My website got a facelift!

Hello and welcome to my website 2.0. I'm so excited to share the news that I've been working with Blue Rose Music. Later this summer we will be releasing my song 'Stetson' along with a video that we recently made that I've honestly been working on the past 2 years.  It's hard to believe it but 2 years ago during this exact time I was diagnosed with Stage II breast cancer. I was just about to release "What She's Got to Give" and I was forced to put all my plans on hold until further notice. It really shook me to hear that news and to realize my life was being threatened by a disease. But to my great surprise, my family, friends, and musical community far and wide came together to support me in every way known possible and I learned so much about what it means to receive healing. Throughout my journey, I documented the process of going through breast cancer with my friend Stacie Huckeba. I didn't know what we were doing besides 'taking pictures of my boobs before they were gone' but we were actually accomplishing so much more. Stacie compassionately photographed me during some of the most vulnerable moments of my life and put everything in 'the vault' as she called it. "When you are ready, we can see what we have." During this period of time I also composed a song, right as I was losing my hair during chemotherapy. It's one thing to have a mastectomy. It's a concealed wound. No one had to 'know' unless they already knew what I was going through. But to go through chemotherapy as a young woman and lose all my hair (and I had quite a mane) was more traumatizing to me than I had expected. So one day when I was sitting on the couch I scribbled down a few phrases that came to me and as I picked up a guitar to find a melody around it, the song seemed to play itself. 

You see, I had all of my different looks sitting on my table. I had a bunch of styrofoam heads and I dressed them up with a variety of wigs and hats and scarves. I actually had fun doing this, as I've usually been fairly streamlined in my fashion, I wasn't the type to 'glam up' usually. But now I had a reason to play around a little. Mostly I wanted to find ways to look like myself, because I was still performing a little bit locally despite being pretty drained from the chemo. But playing and having a reason to get out was actually healing for me at the time. I had the thought that if I had the 'perfect Stetson' I would be able to remain in my body. It kind of felt like a little joke I was telling myself to help get through some tough times. And when I played the song for the first time, I think I laughed a little bit before I cried. And I've always thought if a song can make you laugh and cry within those 3-5 minutes, the songwriter has done a good job. 

I had met Joe from Blue Rose Music the week before I had written that song. When he said, 'What would you like to do?' without hesitation I said 'Let's record Stetson.' So here we are. 

Stay tuned for our release of the video and song. Meanwhile I will be going out to California this weekend to participate in the Blue Rose Ball with some other artists who are also working with Blue Rose, including Jason Crosby, The Mother Hips, Jackie Greene, Elliott Peck, and Laura Reed.