Let’s face it. You live with yourself, your face your hands for the rest of your life. I remember, back when I was bursting into ‘teen-dom’ being struck with the notion, hit with the plain truth that I would be stuck with me forever and it was right there, just between myself and my reflection where I came to the conclusion that there was only one way. I just had to accept myself. I think it may have also been the first time that I realized I wasn’t just a daughter, sister or kid, but that I was my own entity and from then on, it was my life, MY very own life. I had no idea at the time what life would be about, but I sure hoped that it would be bigger than my parents rules, school bus seating, bedroom decor, fashion, sleep-over’s and homework. Music was a thread, sewn through me, more than I knew, during this ‘breaking-out-into-the-real-world-for-the-first-time’ phase. I would sit in front of my ghetto-blaster after school learning the words to all my favourite songs (Cyndi Laupers ‘True Colours’, Madonna’s ‘La Isla Bonita’ etc) and I would record myself on tape, singing along, playing the music on low volume, to be sure I could hear myself (not having the slightest clue that I would do the same thing years later in a real live studio!!) I listened to those tapes and made new ones, eventually making my own songs, searching through my treasure trunk, dressing the part as well. I had dreams to sing on stages, again with no clue that those dreams would eventually turn to reality, (and how!)
Wherever I went, as a young girl, a teenager or now, as an adult, I have this music inside me, this flow that, simply put, keeps me going. Through rejection, pain, depression, anger, fear; ultimately REAL LIFE, I know I have this neat thing within and when I sit down with my guitar and let ‘er rip, all of the negative just floats off, somewhere else, (for the time being) and if that’s what happens to ME when I sing, then I just KNOW I have to sing for others too. So I put it out there for you, on occasion and I hope you like it. From me to you, that’s how it works with this musical gift… it’s the least I can do and it is how I will leave my mark. Perhaps one would call it a legacy, I will call it luck.