country music, she would cut hair."

A performer at home since the age of 3, Sands joined the karaoke club at Western and has sung on stage at carnivals, service club events and other venues across Maryland whenever she could.  Last year, she took a big step toward a professional music career by joining myspace.com.

Her Web page, www.myspace.com/crystalopry, attracted the attention of  countrystarsonline.com journalist Cheryl Hill, and a financial sponsor, Corene Schwab of the Texas-based 3XC Music Publishing Co.

"We have an agreement," Sands said of her relationship with Schwab. "When I make it big, I'll pay her back for everything."

Everything so far includes an as-yet-untitled album Sands recorded this summer in Nashville, which musicians Carl Ray and Wood Newton produced and are trying to sell to a record company.

"She is so full of talent," said Schwab, who introduced her to Newton on Sands' earlier trip to Texas. "If she doesn't succeed in the music business, there is something wrong with the music business."

Newton and Ray wrote all the songs on the album, including a duet Sands performed with Ron Williams, a stepson of Country Music Hall of Famer Merle Haggard. She also has a new Web page under construction, www.CrystalSandsCountry.com.

Sands grew accustomed to singing into a microphone at home at an early age. "Every weekend, we would have karaoke night," she said, recalling that her parents, Larry and Drema Walker, encouraged the practice. "I was always singing," said the teen, whose family moved to Arbutus about 11 years ago.

Often, those songs would be country songs as her parents' favorites, traditional country artists such as Conway Twitty, Alan Jackson and Tracy Lawrence, became her favorites.

At age 13, Sands started writing poetry, a practice that led eventually to song writing. She bought a guitar last year and learned to add some melody to the words.

Sands wore a cowboy hat in her high school graduation photograph and received her first trip to Nashville as a graduation gift from her parents. They had insisted she finish high school before launching a career.

"She is going to make it -- I don't doubt it," Drema Walker said, noting Sands' dedication and effort.

If Sands' record sells and she does win fame and fortune, her plan A includes a big house somewhere in the southern United States, with a C-shaped lake and an indoor swimming pool surrounded by fish tanks.

She also wants to help the less fortunate. "I always felt that's what life is about: helping other people," she said.

An immediate goal, however, is to use the Maryland driver's license she acquired three years ago.

"The first thing I'm getting is a big, black pickup truck," she said. "I've never had a vehicle."