Jake Lauckern wants to tell stories when he sings.

For this reason Lauckern, 16, picked Keith Urban's “Tonight I Want to Cry” to perform at the Colgate Country Showdown, where he finished in first place on May 25. Another Auburn native, Darcy Demmin, finished in third place.

“The song shows a lot of range, and I like the story behind it,” Lauckern said. “Country music always has a story to tell; that makes it more meaningful.”

With his win, Lauckern was pushed along to the New York state finals of the Showdown, which for 26 years has corralled the most promising young country singers in Nashville for its national finals. Having featured stars like Miley Cyrus and LeAnn Rimes, the contest promises to brighten the 2008 winner's musical future - and with a $100,000 prize, their financial future as well.

Lauckern's local Showdown win at Sullivan County Community College is a big achievement in a budding, but auspicious music career. Though he only made the decision to pursue music as a profession when he was 13, Lauckern has loved the art since his days of listening to Richard Strauss compositions as a young child.

“Jake is one of those people who, when you ask him how he got interested, he'll say he never wasn't interested in it,” said Anne Adessa, Lauckern's voice instructor.

With a gentle tenor voice that spans 2.5 octaves, Lauckern sings like he can transition from talking to belting notes with natural ease.

“When Jake sings, it sounds exactly like Jake,” Adessa said.

Lauckern has honed his talent with both Adessa and Bob Piorun, who also teaches the young singer guitar and accompanies Lauckern on stage at concerts in the central New York area.

Performing live was at first a daunting prospect for Lauckern, but he has since passed the point of stage fright and now savors every chance to entertain an audience. At the Showdown, not even the presence of fellow performers with their own material and musical accompaniment could intimidate Lauckern, who sang “Cry” to a single karaoke track.

“He's not someone who likes to be placed in the spotlight,” said Ed Lauckern, Jake's father. “But it comes naturally to him.”

In the basement of his grandmother Jeanne Semple's home, Lauckern uses a keyboard to compose his own music that will one day take the place of the karaoke tracks he sometimes sings to. His fervor for country manifests in the storytelling quality of his own songs, but there Lauckern hopes to grow beyond the conventions of his favorite genre.

“There's more to stories than break-ups,” he said. “But every song should have a story.”

One untitled song finds Lauckern weighing the emotions he felt when he found his girlfriend hanging out with a boy he resented. The creative experience provided him with a rewarding catharsis, he said.

As the next Showdown looms, Lauckern, his parents and Adessa are preparing to enter him in another talent contest that would place him squarely in the public eye: “American Idol.” Adessa hopes her pupil can audition before vaulted judge Simon Cowell exits after the ninth or 10th season.

“He's every bit as good as any 17-year-old I've seen on ‘American Idol,'” Adessa said.

While Lauckern prepares for the possibility of facing down the prickly Cowell, he is planning to take his musical career far beyond that or any other contest. Musical schools where he can study his craft are weighing heavily on his mind as he completes his sophomore year of high school.

Despite the talent he commands and the doors it knocks down, Lauckern remains humble about his chances of finding fame in the music business.

“He was shocked when he won (the Showdown),” Semple said. “Once they called his name, one of the other contestants had to tell him to go up.”

And should he succeed, Lauckern will have another story to sing.