Bio Continued

Now I teach vocals in my own style. To me it is all about listening to your inside voice and
then connecting that with the notes. Simple. Looking back I realize that even I, who was not a great singer to start, can
belt out a tune after awhile. I was amazed at how a person can develop vocally. It is
just like learning and improving on any instrument. I have to admit I am a bit of a surveyor in my travails as a musician. I
believe now that anyone can sing well. I teach that tenaciously. So I began writing in a college band. “Miles to Go” was the name. Now that is a hot name, eh? We did a record,
refurbished an old bus, and went on the road after we graduated. The bus blew up
just out of St. Louis and we were never the same. The band broke up but the writing bug stayed. I knew one friend who played guitar. Her name was Diane Ferguson.

I was not good enough to play by myself so I quickly drafted her and we set off. She
agreed to start a little band with me. We called it Plaid Descent. We did our first show on parents weekend at DePauw. We
were both, uhmmm, hilariously not so good. But I told her, after the show at three a.m. on the way to get breakfast, (musicians do that when they are young and fresh) ‘Diane, if we can do that we can do anything.’ When a person sings in
front of people, or shares song, it has a tendency to bring the most vulnerable spots forth. This never really goes away.
An artist just gets more “pro” about covering it up. At least that is my experience. I was proud of our little gig.
Plaid Descent released its first CD after six months of being together. We would release two more before we hung up our
Plaid. The band would grow to five members.
What a good time … this band was lucky. Although we are better musicians today, we had an energy when we all played together.

I never could understand why so many people liked us. Maybe it was our chemistry. These are things that are sometimes not definable. You just have to ride and not question it. To this day we are all still friends. Diane has continued to write and we recently co-wrote the song, Better Time of Day, released on my most current project, Wrapped Around It. I met my partner and husband in the band Plaid Descent. He was the drummer, I was the singer. Soon I began co-writing with him and we wrote nearly all of the material off of my first two CD projects. He is a poet at heart. I would simply take his words and craft music and melody
around it. I have been writing, producing and
being in a band for nearly ten plus years. I have performed hundreds of shows. I love the studio experience and I really enjoy the live experiences. What this has all taught me is that the music, the connection it makes to the inner person and then to another is the most valuable experience garnered from music. I don’t care if there are thirty in the crowd, three hundred or three thousand. If they enjoy it and we have an experience together that is the component that makes it memorable. To this day I am heartened when someone even makes mention that they like my music. I hope it is a healing agent for them. It starts as a healing agent for me. About the business? Hollywood and all that jazz? Who knows? Today I just find that I want to write for me and for you.
At the end of the end of the day that is what counts. It is the sacred connection to another. It is not unlike most things that connect us to one another. That is
the most meaningful aspect of what I do
and it should stay that way.