I was born into music. I remember climbing up onto my mother's piano bench in that tiny living room where she taught 35 students a week, and feeling contentment as I discovered each note. The bench seemed at least 2 stories tall from my 3-year-old point of view, and with my pooh-bear-blanket in hand, I would pluck away at the keys for hours without awareness that life was happening around me. We used to play a 'game' where I would stand in the other room and she would play any note or chord, and I would tell her what it was. We also played a game in the car-- I would 'guess' which key a song on the radio was in... then we'd check it when we got home... we discovered that I was right more often then not. The music was in me, and I spent hours and years teaching myself piano and guitar (mostly by ear). Mom was usually amazed when she had taught a student a classical piece, and from hearing it over and over from my room, I was able to sit down and play it in its entirety.

My childhood was immersed at a church where we sang for at least an hour or two each week before the sermon, and I was always in the musicals and such. I spent most of my younger teen years attending after-school programs for Performing Arts. In high school and college I played flute and sang in the choir ensembles, and studied voice and piano privately. After that, rumor has it that I was a show-girl at Theme Parks and on Cruise Ships, but who knows if that's actually true or not!? LOL... (I wonder how we can work sequins, feathers, and the can-can into my rock show...hmmm)

Someone wrote a song about me once entitled "Renaissance Girl," as they said that my passion for music, art, theatre, dance, literature, history and world cultures seem to define me in a lot of ways...and i guess they were right, but they left out the ever-changing styles/colors of my hair as another defining attribute. but whadda-ya gonna do!? hahaha I'm just kidding around. Ultimately I hope that people will be able to define me by someone who is kind, patient, compassionate, trustworthy and loving.

By the 3rd year of college at University of North Texas, I became unsettled with the lack of specific direction for my life. I didn't want to be a jack-of-all-trades type without focus, however I couldn't pick just one outlet as I loved (and still love) them all equally. When I was barely leaving my teens, a friend of mine who was in a rock band decided it would be his mission to get me to an open mic night at Club Dada in Dallas. I had only written a handful of songs at that time, and was a horrible guitarist... but he came to my house and kidnapped me, taking me to my first 'gig' (it was a gig in a training bra sorta way)...that night I performed 3 of my own songs, which happened to suck if ya ask me-- but the experience was a rush that changed my life entirely. I felt at that moment that I knew what I was put on the planet to do. The next year and a half I focused on guitar and songwriting, and then the gigs and the band came in 1997 and well, a few years and 12 albums later, "the rest is history!"

Being on stage or in the studio is still the only place I really feel entirely normal...lol