Former Albany resident Alexis Ebert, known just as "Alexis" to her fans, has signed a songwriting contract with Sony and is working on an album.

The 18-year-old singer-songwriter now lives in Nashville but is performing at 3 p.m. Friday, the first day of the inaugural Willamette Country Music Festival, going on all weekend just outside Brownsville.

Alexis will be playing with her band, doing "a mix of material, some contemporary country, some original songs I've wrote, and traditional country as well."

The contract with Sony, for an undisclosed amount, asks her to write 12 songs per year that will be pitched to Sony's country music artists. Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride are among the possible performers, she said.

"If an artist is looking for material, they would come to me and say, 'Martina McBride is looking for a song, she wants a ballad,' and then I would go and write a ballad," Alexis said. "Or, I might just write a song and they might say, 'This would be perfect for Kenny Chesney.'"

She's not worried about the pressure. "I write songs every day," she said. "I write about everything, really, but my favorite part of writing is the imagination process. I really love to let my imagination run wild."

She said she loves living near Nashville, where the city's culture revolves around music of all types: rock, pop, folk, jazz and more. "There's somebody playing every night," she said. "Nashville fuels the fire."

Alexis has been performing since age 4, when she took up a karaoke microphone at Pizza King and launched into the Disney song, "Colors of the Wind." She performed at the Oregon Jamboree in 2006.

Her song, "The Real Me," was featured in the Disney movie and on the soundtrack of "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen." She signed with Warner Bros., but the company shifted directions after a personnel change, and "I wasn't their project," she said.

During her time as a free agent, Alexis has been performing, traveling, writing and recording. She's working on her album, which does not yet have a release date.

"I want it to be really good, so I want to take my time," she said.

More information about Alexis is available at her myspace site, www.myspace.com/alexis.