A classically trained violinist who has traveled the world playing violin and guitar and singing background vocals behind multi-Grammy winning superstar Taylor Swift. Along the way she has appeared on television numerous times, from the Academy Awards to the GRAMMYs to “Saturday Night Live” to “Good Morning America,” the Oprah Winfrey Show, and more. She also plays mandolin and has also toured and recorded with Ringo Starr, and just recently came off the road from having been out with the Rolling Stones. She has even performed for the troops overseas as part of several USO Tours. In terms of her own original music, she has released five singles this year alone.
“I started touring when I was about 19 (years old).”
“When you leave (to go on tour) you hit Pause on your life. And you come back however many years later and weddings have happened, and kids have happened and here you are back again, and you’ve missed your life. And it is a huge sacrifice for this whole glitz and glamour.”
“In Nashville, there’s a joke, ‘Add a word, get a third,’ because even if that’s all you do and there’s three of you in the room, it is an even third split. It’s different in pop and in the L.A. songwriting world, but in Nashville it’s equal, equal, equal.”
“I have made such a career out of wearing a handful of different hats, and I guess I’m just carrying that into my songwriting career.”
“I was 21 (years old)… and I thought, ‘Well, I play classical music, so I can play anything.’ I was very quickly knocked off my high horse on that one. They started playing ‘Fulsom Prison’ and I said, ‘Well, what is this?’ And they said, ‘It’s Johnny Cash.’ And I said, ‘Who is Johnny Cash’?”
“The difference between a fiddle player and a violinist, a lot of times I make these jokes. It depends on the gig, or it depends on how much beer is spilled on the instrument… But ultimately, a lot of times, I just take pull out my instrument and show people [mimics different sounds]. Beethoven versus Johnny Cash. Maybe a string section for Celine Dion would be violin and somebody playing for the Charlie Daniels Band would be a fiddle.”
“When you’re working for some of the biggest songwriters in the industry, it can sometimes be a touchy subject to be putting your own songs out at the same time. Sometimes. Sometimes.”
“I’ve kept a journal since I was eleven years old, and I still have every single one.”
“One thing leads to another and all of them talk, and they all know each other. It’s kind of like the film industry. You know, you start seeing two people, two actors, that were hanging out at a party and then all of a sudden, they’re doing a movie together later. You know, everybody’s connected.”
“I had just gotten off the road with Ringo Starr and, that was when I was living in L.A., but I was pretty miserable living in L.A. It just wasn’t the right place for me, so I moved back to Nashville.”
“I was playing for some lovely people, a couple of American Idol runner-ups, Bucky Covington, he was fantastic. And we were sound checking at an event where we were opening for this little blonde girl named Taylor Swift and Taylor Swift was opening for Dierks Bentley… After the sound check I walked down the stage off the side steps and she just kind of cut me off at the pass and got up and put her hand out and said, ‘You were awesome. I’m Taylor’.”
“When they called to offer me the gig, I almost didn’t take it because I thought, ‘Well, I don’t know if this little girl is gonna do anything’.”
“Wembley Stadium was amazing. Royal Albert Hall with Ringo was amazing… They were all amazing, but I’m noticing that the nerves are the same at Wembley as they are at the Holiday Inn banquet room at 4pm tonight.”
“The Road”
“The River Just Flows”