She plays eleven different instruments and is a seasoned performer and headliner of over 4000 festivals and concerts. She tells an amazing tale about being in a car accident such that she hit the windshield and the visor hit her throat and one of her vocal chords was paralyzed and they weren't sure it was ever going to move again. ("I'm a walking miracle," she says.) She is going to Europe later this year to tour, having just released her latest album, "Blazing." She produces music for herself and other artists, produces shows and videos, and is co-writing a novel trilogy about the music world. A true nomad, she talks during this interview about being born in Alabama and moving to Minnesota and California (now lives in Nashville).
"I started really young. So, I was just barely five (years old) when I started playing and I was actually touring professionally when I was six."
"I love stories... and I love movies, so every song is kind of like a little movie in my head."
"I don't think there's enough story songs anymore so I love writing about just weird subjects and things that just inspire me or especially things that are a little dark."
"I think just having experiences opens your mind more and then if you can write about something that maybe you haven't done but you can relate to it because you've done something similar, like you've felt that pain or you've climbed that mountain or you did that... I can draw from other things and get a feel."
"A lot of those old tunes, like written (in the) 1800s and before, they're very beautiful... nowadays I think we don't get as intricate sometimes with the music as they did back then on some of those beautiful songs."
"The Country Music Hall of Fame, they let us go through their sheet music, like in their basement, in the archive, and we were always looking for waltzes, and we found this old sheet music called 'Flowers of the Dell' and it was just a beautiful song, so I'll tell people that and I'll play that for them... and I think some of that history has influenced how I write today."
"They always talk about... the idea of a successful musician is 'famous.' I think a lot of people get that idea, 'rich and famous,' but I think the idea of, like, when you've made it as a musician is when you're able to do nothing but your music and luckily for me I do nothing but my music."
"Blazing"
"I Face Somewhere"