Don’t blame Jenny Paquette for feeling a bit overwhelmed.

After all, in less than two years, she’s gone from being a young woman with a Nashville dream to becoming a country singer in demand as an opening act for name performers throughout New England.

So far this summer, she’s opened for Darryl Singletary and Billy Ray Cyrus. Upcoming dates include opening for Alabama on Aug. 25 in Augusta, David Ball on Labor Day weekend in Webster, Mass., and John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band on Oct. 2 at the Topsfield (Mass.) Fair. This is in addition to a spate of fair dates and singing the national anthem Aug. 28 at Fenway Park.

Still, the 23-year-old Paquette is overwhelmed by the support she’s received from her growing group of fans. She’s shocked that newspaper reporters want to interview her.

“I’m still amazed that people want to hear me sing,” the attractive blonde said during a Portland interview. “It’s something I love to do, and people want me to do it.”

Paquette enjoyed a breakthrough of sorts while opening for Cyrus on Aug. 7 in Bangor. Throughout her half-hour set of largely original tunes, people walked toward the stage to take her picture. After her set, people thronged around her merchandise table, waiting for a chance to talk with her or get an autograph.

Her goals before the Bangor show were simple: “I wanted to get the crowd ready for Billy Ray. Also I wanted to win these people over and wanted them to know Jenny Paquette when they left.”

Although concert-goers usually don’t pay a lot of attention to opening acts, Paquette recalls the moment when she knew the Bangor crowd was with her.

“Toward the end of my set, during `Same Old Story,’ I literally heard nothing during this break. I was scared to death, because I knew everyone was listening for the next note. I thought, `They’re giving me a chance.”‘

Opening for name singers has been a quantum leap forward for Paquette.

“I’m used to performing at clubs where you do your own sound,” she said. “Now I’m [singing] underneath trusses holding 50 spotlights. I feel like someone who just got pulled up from the audience to sing.”

It’s not surprising that the Saco resident ended up a singer, as music is in her blood. Her father, Jim, sang in the local ’70s rock ‘n’ roll band Black Hart. Her grandfather, Lucien Paquette, was well known on the ’40s and ’50s country circuit as a member of the Dixon Brothers band. Two of her uncles have been inducted into the Maine Country Music Hall of Fame.

“My family is so enriched in music that being a singer isn’t any big deal,” she said. “It was always there, something we all did.”

Two weeks before she was set to enroll at the University of Maine at Farmington to study music education, she decided to take a different path.

“I thought, `Maybe I could do the singing thing,”‘ she recalled. “My parents said, `If you’re going to do it, you’re going to do it the right way.”

Paquette began taking voice training, and she sang gospel in church. She also was accepted into the Boston Conservatory of Music, but decided her future didn’t lie in singing arias or show tunes.

Instead she followed her heritage and went into country music.

“People want three things from music,” she explained. “They want to be able to sing along. They want a storyline they can identify with. They want to be moved. I think country offers all three.”

After making this decision, Paquette sang at weddings and recitals, but drifted careerwise for six months. Then she heard about the Country Music Organization of America competition. After preliminary wins, she ended up representing Maine at the national competition in Las Vegas in October 1998.

That’s when she set out to organize a band. First, she called her uncle, rhythm guitarist Dan Paquette, then her cousin, bassist Scott Paquette. Scott enlisted drummer Steve Reny and keyboardist Mike Givens. After a show in Biddeford, steel guitarist Norm Cote offered his services. Lead guitarist Jerry Olanovich was the last to join. North Country was born.

Paquette and her crack veteran band surprised those from traditional Southern, country states by bringing home nine awards from Las Vegas.

The awards reinforced her determination to succeed.

“I’m a self-motivator,” she said. “That told me I was on the right track, that with hard work and perseverence, this should pay off.”

Paquette’s next milestone came in June, when she released her debut album, “Time Will Tell,” on her own InSpirit Records label. She was involved in every stage, from production to packaging, and she called the process a great learning experience.

She co-wrote only one song on the CD, and she hopes to do more in the future.

“With my first CD, I was so into learning how a CD works that I didn’t focus on the writing aspect as much,” she said. “I’d like to be involved with it more. I’d like to co-write. I’ve got a short attention span, and tend to get bored easily. Also I tend to be [overly] critical of myself.”

Having a veteran band has been helpful for Paquette.

“I’ll look to them a lot about the way of the business, about whether something seems right,” she said. “They’re tight musically, which lets me just sing and get in contact with the audience.”

Still the lead singer often ends up the band’s leader, which isn’t a role Paquette is totally comfortable with.

“I’m not an authority figure,” she said. “It’s hard for me to say, `This is what I want.’ I don’t have the confidence in myself in this industry. It was a hard transition, because I didn’t want the responsibility. We’d vote on things at first, but now the band looks to me more for decisions.”

Paquette, who still waitresses part time, will use her CD as a demo when she and her mother, Susan, a marketing executive with Weathervane Seafood, go to Nashville in September. But she remains adamant about what she’s looking for.

“If someone’s interested in me, I want to make sure we click back and forth,” she said. “It’s not about a record or management deal. It’s about moving people with powerful music and a positive message.”

A Christian, Paquette doesn’t take credit for her success.

“My vocal ability, anything I have that has been given to me is a gift, and it can be taken away,” she said. “I have a responsibility to use it to help other people.”

Where does Paquette hope to be in 10 years?

“I’d like to have the supportive network I have right now,” she said. “I’d like to be proud of the music that I’m creating. I’d like to have a successful recording contract with a label that looks at the best interest of the artist. And I would still like to be rooted here.”

For more information, write P.O. Box 985, Kennebunkport, 04046, or access www.jennypaquette.com.