Country singer-songwriter Jo Dee Messina, whose early influences included Loretta Lynn and Reba McEntire, started playing clubs at age 16. ∙ Her upbeat debut single, 1996’s “Heads Carolina, Tails California,” was coproduced by Tim McGraw and peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. ∙ The ACM Awards named Messina 1998’s Top New Female Vocalist, and she also won the Country Music Association’s 1999 Horizon Award, which recognizes promising new artists. ∙ In 1998, she became the first female country artist to have three consecutive songs from the same album spend multiple weeks at No. 1. ∙ She’s been nominated for two Grammy Awards, including Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for her Tim McGraw-featuring No. 1 hit, the delicate ballad “Bring On the Rain.” ∙ Messina appeared on The Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2012 and collaborated on music with cast member Kandi Burruss, who cowrote TLC’s “No Scrubs.”