Biography

Well, I'm not much for small talk, so here I am...

My Music: It's been carried and birthed from 4 decades of circumstances that have shaped who I am. My influences have always been from people who don't fit into the industry-driven blender, with little substance behind it. I seek truth and genuineness in worship, in people, and in me. I am moved by perfect strangers that have incredible life stories just as I am moved by people who think they have no life story. In that, is a story worth telling. I am shaped by my trials and the fires I've gone through. I write about the ebb and flows in my life when I danced despite the hurts, and the times I've fallen and failed and wanted to do nothing but hide away and be invisible. My music has become my transparent mirror. I don't hold back the words because I've finally learned it's ok to embrace my trials and mistakes and use them to minister to others who are going through the same. What I know is that God is good and God will never leave you, no matter what kind of mess you've made of your life, or things that have happened to you that are beyond your control. Music as a whole is about being different. Worship is about being one. I am both. My music really can't be boxed into a certain category at all. It includes symphonic orchestrations, lyrical dance, flowing with the Holy Spirit, instrumental and prophetic soaking, personal dedications, praise and worship, children's music, good old back porch folk, and there's much I still feel a burning to explore. I have no genre. I am what I am.

My Testimony: After my Dad died from a very unexpected and sudden 30-day battle with brain and lung cancer, I made an impromptu decision and moved away from home and all my family and friends, broken and battered and a shell of myself. I ended up 800 miles away, forging my way through a great deal of challenges during and after a volatile and abusive relationship unraveled beyond control and repair. During that first year, I moved 9 times and became progressively more depressed, and physically, mentally, and spiritually starved. I was broke and alone. I couldn't seem to escape the chains of desperation and hopelessness. I lived in my car sporadically in fear, or literally locked in my dark bedroom not making a noise, surviving on beef jerky and baby food, avoiding the places I was living, as I would certainly be physically and verbally attacked, stalked, and threatened over and over again by the people shattering my life in that season. I had trouble holding down a job and merely functioning and feeling human, because the depression was so overwhelming and all-consuming. I had many suicidal thoughts, but thankfully I was also very afraid of dying or hurting myself and my loved ones... so I held on and prayed, even though I didn't really know anything real about God or if He knew me at all. Then one night, while I was alone sitting in the dark with literally about 42 cents to my name, I met Jesus as I channel surfed through a handful of late night preachers on tv. It felt like they were all talking directly to me, looking into my soul, reading my mail from the inside out and back again until I surrendered everything and put my life into God's hands. I plugged into a Bible study after calling the suicide hotline (and getting their answering machine), combing through the phone book for a church, and finding a safe place to live, in that order. Even though that first church was only for a season, I met my husband there and we became grounded as best friends for years before anything romantic materialized. He actually fell in love with me first, even though I wanted nothing more than friendship. He even showed up on a date of mine, and introduced himself to the guy by shaking his hand, saying, "You can date her, but I'm going to marry her...". He was my first unconditional male friend I ever had. He loved me baggage and all, and for that, I will always be thankful.

My Person: God's rocked my world and opened up my heart and shown me how to trust again. I would describe myself as hungry. Purposeful. Reflective. Unconventional. Colorful. Respectful. Sometimes unexpected. Intricate. Compassionate. Quiet and reserved (except when I'm not). A good friend. Praying to make a positive difference. Striving to live a faith-filled life but without all the striving part and just "being" and resting in Him. I am Loving. I am Loyal. I am a spiritual person. I believe everything happens for a reason in both tragedy and victory, even if we may never know while on earth why the terrible things happen to good people. I believe in miracles. I believe in Heaven and Hell. I believe life is fragile and vulnerable and it's time we stop playing games and just breathe in each day like we're not going to be here tomorrow. I don't take anyone for granted. I know loss. Describe me as quietly bold. Even peripherally on the frontlines. I am propelled and inspired by art and dance, by poems and passions, by different cultures and people, by learning from failure, and by practicing the creative process. I'm in the details. Please don't placate me with momentary or superficial regards. Get to know me. Be real with me. Tell me the truth. And I'll return the same.

Fun fact: I am both a descendant of the mission-minded Bohemians who founded the 24 hour worship at Moravian Falls, North Carolina, and a descendant of the French Canadian Ispiritu Sanctu tribe, which means the tribe of the Holy Spirit. When I found these things out, I felt like my heart made sense for the first time in my life.

I started writing poems that eventually evolved in songs when I was a 10 years old. About the same time I started playing piano and flute. I sang with numerous chorales and on telethons throughout my youth. I was a movie extra, and in a couple of tv pilots in my late teens, and always involved in the creative or performing arts in some capacity. All of that was great and all, but I still had a void that secular music could neither fill nor bring me a sense of fulfillment. After I gave my life to God in my mid-20's, I plugged in and became wooed into worship, which finally started to fill the empty places in my life and dust away the cobwebs in my heart. I spent over a decade on praise teams and leading worship at my prior church, and served for many years on their mission board alongside my husband. One of the most life-changing seasons was when I was in an outreach worship band, which ministered on the street directly to the hungry. Being a vessel to feed the hungry through worship got deep into my soul and opened my eyes that there was so much more intimacy in God that I had not even touched yet, and I wanted more of Him in every way, and I wanted to pour Him out of me in every way. In the spring of 2004, God led me to step down from the Sunday morning team in our prior congregation so I could focus on walking in a more intimate relationship of worship and intercession, and a different depth of song writing and missions. In 2005 I had the great opportunity to record with our amazing producer friend at his studio in Turkey. Shortly thereafter I recorded two demos back in the States, while building up a catalog of songs that walk along the journey God's taken me over the last 15 or more years. I am an experienced and seasoned worship leader, and along with fellow Faith Said Yes member, Scott DePretontaine, I have a burning passion for soaking and the prophetic worship that the Holy Spirit is pouring out to the nations fiery worshipers, and the hungry, lost, and hurting. I am currently in the studio working on a new worship album on the tail of Take Me Back To The River and Faith Said Yes' new releases. So much new is unfolding, with new pieces falling into place, and old pieces dying away. I never really know what to expect next. I didn't ever think my heart was this big to fit everything in like it does. I'm stretched, but happy. Love and empathy has had a new way with me lately. I am wrecked.

I've been married for 15 years to my wonderful, supporting husband Tripp, who not only is my sound engineer and co-producer, but also my best friend and business partner. He loves me through all my imperfections and as it was said in Jerry Maguire, "for who I almost am". Our teenage daughter is brilliantly artistic and reflective with her own unique style of whimsy. Our wee lad was born 2 months prematurely, and fought every bit of the way to be here, receiving incredible miracles of healing from God along the way. Fully healed, and as normal as any little boy, he has a gentle and tender heart and worships in the spirit like a gladiator. Both kids are spunky and vocal and opinionated and have a unexpected sense of humor. I can't imagine life without them. By vocation I am the lead graphic artist and creative director for Mindwatering, a web/print design, Lotus Notes development, and hosting company that my husband and I began when we got married. I serve on most projects as executive/creative producer for our professional recording studio, South Main Studios. Early on, God laid a specific ministry upon our hearts with our studio, and that is to use it as a vessel to teach people how to "fish" in worship and sound design and engineering. With the new studio expansion nearing completion, we will be starting those fishing boot camps, where singer/songwriters and bands will be chosen to come in with their original worship music, and we will teach and mentor them in how to record and engineer their projects. Our heart is to gather together a passionate, moving team of other special very seasoned, mature, and passionate musicians, engineers, and producers who will join us in pouring into all the worshipers who will pass through our doors. In both arenas of our studio and Mindwatering, we have asked the Lord to incorporate our talents into Kingdom work. He has filled the many years with wonderful projects, relationships, and new roads to do just that. My college concentration was fine art, and someday I will make the time to go back to my roots in printmaking and pen and ink. I will also get my hands into the many facets of art that I love, like pottery, jewelry, painting, film, woodworking, and sculpture. I have a shirt that says "Go to your studio and make stuff". That pretty much sums up what I want to do. I want to make stuff and let God's creative juices flow. I want to teach others how to do the same. The Lord did not give us passions and skills and desires to be squandered. He knew exactly who we were to be. Psalm 139.

My Future: I just want to be in the center of my Heavenly Daddy's will. I'm a girl from a small Midwest town who grew up watching life outside her bedroom window, wishing and hoping for everything a little girl wants. I want to make music that touches someone. I pray I never miss when my Daddy wants to whisper in my ear, or when He wants me to whisper love in someone else's. My soul aches for Moms with hearts that are breaking into a million pieces, especially. I want to wrap my hugs and prayers around others who are hurting, and who have suffered great loss. I want to do this for the babies who grew their wings too soon, and for the others, who are surviving here with us. I write from where I am overflowing in joy, where I ache and am stirred inside, and I just let it flow out of me without any agenda. I write for complete strangers whose own stories touch me on a carnal level I never thought possible. Their stories and images stay with me, like a bittersweet kiss you never want to end. I hope this music ministers in triumph and sorrow. I hope it brings peace, celebration, tribute, and perhaps even hope.