I was born and raised in Bristol, New Hampshire. It's out in the sticks - a town so small you had to drive out of town to buy shoes. Always loved music - the first song I remember that really grabbed me was "Killing Me Softly" by Roberta Flack when I was three.
I got my first professional gig playing fife in the fifth grade with the Newfound Fife and Drum Corps. I learned as many tunes as I could, because the more tunes you knew, the more money you'd make. I still play the fife on occaision - usually to call the kids in from the neighborhood for dinner.
I started playing saxophone in the third grade. Later on my saxophone got stolen, so since I left high school, I don't play saxophone, sorry. I have, however, noodled around on the piano for what seems like forever. Unfortunately, I'm still at the noodling stage - I can play a little, but I'm not actually "fluent" in piano, tho' that is my goal for the next few years.
I bought a guitar when I was 14 to learn a Dylan tune, and started finding my voice when I was 16 and so became a folksinger. I wish I could say that after playing guitar for about 20 years, I was really good at it, but I'm not. I have my thing that I do, but am not a guitar hero by any stretch of the imagination.
Went off to college at the University of Lowell to:
1) move away from home
2) find a band and change the world
and 3) get an education.
A year later, I had only done one of those things - moved away from home. I'd gotten married, found a job in radio, moved to the South and became a mommy shortly thereafter. Someday, I'll find a band and I will go back to school when I have the luxury of time.
Got my "lightning bolt telegram from God" that I should sing blues and gospel soon after my third child was born in 1998 at the Augusta Festival in Elkins, WV. It's a long story and maybe I'll put it in the blog one day. It's funny - people ask me, "Well, how do you *know* it was from God?"
I usually laugh and say something like: "Do you really think that if the Creator of the Universe, the All-Knowing, the Almighty God wanted to tell you something, you really wouldn't know that it was from Him?" The Lord definitely makes Himself clear.
Started a chapter of the One Human Family Workshop here in Alabama - it's a multi-faith, multi-ethnic gospel choir - in 2001 and am still directing it.
Still married to the same fella, got 3 kids, a cat and 2 dogs. I go all over (the South mainly) teaching workshops, performing and giving voice lessons. Life is good and I am grateful. So, do you wanna learn to sing? I can teach you...
