Ravenna High School junior Kaleb Angle has spent the last several years in the shadows, waiting to see if he truly has what it takes to make it on the big stage. After finishing as the runner-up in Ravenna’s inaugural Voice of Ravenna singing competition on Aug. 9, Angle has found a sense of belongingness with music.
“I have always seen it as a way to express myself and a way to just like resonate with other people about what I am going through,” Angle told The Weekly Villager on Aug. 15.
Although Angle is entering his junior year of high school, he has already discovered his musical identity as an aspiring country singer. According to him, he relates best to country music, as most of the songs he relates to resemble his lifestyle.
“I do love how some songs go over religion and I also like how it represents my lifestyle and all of the songs basically talk about what my daily life is,” Angle said.
Angle said that growing up in a musical household helped get him better acquainted with the musical world, as his parents sang at church and his father was also a member of an acapella group that sang old-fashioned church songs.
Angle added that there was very rarely a day in his household when someone was not singing or humming a song, whether it was his parents or himself.
After developing a love for music, Angle took the next step by picking up an old guitar and learning to play. He learned by watching YouTube videos. Not long after, he became inspired to start writing his own original songs, based on his personal life experiences. Angle said that he has already posted several of his original songs on his personal TikTok account.
Angle acknowledged that writing his own original content can be quite a difficult process but has relied on his own sense of rhythm to create the right lyrics and melody.
“It is hard to explain, you think about a phrase or something and man I could turn that into a song and start rhyming words and finding a rhythm and it all flows eventually,” he noted.
He added that he also shares his love of music with his friends, as whenever they get together, they are usually playing or listening to music.
After several years of waiting in the wings for his opportunity to demonstrate his musical talent, Angle got his chance to do so when he competed in The Voice of Ravenna in the first weekend of August.
He said that he could feel the nerves when he took the big stage but once the music flowed, he developed a sense of comfort.
“It was finally a chance for me to get up on stage and play in front of a bunch of people and not feel nervous about it because there are other people doing the same thing,” he said. “I was like ‘All right, let’s see what we can do.’”
What made taking second place so important for Angle was the validation that all his hard work learning how to the play the guitar and writing his own original content had finally paid off.
“Going in, I was nervous that I was going to be up on stage and be like this statue, but it worked out pretty well and it really gave me the reassurance that I needed,” he said. “Now that I know that I can do this.”
Now that Angle feels he has proven he has what it takes, his musical aspirations can really start to ascend as he plans to write even more original content and post it on his social media account.
In addition to writing more songs and having a desire to return to the Voice of Ravenna competition in 2026 if it returns for another season, Angle said that he is also going to be in search of performing opportunities in the near future.
“It is going to make me keep pushing harder,” Angle said. “I am going to start trying to write more songs and I am going to post a couple of songs probably. It will inspire me to learn a few more songs and get a bunch of stuff under my belt so I am just that more well-rounded as a performer.”
No matter where Angle’s musical journey takes him, he said that one thing that he will always treasure is that everything started in Ravenna.
“I would just love to make my hometown proud,” he noted. “That would be amazing.”
