of her final year in high school, she worked as a performing musician at the Ozark Jubilee, a long-running country music show in Branson, Missouri. In Branson, she rented a small trailer and bought her first car for $600. She also began dating a college-aged man whom she met sitting in the audience of her shows. Yet, Wright also realized she could not form the ideal romantic relationship with him: "But soon I was wresting with my old fears again. Nothing could save me from being gay." In 1989, she landed a position in a musical production at Opryland USA, a now-defunct theme park in Nashville, Tennessee. Making numerous costume changes in tight quarters led Wright to become good friends with several cast members. She also learned to sing as part of a vocal chorus and learned dance routines. Her contract only lasted one season and she later moved into the basement of a friend's home closer to Nashville. She found employment at a local sporting goods store. It was at the store that she met a woman whom she would have her first brief intimate relationship with. During the summer of 1990, she was re-hired as part of the Opryland cast for a second season and started taking classes at Middle Tennessee State University. Music career 1993–1996: Beginnings at PolyGram and the rise to success Wright was signed to a publishing deal as a songwriter, which helped secure a recording contract as a recording artist with PolyGram/Mercury Records in 1993. Wright chose to keep her sexuality hidden from her record label and buying public, a theme which continued throughout her commercial career. She collaborated on her first album with Nashville producer, Harold Shedd. In a mutual agreement, Shedd agreed that Wright's persona would not be centered around being "a [music] video babe," but instead regarded for her artistic work as a country music artist. In 1994, Wright's debut studio album was released through the label titled Woman in the Moon. The album would receive critical acclaim, despite limited success. The project spawned three singles ("He's a Good Ole Boy," "Till I Was Loved by You" and "Sea of Cowboy Hats") that all peaked outside the top 40 of the Billboard country chart. The album helped Wright win Top New Female Vocalist at the 1995 Academy of Country Music Awards. Wright recalled in her memoir that she had low expectations