Music and I have been hanging out together for quite a while. I wrote my first song in 1971. I’ll leave the math to you on how long that means I’ve been at it. The first time I played outside my living room was at a friend’s wedding. A few hours before the ceremony while the wedding pictures were being taken I was practicing in the church balcony trying not to be heard or seen by the photographer. He finally spotted me and said, “If you’re going to play, do it so I can hear you. I’m really getting into it.”
I’ve been playing so people can hear me ever since. First there was the rock and roll band that every singer/songwriter has lurking in their past. I followed that with an acoustic trio in the second half of the 70’s. Just me, two pretty college girls, an Econoline van and a few coffee houses and county fairs. Alas, it wasn’t long before I became a solo act again.
I went back to house parties and my living room until I landed in Kirkland Washington a suburb of Seattle in 1979 after departing from the small rural community where I grew up. It took a few years, but I eventually discovered the open mic nights that flourished in the area. Coffee shops, cafés, bookstores, saloons, even shopping malls offered a chance to continue writing, performing and meeting other musicians.
In 1994 I moved to Duvall Washington with my wife and daughter. Duvall has been a great place for me for a lot of reasons. It’s a small rural community much like where my story begins. Most important for me it’s a place where I’ve come into my own as a songwriter. I owe much to a woman by the name of Paula McDonald who invited local musicians to her regular open mic nights at her Duvall café, the P&G Speakeasy. Over the years Paula offered a place where every musician of any skill level could count on respect, and encouragement.
I played there often, eventually doing my own Saturday night shows and meeting a lot of great folks along the way. I gained the confidence there to play other venues that my local friends will recognize including the Oxford Saloon, Celtic Bayou, Soulfood Books and the Duvall and Snoqualmie Farmer’s markets.
A friend of mine told me that the rest of the world may never know me, but lucky for me, I was big in Duvall. Musically and metaphorically that “struck a chord” with me and I’ve taken it to heart. If I can be big in Duvall can the world be far behind?
My songs are all drawn from life experiences. Some are very personal and others are inspired by the lives of people around me. They all have a grain of truth and a real story behind them. My “short stories and tall tales” are almost always sung from a bar stool (I bring it along). I’m looking forward to continuing to grow as a musician and I’m starting to do more – like this website – to get the word out so I can play where people can hear me a lot more often.
Maybe I’ll see you at a café, tavern, charity event, winery, wine bar, music festival, open mic, house party, or (fill in the blank) sometime soon. Who knows, maybe you’ll invite me to one. Maybe it won’t be in Duvall.