My childhood was typical of many musicians, I suppose; you could often find singing around the kitchen table. I was raised near Akron, Ohio, in a historical little town called Tallmadge. My father, Wayne, was an appliance salesman at Sears & Roebuck. He could also play a mean accordion. Oh, we were the neighborhood Oom-Pah Gang — Daddy would haul out that big keyboard and we’d polka all over the backyard! I’d grab my sister and we’d ‘Roll Out the Barrel’ til we fell down dizzy. I’ve loved music ever since.
The other side of the family hailed from East Tennessee. My mother, Opal, and her sister Shirley played guitars and sang what they simply called “hillbilly music” and old gospel quartet numbers my grandparents taught them. Even as a small child, I loved the feel of these old songs and easily memorized the melodies, harmonies and lyrics. Now that I’ve been around skilled musicians as an adult, I realize what incredible harmony singers we had in the family. I give them full credit for whatever good ear I may have.
I jumped headfirst into my mother’s old Silvertone when I was ten. A Beatles songbook and an AM transistor radio became my best friends. I soaked up the music of Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary, Simon & Garfunkle, Ian & Sylvia, John Denver and Gordon Lightfoot, just as the Folk era began to wane in the mid-60s. My attention was drawn to current popular music and at eighteen, I began performing in a local nightspot singing Top 40 hits.
A dozen years of working in clubs followed — rock, disco, pop, swing, each type of music seemed to give added strength and adaptability to my voice. I moved around a little, to Kentucky and Florida, playing in clubs and lounges, as a single and with small combos. I would study and learn different styles of music to keep working, but at parties, I brought out my guitar and old folk tunes and everybody sang along.
A romance with Country Music brought me to Nashville in 1978. Here I played more clubs, including World Famous Printers Alley, had the honor of sharing the stage with Merle Haggard, Marty Robbins, the Gatlin Brothers and other headliners, recorded scores of songwriter demos, and made occasional TV and radio appearances. I started to get a feel for what the next level of performing was about. It involved a total commitment to living on the road, having excellent diplomacy and people-handling skills, and access to plenty of money. None of which I had. About that time, I began to notice that the music was changing. Country Music began to inherit a rock influence. Acoustic rhythms were replaced with electric styling and the fiddle sat on the sidelines. It was definitely not what I came to Nashville to do.
A summer-long bus tour as a sideman in 1983 finally cured me of longing for the big time. As much as I loved singing my heart out, the reality of living on the road really got to me. Even though I liked the folks I was traveling with, I was never so lonely in my life. Days seemed to have no end. My gut told me there was no way I could emotionally survive out there.
Discouraged, I laid down my guitar. Fortunately, I had had some bookkeeping work between singing jobs. In 1984, I joined the Nashville Sales & Marketing Executives Association as their executive director, where I remained for 14 years. The next eight years I worked as office manager and art director for a small advertising agency. These days I work from home as a graphic designer, loving the creative freedom of it.
In 1996 I befriended Jack Horner, lead singer with The Road to Ruin Ramblers, a traditional Bluegrass band well known in the Nashville area. Our voices blended beautifully. I accepted an invitation to join the group, drawn by a sense of connection as I realized that in the Bluegrass framework, I might be able to perform some of those great old tunes my mother sang when I was a little girl. After all, the old timey “feel” was embedded in my DNA. It’s been a great friendship and we’ve enjoyed many years of great bluegrass jamming and performing together. Jack also took me to my first folksinging contest in 1996.
To date, my winning contest repertoire has included Sweet Betsy From Pike, Black Jack Davy, Darcy Farrow, Little Rosewood Casket, Shady Grove, Pretty Saro, Give My Love to Nellie Jack, The Storms Are On The Ocean, and some others good ‘uns. I’ve been lucky. A dozen first-place plaques now hang on my living room wall.
My song list now holds mostly old songs. I like to weave together songs from the Appalachians, folk songs from the 1960s and 70s, and a little traditional Gospel. People have been singing variations of some of these songs for hundreds of years. I just marvel at how long these melodies have been carrying stories. It’s absolutely my favorite music in the world.
I’m hoping to compete for the first time next year at the Old Time Fiddlers Convention in Galax, VA, the largest singing competition in the region, which presents cash awards to ten entrants — most contests have only three finalists. A massive number of people enter. I’ve heard it takes nearly a full day. And I’ve heard there’s only a single round. One tune. No finals. Uh, that should be challenging enough…
I perform periodically as a single, with bassist Tami Roth in The Saggy Bottom Girls, with Anna Scala andDarith DeLisle in the Lonesome Doves, or with my favorite duet partner Jack Horner. I’m also a member of the Rude Dogs Blewgrass Band and the Small Time String Band.
In 2004, I became interested in Old-Time Music when I met fiddler Kirk Pickering, who for six years held the popular weekly Pegram Jam at his home just outside Nashville. I fell in love with both Old-Time Music and Kirk, and eventually moved in. Now bitten by the fiddle tune bug, I’m studying clawhammer banjo, hoping to someday play Old Time in the rollicking style of Uncle Earl and San Francisco’s Stairwell Sisters. I’ve compiled a book of chord charts for 400 Old-Time Tunes you’re welcome to download and use for reference; it’s currently available on our PegramJam website.
Nowadays I teach at the Musical Heritage Center of Middle Tennessee located here in Pegram. I give beginner guitar lessons, rhythm guitar by ear, and have developed a course on how to warm up your voice efficiently and effectively.