While Hayden Panettiere is pretending to be a country music singer on TV, she's learning how to be one in real life.

    The 23-year-old actress plays ambitious country star Juliette Barnes on the hit ABC show "Nashville". Her character has performed on the Grand Ole Opry, dealt with the demands of a record label executive, written songs and tracked vocals in a recording studio.

    "The show, I feel like, is an amazing second step for me because I love music and I've always had such terrible stage fright," said Panettiere, who recently earned a Golden Globe nomination for best performance by a television actress in a supporting role.

    Her confidence as a singer is growing, as is her credibility. She sings all of her own songs in the show, some of which are featured on the "Nashville" soundtrack, released last week. Big Machine Records put out her song "Telescope" as the show's first official single, and it's a Top 40 hit on the Billboard country songs chart.

    She says doing the show is teaching her about the music industry, and that getting a warm response from the Music City community is encouraging.