Reporters Note: It’s a funny thing, but you never know who you’re going to meet in a Waffle House on a Friday night, or technically, a Saturday morning. But somewhere between midnight and 6 a.m., the possibilities are endless:

You could run into a truck driver, a traveling family, a quiet old couple in the corner, a gang of night owls from the local college, and even a songwriter, singer or actress. No really. I met a songwriter, singer and actress. All one person – Lauren Dragon, but I met her just the same. Here is her story.

Last Friday night while waiting on my Joe’s Chops and smothered and covered hash browns to come off the grill, a gentleman walked into the Hill Street Waffle House just behind me, wearing a sleek gray suit and holding a stack of CD’s. After grabbing a menu, he turns to me and says, “What’s good?” I knew immediately he wasn’t from around here, more so by the fact that he was asking what to order than the fact that he had no trace of a Southern accent.

After a few recommendations from the menu, the gentleman introduced himself to me as Gary Allen Shay of Clearwater Fla., then handed me a card. It said “The Red Queen of Soul” across the top, and there was photo of a young woman on the front.

“I’m a producer,” he said. “And this is Lauren Dragon. She’s awesome. She’s outside now.”

Sure enough, the woman from the card was standing outside alongside another young lady, speaking with some people who were about to come in.

“So who’s she’s like? Norah Jones?,” I asked.

“She’s like Norah Jones meets Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin and Alicia Keys.”

Now, coming from the South, with a black Baptist church upbringing and a love of music myself, I had to step back on this one and give the sleek city producer an eye. It wasn’t until later when I walked out with my food to meet her, and actually heard her music playing from the car they’d been traveling in, that I realized soul knows no region, no gender, and no shade.

Originally from Chicago, Ill., Lauren Dragon, as she is known by her fans, has been in the music biz, “A little over two years,” said the 24-year-old singer, who also enjoys acting.

“I was always obsessed with music, but never would take it seriously as a profession because it’s not a very ‘stable’ and predictable line of work.”

Like many other young, aspiring artists, music took a back seat to Lauren’s studies, but according to the singer, her drive toward performing was so great, it would eventually steer way to her fate.

“I was in college full-time, but constantly listening and obsessing on jazz greats like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as Shirley Horn etc., (singing) while walking between classes,” she said. “Looking back now, I never really was thinking about my studies so much as I was music. I didn’t even realize that I was already preparing for what fate would be dragging me kicking and screaming into.”

It was one day after reaching a tough financial spot in her college career that Lauren would find the faith to step out on her gift, which led here to and through a number of places, one of those being Valdosta.