this is me....

it began in cleveland. i was born.
circumstances moved me to los angeles’ east side
i fell in love with tacos, i kept looking for snow, i saw an ocean full of promise
i hopped trains to school with kids whose family members were in gangs.

my sister had cerebral palsy
she taught us about love.

moved to the san fernando valley.
teenaged daydream, gardenias outside the window, my first guitar, joni’s blue., led zeppelin five.
my first boyfriend happens at a stevie wonder concert.

i fall in love with words.

high school, mastered several chords on a guitar via my mom and bob dylan songbooks.
made up songs and folks listened.

Nashville…got booed, got loved, got told “go to la or new york”.

la wins. met the rave-ups, got to play on the same bills as both of the williams women...
victoria and lucinda respectively.

train to nowhere” becomes my train to somewhere. the rave-ups play it...people listen.
just like that.

island records, they sign me, i make two records.  
"soundtrack of my life", "two sides".
they let me go. now a girl without an island, i wait on tables.
then the earth quaked.

so where do i go, idaho. cows horses deer fox eagles muskrats ducks geese skies full of stars.
a good place to be after earthquakes and lost record deals and broken hearts.
i read and write and read and write for five years. college graduated

albuquerque., americorps, art center, vsa, north fourth, music teacher for artists with disabilities.

joined the band,  “the anti-social butterflies”  and it finally feels like my music mattered and i fall in love with music all over again.

san diego…family love.... here comes facebook. old music friends resurface, tim, jimmer, alison.......

i write some songs .i want to record them.

on what would be one of many rides to a train, alison says, “Julian Coryell should produce this, he has great chords”. i meet him, we talk, we play a song or two. it feels like i am home and in the presence of a genius,  but most importantly we have the same hair. i think we might be kin… and alison was right about the chords.

so we make a record........"where the pavement grows"

and after many months of trains and buses and subways, rides at 1AM with alison on broken down freeways, the rose and the firehouse diet.
soundfiles, emails, texts, doubts, fears, laughter, elation, exhaustion and lots and lots of tears of joy.

i can now say without a doubt this is
the record
i have waited all my life
to make