More me ...  I finally did take piano lessons until I fell in love with Clint Eastwood.

Rawhide aired the same night as my lessons, so that was that. I played a mean clarinet 

in grade school but only because my mother wouldn't let me play violin. My Uncle LLoyd

had attempted violin as a child and he supposedly made horrible screeching sounds while practicing.

Mom quickly discovered that my clarinet's squeak was worse. I sang in the school and church choirs

throughout most of my school years,(I always played the Virgin Mary in the Christmas pageants),and took

tap and ballet lessons. By high school I had become known in my family as "The Quitter"so it makes perfect 

sense that I had to beg and plead with my Mother to buy a guitar at age 13. She finally gave in with the stipulation, "No lessons, no help, you figure it out." So I practiced diligently and learned quite a few chords

but when I tried to sing and play along with my records, using the sheet music for the album,it didn't sound

right. I was in the wrong key. I looked up the word Capo,and realized I needed one. My mother's response

was, "tough luck". I don't blame her. She'd reached her tipping point. It was 30+ years before I picked up another guitar, after learning how to play upright bass while performing in a "Newgrass" band and "spin off"

folk duo. In the mid '90's I started co-writing songs. Several of these songs appeared on tapes we sold at festivals and folk clubs. In 1997 I sold my farm,sold my horses,sold my house, and hit the road in my blue

Voyager,("Almost Half Way Home"). I learned how to play guitar while on the road, and the rest is history

I moved to Florida just long enough to make friends and discover the wonderful Florida folk community. I

went on another short ramble before backtracking to Fl. for my first Florida Folk Festival. My plan was to

head back to Kerrville, but instead I followed my heart and a very tall man north to Ga. where I watched

birds, butterflies, ("Hey Little Sparrow"), and wrote the songs for my first solo release,"Paradise Motel".

 

                                       

 

                                     

                                                             

                                    I had some beginner's luck with these songs (and a co-write) in major

                                   songwriting contests - Melefest's Chris Austin, (with co-writer Bo Jamison),

                                    Suwannee Springfest, Kerrville's New Folk,and,the one that got me started,

                                    The Will Mclean Florida Song Contest. Thank you Margaret Longhill!