Tag: BGS 5+5

BGS 5+5: Kerry Hart

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Artist: Kerry Hart
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Latest album: I Know a Gun
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): KerBear

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I have been most influenced musically by Peter Gabriel. The record I first burned into my brain was So. Each song dances, a lush landscape of emotion and movement and melody. The sounds painted visuals for me, the percussion is ever present but gentle, structural and textured, the layers of melody and counter melody, the sense of time and place. His voice is used not just to tell the story, but to give it depth and color. The significance of the lyrics, a feeling of humanness, and a lack of perfectionism. These are all things I took into my expression of my experience of the world.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I was fortunate to grow up in New Jersey, just outside of New York City, and I was exposed early in my life to live theater, to actors and plays, to paintings by the masters, to poetry and to poets and to live jazz. I always possessed a love for novels and I really tend to think that each of my songs happens in a time and place to a “someone,” a character if you will, and I can see clearly that my expression in music has been absolutely altered by my exposure to artists in real time, expressing themselves right before my eyes. My live performance aesthetic is definitely inspired by the sensation that what you are about to share with us will only ever happen now, in this time and space. It’s ephemeral. You have to be there or you will miss the bolt of lightening in our hands.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I have a very consistent meditation practice that is the basis of my well-being. Before any musical work, writing, rehearsing, vocalizing, tracking, or a performance for an audience, I do my meditation to really drop into my center column and root into the Earth and awaken my breath and my vision. I sort of leave myself to a degree, I leave the me that is bound to my story, bound to my life’s joys and burdens, and I breathe into more of an everyman space. I like to move in music from a place of high compassion and passion, so I come to the work both more awake and more in a dream. In music, there is incredible latitude to welcome the truth. I really try and honor that, as I believe it serves the songs.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I think each and every song has a moment where there is something tough about it, except for those gems that land fully formed like gifts. There is no room for playing small with songs. The song and the audience need me in humility and in power to properly honor taking up their sweet time with my creation. I think living in that resonance is a challenge, staying positive against life’s lesser fortunes – and that is before you get to the heavy lifting of crafting a verse, refining your hook, editing out what is superfluous to the flow of the thing. But wow, I love the hard days as much as the best ones. Song life is a trip.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I never feel like I am hiding when I play the character that is the singer of the song. Each one is me, thru different colors of the kaleidoscope. Which is not to say my songs are autobiographical. Most are not, but in each one I find the kernel of truth where I can align with the narrator of the song’s tale, and then I leap from there with total abandon. There are single lines in the work that are right from my direct experiences but truly most often, the blend of my emotions from life with the way others move through time and space is where the magic tends to happen. Writing for me is a sacred process. What I need to come through usually does, for me and for the characters in each composition. I love to meet the pieces of the puzzle.

Photo credit: Lauren Dukoff

BGS 5+5: Vance Gilbert

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Artist: Vance Gilbert
Hometown: Born in the Philadelphia area, but Boston has been home for the last 40 years
Latest album: Good Good Man
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Bentfield Hucks

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I see much of my songwriting as writing a great script for a movie. I’m most often intent on telling a story and making it as visual as I can muster. However, literature plays a great role too, as word usage and wordplay get the tongue’s mind involved. I remember reading Louis de Bernières’ Corelli’s Mandolin, and wanting to sing the whole thing when I was done, like some slightly overweight Black Homer.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

My freshman year, while I was at Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut, a crew of us piled into a classmate’s yellow tonneau-topped Pontiac Sunbird and drove the 2 hours to Boston. We parked at another classmate’s house and took the MTA into town. At one of the stops on the “Red Line,” there was a guy playing jazz standards on a vibraphone, and I simply don’t remember the rest of my stay there (save for the lo mein in Chinatown). From that moment on, I wanted to be in Boston playing music.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

That would be writing “The Day Before November,” the closing piece to my new album, Good Good Man. OK, you asked — the tough part was fear. I had a storyline in mind, like a Rod Serling sci-fi movie about a neighborhood “spooky-old-man-in-that-house” and a loving prank a small, parentally-abused little boy plays on him at the urging of his group of friends. It has ended up as a spoken word piece, but I was afraid to even begin the thing for fear of screwing it up. Isn’t that something? To not even begin to create something for fear of doing it badly? The storybones of the piece existed in notebook after notebook and in my head for about 12 years. Yes, 12 years. Once I rolled it out in some kind of pentameter it took about 2 weeks to write and 2 1/2 months to memorize.

My poor dogs. Memorization repeats happened during late evening walks in the fall of 2016. Now that I think of it, neighborhood windows were open — maybe I should be apologizing to some neighbors too…

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Never mind the calendar. Things happen when they happen. If it takes 40+ years to figure out how to sing with nuance instead of bluster, write to tell the story rather than to just spit out alliteration, and to stop comparing myself to others that seem to have the whole package together at 23 years old, then that’s how long it takes.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

It would most certainly be chicken wings with some sort of awesome sauce/rub, a root beer, sweet potato fries with just a little heat, and Richard Thompson just hanging out and playing tunes at the table. I’d even share my wings with him. Do you know how far out of my zone that would be? Particularly the sharing the wings part? NO ONE, not even Richard Thompson, better reach across that plate uninvited. NO ONE. …What fool would do that to a brother anyway?

BGS 5+5: Riley Pearce

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Artist: Riley Pearce
Hometown: Melbourne, Australia
Latest Album: Acoustic EP
Nickname: Still yet to be determined

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

It wasn’t actually a good memory but it was an important lesson to learn. I played a small gig in a coffee shop overseas and had a few drinks with a friend beforehand and temporarily forgot about the show. I don’t recall forgetting any lyrics, but remember stepping back from the mic at one stage and feeling very unbalanced. That was enough to make me not drink much before a show going forwards.

What was the first moment you wanted to be a musician?

Well, part of me still doesn’t consider myself a musician. I’ve made it this far though, so maybe I am. I used to busk a lot growing up and loved the interaction you’d get with complete strangers or your friends at the different market stalls. There would be great connections formed through music and that really spurred my love for it all. It’s amazing how songs just become, from nothing. I was quite hooked and spent the first few years really trying to learn everything I could. I wanted to make this something I could do for the rest of my life.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and musician?

Oooh I like this question. I’ve been really enjoying Foy Vance’s work of late so perhaps him and some pasta and wine. Is he at this dinner? Or am I just listening to him while I eat pasta and drink wine… alone? Or is he singing to me while we both eat pasta and wine? It’d be quite close and I’d probably get food spat on me. I’m confused.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song and use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Very rarely, if ever. The songs need to be authentic and come from a real place. I often treat concepts like time or distance as if they are people in songs so it gives me more to write about than my actual human relationships. I also find what happens to me more is that I may write a song or a lyric and it’s meaning to me changes overtime and if it started being about one idea it’s morphed its way into something else. I love how music can do that.

What rituals do you have either in the studio or before a show?

I really want to have some pre-gig rituals, but besides a pre-gig toilet trip and some water I’ve got nothing. In the studio I often eat this rice-cracker snack called Delites which I mispronounced for two years as Deletees until someone told me it’s just a play on the word delight. But I still call them Deletees. I find my voice sounds nice after eating them, plus they taste great.

Photo credit: Rachel Claire

BGS 5+5: Dustbowl Revival

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Artist: Dustbowl Revival
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Latest Album: Is It You, Is It Me
Rejected Band Names or Nicknames: “When I was first trying to figure out the band name, we asked the audience at the first ‘show’ we played at the old Brown Derby in LA. I almost went with the name of the first album, The Atomic Mushroom of Love, but that would have been too much.”

Answers by Z. Lupetin of Dustbowl Revival

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

As nerve-wracking as it was, I’m super glad we had the cajones to try and record our live record Lampshade On at The Troubadour in LA and The Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Both spots have such history and it felt like we were floating while doing it. Two of the most intense, rowdy, and giving crowds we’ve ever played for. Truly I almost freaked out and messed up the first few songs at The Troubadour — it meant so much to me to be there — but the energy is palpable on the record and that was worth it. Recording live is like trying to play music on a tightrope with your eyes closed.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I can never stay in one medium for long. It’s like only eating Italian every meal for the rest of your days — there are so many storytelling mediums that are so worth our time. Short stories are a forever favorite. I am also a playwright and I’ve always seen a lot of overlap between performing music and creating dialogue and stories for theatre. Why can’t conversations be had in the middle of a song?

I’ve always had a macabre sense of humor and the work of writers like Edward Albee, Christopher Durang, Sam Shepard and poets like James Tate and short story masters like Etgar Keret and Peter Orner seem to scratch an itch I try to get to with my songwriting — telling stories of normal people in deeply strange and emotionally epic situations trying to figure things out the best they can. Can magical realism be a genre in music instead of Americana?

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I adore hiking up mountains when I can and maybe it’s the Pisces in me, but I have a visceral need to be near an ocean or a big old body of water (I grew up by Lake Michigan). Jumping in lakes, ponds, oceans, weird hotel pools, you name it, I do it as much as possible to reset my brain. Riding waves thirty blocks from my house is among the most purely joyful things I know to do. I find myself bringing the sea and the sky and the limitlessness of space into a lot of songs accidentally. My grandfather was a part of the space program so maybe his curiosity was passed down to me in some way.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I’d love to share a few hot dogs and some fries with John Prine. I share his love of a good dog — being from Chicago, the simplicity and perfection of a Vienna beef sausage on a steamed poppy seed bun with all the fixins and the spicy sport peppers for extra crunch and tang — it just can’t be beat. It’s the first thing I get in the Chicago Midway airport on layovers. Also John is a lesson in well-spiced simplicity!

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

This is a tough one as my bandmates (and my mom) will often question if a song and its story are personal or simply a fantastical vision of something I wished could happen or feared might happen. Initially the opening song on our new record, ‘Dreaming,’ was about a baseball closer who blows the biggest game of his life. It wasn’t personal at all of course, and when we changed it up to be more about a performer who panics in the bright lights it did feel more grounded and emotionally real, because it came back to being a version of me. Not me exactly.

I do get nervous before shows. I’ve never almost died out there (not yet!), but I strongly feel starting with a seed of truth and letting your imagination (or paranoia) run wild creates the most unique story. I’m very lucky — I came from an insanely supportive and artistically curious family — but that doesn’t mean I don’t see the tragedy and darkness that lurks within our family history if one looks hard enough. People are complicated and often don’t reveal what’s really going on. I tried to uncover that in our tune ‘Sonic Boom.’ What if you told the person you loved most what was really going on inside? Stretching the truth can still be personal — and creating fantasies maybe can help us find out who we really are.

Photo credit: Shervin Lainez

BGS 5+5: Tall Tall Trees

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Artist: Tall Tall Trees
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina
Latest album: A Wave of Golden Things
Release Date: January 31, 2020
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): TTT, Trips T

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

In sixth grade band our music teacher Mr. Hangley, who was the sweetest, most enthusiastic, rosy-cheeked band leader, switched me from alto to baritone saxophone. One day we were playing one of his favorite John Philip Sousa marches, and at the very end, I improvised a little bass riff and everyone including Mr. Hangley turned around in surprise. Something immediately clicked in my brain and I was totally hooked. Thank you public school music teachers everywhere.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

The song “A Wave of Golden Things,” which ended up being the title track, is the oldest song on my new record. It was written on an out-of-tune piano in my Harlem apartment back in 2012 on the afternoon of the Sandy Hook school shooting. I was so overcome with profound sadness, the song just came pouring out of me. I made a quick recording of it on my old tape machine and couldn’t bring myself to listen to it for a long time. I was scared of it for some reason. After all the years, and so many school shootings later, I felt it was time to let it go, and it became the underlying spiritual theme for this album.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Growing up in the suburbs of NYC, I always dreamed of living in “the city,” with all its excitement and electric energy. Moving there in my early twenties was the best decision I could have made. It’s impossible to not be inspired there, with its never-ending parade of random insanity and so much high-level art and music. I was involved in so many different projects during the fifteen years I lived there, and really got to understand what moved me, and what didn’t. New York City shaped who I am today artistically.

Still, while living there, I began fantasizing about nature and a quieter life, and after some extended retreats in the South, I landed in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina. It’s an incredible place, steeped in banjo music and history and I’m really just getting my feet wet in the scene. I love being only an hour away from the towns where Earl Scruggs and Doc Watson came up. I have found myself unplugging my banjo more (haha, I know weird) and spending more time working it out on the porch. Living in the mountains has definitely had a positive effect on my psyche and the music of A Wave of Golden Things.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I have spent so many of the best nights of my life on stage, it’s pretty impossible to have a favorite. One particular night does comes to mind. I was touring solo through Europe, just me, a manual VW hatchback, and an intermittent GPS. I was scheduled to play an early evening set at a music festival in Austria and had a seven-hour drive, which magically turned into ten hours. I arrived minutes before my show, set up on this beautiful lakeside stage and started to play.

Three songs in, the sky opened up and sheets of rain sent the entire audience running for shelter, with many ending up on stage under the tent huddled around me. The wind knocked out the stage lighting and I finished out my set in the dark, lit up only by the LEDs in my banjo. The people were soaked, dancing and having so much fun. Such a magic moment for me. Afterwards, I smoked a j with Nada Surf. Pretty damn good time.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I have been obsessed with books, art, and music for my entire life. Everything else has pretty much been secondary. In recent years, I’ve discovered graphic novels and I’ve been blazing through everything by Neil Gaiman, especially the infinitely brilliant Sandman series, and also the work of super genius wizard Alan Moore. I am in total awe of the worlds they create and the stories they bring to life within those worlds. I so want to write music that does that.

I am also very deep into spiritual thinkers, people like Alan Watts, Terence McKenna, and the recently-passed Ram Dass. I have spent countless hours of my life listening to, or reading, their teachings and can’t help but assume they have informed my writing and worldview.

Photo credit: Sandlin Gaither

BGS 5+5: Tattletale Saints

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Artist: Tattletale Saints
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee via Auckland, New Zealand
Latest album: Dancing Under the Dogwoods (January 24, 2020)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Broken Bells (rejected name). Cy is trying to nurture the nickname “Big Daddy C,” but it’s struggling to catch on.

Answers by Cy Winstanley

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

It’s no secret, but I love the music and lyrics of Paul Simon. As a jazz kid growing up, his use of varied harmony and its tasteful symbiosis with vivid and often impressionistic, poetic lyrics just blew my mind. His themes too, there are so many dimensions to them — I just get lost in his stories.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

I’m an avid reader and like to start my day with non-fiction and close my day with fiction. The more regular I am with that, the more those colors run through my writing. I tend to go through phases with the kind of books too: one of my fav authors is Roberto Bolano; after I read his oeuvre, I cycled through his contemporaries, influences, and other South American authors.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I think as soon as I started playing guitar as a 13-year-old I just loved it so much that I knew it would be a big part of my life. But it wasn’t until later when I developed carpal tunnel in my hands that I had to stop playing guitar, then it was songwriting that became the focus.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Every song feels like the toughest time! It’s very rare that they just ‘fall out’. But perhaps those that are directly about my life are the hardest, because I want to be as faithful to the memory as possible and am constantly fighting with myself over what I want to present.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Being from New Zealand and also being a long distance runner have given me a pretty strong connection to being outside. When I’m in nature, there is a calmness, and sense of earthly perspective and belonging that pervades my every waking moment.

Photo credit: Natia Cinco

BGS 5+5: Christopher Paul Stelling

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Artist: Christopher Paul Stelling
Hometown: Asheville, North Carolina (lately)
Latest album: Best of Luck (February 7, 2020 on Anti-)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Chris, CP, CPS, CP Stelling, Dude

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Proposing to my partner Julia at the end of my Newport Folk Fest set in 2015, that was wild. So much love at NPFF.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I really rely on the other art forms sometimes more than music for my inspiration, so I’m glad you asked… all of the above, really. I try to read as much as possible. I see all creative pursuits as having more in common than not.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I have rituals when I write. Less so in the studio or before a show, but since writing is what takes me to the studio or the show, I think it’s fair to answer this way… I just make myself available, try to turn off my defenses, try to be honest, and try to listen. It’s a feeling, the process, it’s less methodical than maybe one might expect, but for me I just try to show up, be honest, play my instrument, and sing words improvisationally, and then work those raw materials into something when I find a thread. I’m no expert, but I’m certain that there’s no right or wrong way to write a song.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Keep going. I’ve kept going. I just gotta keep going. It’s not always easy. Sometimes it gets really difficult. Sometimes it’s the most natural thing in all the world. I’m so lucky to even be able to make a living at this — that I owe it to my luck to keep it up.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Typically not characters (with names) per se, but “you” and “me” are almost always interchangeable. I try my best not to hide in songs. I try to find the similarities in things… friends/enemy, good/bad, ugly/beautiful, maybe I’m at odds with duality and concerned with mending differences — I hadn’t really considered that before. Thanks for asking.

Photo credit: Chris Phelps

BGS 5+5: Ron Pope

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Artist: Ron Pope
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Latest album: Bone Structure (March 6, 2020)

Which artist has influenced you most and how?

Springsteen has always been my North Star. First of all, he’s a band guy in solo artist’s clothes. I’ve always felt the same way; I meant to be in a band of equal partners (and that’s how I started), but in the end, I was unwilling to cede the control necessary to do that forever if I was going to have to do the lion’s share of the work. That was a tough thing for me to admit to myself, but I figured it couldn’t be that wrong if Bruce did it.

I guess it was also coming from that same kind of blue-collar background and trying to tell the stories of how real people around me were living their lives. Bruce showed me that a songwriter could reflect the world they came from and represent those who would otherwise go unrepresented. I never had to learn that, because he was doing it before I was born; I’ve always known that was possible.

What’s your favorite memory from being onstage?

The first time we played at Irving Plaza in New York my grandparents happened to be in town. They hadn’t seen me play in years. The last show they’d attended was at a shady club in Miami where there were maybe six paying customers and we’d been instructed by the management to pay some tweaker named “Speedy” to watch our van. At this sold-out show in New York with over a thousand people in attendance, my grandparents were pretty wide-eyed. At some point during the show, I called them out and had a spotlight thrown into the balcony. The whole crowd went wild. I’ll never forget my grandmother standing up there waving down at the crowd like the queen. My grandpa (who is not an easy man to impress) was very stoked. I’ve never been happier on stage than in that moment.

What other art forms inform your music?

I am constantly reading. I can’t imagine attempting to be a writer if you’re not an avid reader. I have to put words in to get words out. Recently, I’ve been on an autobiography kick. I just finished Elton’s. Now I’m reading Presidents of War. Thinking about rereading On The Road next.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

My philosophy is simple: Just don’t stop. When everyone around you quits, just keep on going and eventually, you’ll get where you’re hoping to go. When I was starting out, I wasn’t the best musician in my social circle (not by a mile), but as each of them decided it was too hard to keep going, I refused to surrender. That’s what made the difference.

What is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

My wife and I do a silly cooking show on Instagram that we’ve dubbed “Frankie’s Test Kitchen.” (In theory, we’re teaching Frankie, our twenty-month old, how to cook; in practice, she just tries to eat fistfuls of flour and chases the dog.) We always want to have our musician friends over, but it’s rare that any of us are in town at the same time. In 2020, I’d like to find one day where I can get everyone to the house all at once and do a big Sunday supper like my grandma used to do, with my homemade meatballs and red sauce.

Everyone who’s ever gotten a dinner invite to my house could come (including Lilly Hiatt, Lauren Morrow, Michaela Anne, Katie Schecter, Kirby Brown, the Trotters from The War and Treaty, Struggle Jennings, Caroline Spence, Alanna Royale… I could do this all day; I’m forever inviting people to dinner at the house). So rather than some dream pairing where I make coq au vin for Jimi Hendrix, I just want all these people who I know and like to come eat a dish that usually makes people smile. And if you happen to talk to them, somebody tell Bruce and Patti we’re saving them two seats!

BGS 5+5: Eli Lev

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Artist: Eli Lev
Hometown: Silver Spring, Maryland
Latest album: Deep South
Personal nicknames: “Ambassador of Good Vibes”

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

While I grew up playing basic guitar and writing silly songs, I never really wanted to “be a musician.” That changed when I was about halfway through my master’s degree for education. I took a personal vacation during winter break and camped out on a beach on the west coast of Mexico near Sayulita. I hiked in supplies and brought my travel guitar and just sang to the ocean for a week.

After that I got real quiet, and I listened. After a while I heard murmurings on the breeze that the trees and the sand, the water and sky really enjoyed my new songs and performance, and recommended I take my songs seriously and go for it. So I took that to heart and set the intention to make music my life for a while and see what would happen.

It took about a year for the gears of time and space to turn the right way before I played my first show in Washington, D.C., in the back of Tryst Cafe in Adams Morgan. A few people showed up who also enjoyed the performance and they asked me when my next show was. The rest is living history.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This last summer I got the chance to play a full band set at the storied 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C., as part of the DC Music Rocks Festival. I grew up going to see my favorite bands there, so it extra special being on the stage. Playing my original songs with a six-piece band to an amazing crowd of friends, family, and fans was a moment I’ll always remember.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Be your best, give your best — the world will smile back and give its best to you in return.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I listen a lot to rivers and oceans for songs, but they also come on the wind and in total silence. But there are songs everywhere, in train brakes, in people’s eyes, falling out of pockets and suitcases. It’s just a matter of how to listen and where to look.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Love this question. In my songs, sometimes I’m the “I” and sometimes I’m the “you.” Sometimes the people in my songs are actually things or ideas, like in my songs “Anywhere We Can Go” and “Walking Away.” I’ve found that when I do it that way, the listener has an easier time making the song meaningful for their own life. I love that different folks get different things out of my songs — that’s the way it should be!

BGS 5+5: Donna Ulisse

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Artist: Donna Ulisse
Hometown: Hampton, Virginia
Latest album: Time for Love
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Lots of family and friends just call me “Da”, which didn’t work so well for me when we were in Russia doing some shows because da means yes in their language so I was always turning my head in big crowds, thinking someone was calling me! My band members sometimes call me by my initials: D.U.

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

My dad and I have always had a major crush on Loretta Lynn! From as far back as my memory will go, I have admired her sassy songs and her way of delivering them. In my world, she is and will always be the cat’s meow. It took becoming a serious songwriter to realize that I also loved her writing. When I was young I didn’t give much thought to who wrote her songs, I just simply loved them. As I matured in this business I was struck by how many of the artists I adored actually wrote their own songs and Loretta was at the top of the heap.

When I started my journey into the bluegrass genre, my first producer, Keith Sewell, hit the talkback button in the studio after we cut a song I wrote called “When I Look Back” and said he thought I wrote like a mix of Loretta and Dolly. I didn’t touch the ground for two weeks after that. What a wonderful compliment! Loretta’s influence is certainly pronounced throughout my song catalog.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

This one is easy! I was 12 and I was asked to sing one song at a popular venue in Mathews, Virginia, called Donk’s Theater. The show was loosely patterned after the Grand Ole Opry, with a staff band that would help spotlight young talent and I was one of the fortunate recipients. My mom and dad were SO excited! They invited all kinds of family and friends, probably thirty or so. The week before the show dad took me out shopping; I’ll never forget it. He let me buy a Gunne Sax dress that reached the floor. I thought I looked just like Loretta Lynn. I twirled in front of my mirror for hours when I got home and used my hairbrush to practice holding a microphone.

The night of the show is still so clear. The place was packed and the spotlights were incredibly bright. I was given a generous introduction and I walked out and sang a Loretta Lynn song, “Somebody Somewhere,” to the top of my lungs. I loved it, every moment, smell, sight, clap, note… all of it. Years later, my Aunt Helen told me that my mom and dad lost all their color when my name was announced and never blinked or swallowed while I was on stage, bless their hearts. I guess I didn’t have to be nervous, Mom and Dad did that for me.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

In all honesty, I knew I would be on stage when I was very young, maybe 5 or 6 years old. I have never dreamed of another career, it was always going to be the stage for me. But if you want to know the exact moment my star was born, it would be that Loretta Lynn song I performed on the Donks stage when I was 12. I owned it and never looked back.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

I’ve never been good with homework, but I believe the topic of my mission statement would be perseverance! I have never given up on my dream of performing, even through the darkest of times. I was one of the blessed when I was signed to Atlantic Records in the early ’90s. A major country deal is a huge accomplishment and much coveted. I was out in L.A. doing a Dick Clark show when I got the call that I lost my deal. It was brutal, heartbreaking. I was so lost in those days but I knew deep down there was a place for me to sing.

I turned my heart and hopes into songwriting and it saved my music life. Through songwriting I discovered the mountains that lived in my soul and I started writing Appalachian sounding tunes that led me into this warm and wonderful world of bluegrass. I am having success in this business a little late, but so very cherished and appreciated. This is the world I was always meant for and perseverance got me here!

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

My husband and I bought a little farm outside of Nashville a few years ago. I’m not your typical farm girl but I love this land. It has a sweeping field that leads down to a creek and I spend lots of time watching goats and cows and all the changes that spread across the field. In the spring, vibrant yellow flowers show off the new season like a Sunday hat. In the summer there is so much purple bursting out all over the tall grasses, reminding me of an Irish hillside. In the fall there are elements that look like a harvest, like a bounty was laid there though we don’t plant anything, and in the winter the field lays there like temptation and whispers for springtime. This is where so much of my inspiration is found these days. I write about the spirit and the glory and the life that I see from my table on the porch.