Mix one part country, one part soul, a dash of freckles, and a whole lot of attitude, and you've got singer/songwriter Heather Wiggins. It's a small serving--she measures in at a whopping 5'1/2"--but you'd never know that by listening to her sing.Seeing Heather now, it's difficult to imagine her as the small town Georgia girl with nothing but big dreams and a pet squirrel. But that's just how she arrived in Nashville a few short years ago. "I didn't know anything about the music industry and I'd never written a song," Heather admits. She remembers her first night in Music City, "I walked up and down Broadway--past all the people singing in bars--and thought, 'What have I got myself into?' I thought I could never compete." As overwhelmed and as unprepared as she may have felt, Heather was determined to succeed. And now, just a short while later, the girl who had never written a song has an album full of self-penned tunes, and a sound that only she can lay claim to.Heather's signature blend of country and soul is a reflection of her childhood. "My parents split when I was three," Heather recalls, "So I have spent my whole life going from one house to another." At her dad's Heather listened to nothing but "stone cold country." "I remember sitting and singing country classics with my dad while he played the guitar," Heather shares. From an early age she learned to appreciate artists like Willie Nelson, Vern Gosdin, and T. Graham Brown. At her mama's house, on the other hand, it was nothing but soul music. Heather fell in love with Stevie Wonder, Solomon Burke,and her all-time favorite Otis Redding. "Listening to Otis makes my stomach ache, and makes me feel it deep down in my soul," Heather gushes. So after years divided between mom's house and dad's--and now Nashville and Georgia--Heather's music is a beautiful mess of classic country, "from-the-hip" soul, deep Georgia flavor, and Nashville's big city know-how."My favorite songs are the ones that make you feel something," Heather confides, "Those are the ones that I've always tried to write." And those are exactly the songs with which she's filled her debut album. It will make you dance, sing, laugh and cry. And Heather has done it all in her own unmistakable style.
"The Blame" from Living Room Sessions Volume 3
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