Sitting in a studio with headphones on, a microphone inches from his mouth, guitar in hand and his cowboy hat on, Andalusia resident Ethan King pours his heart out singing one of his own songs, “Someone Like You.”

This was King’s first studio-recorded song that he wrote, and it was published on YouTube recently. Additionally, he’ll have another original broadcast on the social video site soon.

King’s grandparents, Jack and Sue Odom, are the reasons why he started singing and writing songs at around 13 years old.

“They used to write and sing,” King said. “So, they taught me how to play the guitar, and I started singing.”

Like many amateur artists who like to sing, King put videos up of him on YouTube.

King began to travel to Nashville, Tenn., the country music capital of the world, and started to record songs. About five or six weeks ago, his dad, Darryl, said. King performed two songs that he wrote, and got some recognition from the lead singer of Hootie and Blowfish, Darius Rucker. Like Rucker, King sings country music.

One of them was “Someone Like You.”

“I listened to another song, and it kind of just popped into my head,” King said about writing “Someone Like You.” “My friend (AJ Barnes) was writing another song, but he couldn’t write it. He gave me another song with the title, ‘Someone Like You.’”

“Someone Like You” is a song about meeting a girl, King said.

“Whenever you meet her, you’re just struck by her,” he said. “So, you’ve got to have her.”

King stays in Andalusia when he’s not in Nashville.

He said he hopes to one day make it big, but if he doesn’t, it’s OK, too, because he can always sing and play music around his friends and family, where he likes to get the most recognition from.

“I like getting recognition from people who I know,” the country singer said. “I’d rather get recognition from people who I know in Andalusia than other people in other places.”

To view King perform “Someone Like You,” visit his YouTube page by searching for “Ethan 65 King.”

King is the son of Darryl King and Kathy McVay of Andalusia.