Hannah Devine, 17, is pursuing her dreams of rock stardom in Ireland. “If I can come back with a little fame, that would be nice,” she says. Photo courtesy of Hannah Devine

CRANSTON –– For Hannah Devine, aspiring rock star, music was a birthright.

Her parents played Irish music for her as she lay in the crib.

At six weeks, she attended a Sinéad O’Connor concert with her mother, Sorrel.

And her father, Jimmy, brought more than a fiddle when he joined in local Irish music sessions.

“I was under the table at the sessions, in a basket,” she said, in a recent interview.

Now Devine, 17, a singer-songwriter who has generated some local buzz of late, is off to Ireland in a search for musical inspiration and, she hopes, a little stardom.

“She’s promised to buy me my Mini Cooper” when she hits it big, said Sorrel, 56.

Devine, who plays jazz-inflected pop songs, has no imminent record deal. No Grammy nominations. But in recent weeks, she has developed a taste for fame.

Early last month, she won a “Rhode Island Idol” music competition sponsored by Motif Magazine, a local arts and culture publication, and Stone Soup Coffee House in Pawtucket.

A few weeks later, Devine appeared on the cover of Motif, voted the state’s best female vocalist in the “Americana” category by readers.

And early this month, she played at the Newport International Film Festival, before a screening of Girls Rock!, a documentary about the Rock ’n’ Roll Camp for Girls, in Portland, Ore.

Devine, who appears briefly in the film, has been a camper and an intern at the one-week summer camp for the past three years.

She credits the testosterone-free program with helping her to find a voice in the often male-dominated milieu of rock.

“That gave me a lot of confidence in my playing,” she said, of the camp experience, “in my soloing, especially.”

But even with that boost, Devine, a recent graduate of Cranston High School East, has struggled to form a band.

“There were other musicians around,” she said. “But they were pretty much all guys. And I was intimidated.”

Romantic tensions got in the way, Devine said. And she was often asked to sing and do little else –– her guitar skills quickly dismissed.

High school, on the whole, was not a great experience, Devine said.

“Kids are mean,” she said. “They were too focused on little things –– prom, boyfriends, cheerleading.”

But she always found refuge in music, she said, and the musical inclinations of her own family.

Her father, Jimmy, a carpenter who gives fiddle lessons on the side, financed many a trip to Ireland with the money earned from musical instruction.

In his travels, he befriended some of the world’s most prominent fiddlers –– Kevin Burke and Frankie Gavin, among them.

And over the years, he has hosted touring Irish musicians in the family’s home, where they play for Jimmy’s students and others in an airy space just off the living room.

Hannah struck up an easy friendship with one of those musicians, fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh.

“We bonded right away,” she said. “He’s a magical person.”

And as she set off for Ireland last week, she planned to stay with Ó Raghallaigh for a few weeks.

Then, who knows?

And with dual American-Irish citizenship –– allowed for those with an Irish-born grandparent –– Devine said she can find work, if she must.

Devine, who has deferred acceptance to The New School in New York, said she might come back next fall to attend college.

Or perhaps, she will stay a bit longer, she said, improving her guitar skills, taking in a bit of the world.

And for the girl from the musical crib –– bigger dreams.

“If I can come back with a little fame,” she said, “that would be nice.”

dscharfe@projo.com