Mandy Marie Luke - a guitar and a grin!

"Mandy Marie Luke 'the alt-country queen' " - Leslie Benson

"It was trial by fire that brought Mandy Marie close to her guitar. At age 13, she watched her father play hometown Missouri honky tonk gigs, and he’d challenge her on the spot to play along with the band. She did, and it worked.

Listening to her grandparents’ record collection taught her chords, and she’s held onto her original amp since. “People like Don Rich with Buck Owens, Luther Perkins with Johnny Cash, Roy Nichols with Merle Haggard ... those guys were literally my heroes,” Luke says. “I’d come home from school at 3:30 and not stop playing my guitar until my folks screamed at me to go to bed.”

A guitarist foremost, Luke never sang until she joined her current band, the Cool Hand Lukes. “It takes a lot of confidence to stand behind a microphone,” she says. “That took me a while to ease into. The transition from just being a lead guitar player to being a lead guitar player and a singer damn near killed me!”

As far as being a female lead guitarist, Mandy Marie says she’s encountered many gender stereotypes. “People always think that I’m just a strummer who plays a few chords, and when they see me taking solos and really playing, it takes them by surprise,” she says. “When a man does a pedal steel lick on a Telecaster, it isn’t that big of a deal, but when I do that same exact lick, all of a sudden, it’s amazing! And that’s just it, bottom line — because I’m a girl.”

But Luke surpasses expectations with complicated guitar solos, performing facets of rockabilly and country.

“I grew up playing hillbilly bop,” Mandy Marie says. “I’m a huge Billy Joe Shaver fan … He totally changed my life, and he’s still to this day my favorite songwriter ever. But he was Johnny Cash’s favorite songwriter too, so I’m in good company!”

For the woman who grew up on a 400-acre cattle farm in the Ozarks, Luke has embraced this independent spirit since youth. “I worked on the farm for my folks doing everything from bottle feeding calves to bailin’ hay and, let me tell you, playin’ guitar is a hell of a lot easier,” she says.

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“She has a great personality. She exudes confidence on stage, and that was really exciting to me when I saw her perform. So many musicians look angry when they are playing, but she is just so happy, and it’s wonderful to see. It makes you feel good.” - Twink Van Winkle via Josh Flynn's NUVO article on her upcoming documentary "Women in Rock" which features Mandy Marie Luke.