I was born and raised in South Dakota, number nine in a family of ten children. My Grandparents were immigrants from Germany and Russia, homesteading on the farm I grew up on. While growing up in a musical family sparked my interest in keyboard and music at a young age, it wasn't until High School that I really began to think seriously about a career in music. I credit my piano teacher at the time for bringing me to this point. Upon college graduation I taught music, landed a job as accompanist for the Omaha Public Schools and had a private piano studio. My love of keyboard continued to grow as I would play arrangements of my favorite gospel and contemporary songs for church services (Mark Hayes is my all time favorite arranger).
Upon moving to Brandon,SD I began writing music for a friend and the ease with which I could write songs was very exciting to me. I purchased a Yamaha Clavinova and my song writing took off. I was able to connect my keyboard to my computer and sing to my accompaniments so it became very simple for me to record what I had written and put them on a CD to send them along for critique. Taking my music to another level required someone in the industry to guide me.
My first contact was Don Reed who was able to talk me into coming to Nashville and record a promotional video to be used as a demo. A label in Europe was interested but needed 2 songs professsionally recorded. It got me going on this venture and I sent these songs to a local station that not only gave me airplay but also invited me to perform live on a radio show! I was shocked when I heard my music on the radio for the first time. It was very gratifying to know that God had allowed me to acheive what I had set out to do. At the time, I was recording someone elses originals and wasn't comfortable with any of them especially since they were secular. I had no desire to be a secular artist so I picked my best compositions and decided to record 5 of them. My brother heard them and loved them so insisted that I do 5 more to make a full CD. That CD, LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE, ended up on the top 100 itunes chart in Japan(#88) and was part of the Pepsi Points Promotion which consisted of the most popular music on itunes. To my knowledge I did not receive airplay but was encouraged by the recognition.
Under the direction of Don Reed/ Affinity Music I was able to work with Mark Mosely and his wonderful studio musicians, also Eric Stratton and his company, Galaxy Entertainment. Eric created several videos for me including THE REAL MEANING OF CHRISTMAS from my Christmas CD, OH! WHAT A GIFT, which was realeased in the Top 20/40 charts on the Asperion Label, the largest independent label in the country.
With the release of my third album, MY GOD CAN, came the promotion to radio like I'd never known under the watchful eye of Dixie atTripleStrandProductions. With her promotion I charted many times in Europe on the ECMA charts. She even thinks I may have set a record with 323 stations adding THE REAL MEANING OF CHRISTMAS to their playlists in one week, the week of Dec. 24th! While I am encouraged by all of this I still have more goals and challenges ahead. I hope to record yet another CD of all original material and would love to do some touring with a band and backup vocals, maybe have a song or two that tops the Billboard Charts, so we'll see what the future holds and whatever the Lord wills. In the meantime I will keep you, my fans, up to date on this new blogspot.
