She has opened for the likes of George Jones, Tanya Tucker, Lee Greenwood, Billy Ray Cyrus, and more. Plus, she has performed with Mick Fleetwood. She also once had the opportunity to interview the legendary B.B. King. More recently she has been in the studio recording new music and is also a part of the Last Honkytonk Music Series, both of which are talked about in this interview. A singer, songwriter, guitar player, she has performed at the famous Bluebird Café in Nashville and just a couple weeks ago did a number of performances during the 35th Frank Brown International Songwriters Festival on the Alabama/Florida border.
"When I stepped off the plane (in Nashville) the first time I felt like there was just music in the air and I knew I needed to get back there, so I came back every year... Finally, in 1999, I had the courage to quit my job and just sell everything I owned and move to Nashville."
"This place is brutal. Nashville is a wonderful place to be, but I am not by any stretch of the imagination advocating for anyone to quit their job because it's hard enough just to be alive here in Nashville, especially doing music. It's cutthroat."
"Mick (Fleetwood) was standing behind me after dinner and I looked back and... I said, 'Well Mick, we're going to go play music and if you're inspired by anything I'm playing I would love to have you play.' And he didn't even wait, he just went and sat down ... at his (drum) kit."
"I believe that people could manifest what they actually visualize and concentrate on."
"Phrasing is everything and knowing your place is everything and you gotta pay your dues."
"There's a pecking order kind of thing and just know your place and observe and let people get to know you without an agenda. If you have an agenda you're going to be blackballed. You're going to be pushed aside and cast aside and you will not get an opportunity because people are gonna know that you're starved for attention."
"You don't approach a hit writer or a writer for that matter and say, 'I'd like to write with you,' because that right away puts their defenses up... If they like what you're doing and you're out there networking in the songwriter rounds... and they hear what you're like and they approach you, that's a different story."
"(B.B. King) was the most amazing and genuine human being that I've had the privilege of speaking with and I tear up when I think about him being gone."
"Before you sign anything, please make sure you know what you're signing."
"I want the listener to hear and feel what I felt when I wrote it. And feel the joy or feel the pain or feel the sadness or feel the happiness or whatever I'm feeling or trying to convey. And I think that if they don't feel what I was feeling when I wrote it then I haven't done my job."
"A song means so many things to different people in so many ways."
"Music is literature and it should be interpreted freely."
"You have to have a selfless view on life. You can't just be doing this for fame and fortune because that's not what music is about. It's about giving back to people and making people heal and feel, and they just can't be self-serving humans."
"That's the main recipe for success is use common sense on everything you do."
"Networking is the most efficient way to get anywhere in the music industry."
"You require (patience) to sustain yourself in this industry."
"I can't give back to the veterans and the active military enough for what they've done for us and what they do for us."
"Never Look Back"
"Someone Like Me"
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