If you could duet with anyone dead or alive who would it be?

That is a really great question. I’ve often imagined myself collaborating with Rob Thomas, who I think is a tremendous writer. And the country girl in me imagines dueting with Keith Urban...fabulous voice and great energy. But honestly, all things considered and from the perspective of having one of those once-in-a-lifetime amazing dreams come true, I would have to say Elton John. I have always listened to him with such respect and his skills and talent and presence have always inspired me and frankly humbled me. In a review of “Stories from the Treehouse”, the reviewer, Don Kiminenker of earbuzz.com, drew a comparison to an Elton John record and I just about fell off my chair. It is a huge compliment to even be mentioned in the same sentence.

Who are your musical influences?

Who hasn’t had an influence on me? I think over time I have been influenced in different ways and for different reasons. And I think influence is a cultural, socio-economic consequence, too. I started out as a tiny kid with an AM radio lying in bed listening to country music radio and artists like Willy Nelson and Glenn Campbell and Dolly. And I loved the Carpenters. My grandfather had, what to my little hands seemed like a huge record collection. He was inflicted with Parkinson’s for all of my life knowing him. Before he was totally immobilized he taught me how to use his stereo and let me play his big band records. Later, when he was really compromised I would put on a favourite of his and sing along and dance around the room while he watched and listened in his chair. Heck, I sang along to everything from Grease to the Beach Boys to Stevie Wonder...love Stevie Wonder. As a really young kid I was limited in part by what my parents had in the house... but it didn’t take me long to absorb everything from Neil Diamond to Bob Dylan... In the end, for most of my younger life I was always drawn toward the controversial...the hippie stuff. Me and my guitar and my throwback flower-childness... I drove my parents nuts! The Rolling Stones.. Heart. Fleetwood Mac... Dylan, Crosby Stills and Nash, The Beatles, Janis Joplin, Hendrix... It’s a long list. I love Madonna. As I have grown as an artist I find myself influenced by other artists’ approaches to the business, to their careers and impact.

How do you write your songs? Do you start with the music or the lyrics.

Usually I have a story. I have a feeling or an experience that finds voice through a song. Sometimes they are more concrete, sometimes there is metaphor. But for the most part I have the words and they find melody. But that is over-simplifying actually. Almost immediately upon deciding to utter a thought I have a melody in mind and the two parts usually connect simultaneously. Once, I wanted to write an angry tune. The edgier stuff is a challenge for me..I have a hard time being tough...but I was pretty angry. I started that tune emulating a bass guitar on my acoustic and the result is a really powerful, bass driven (thanks to Dan Mohler, one of the greatest bass geniuses you will ever meet) rock tune. It isn’t on Stories, though. I have written a few tunes for other artists and that is an entirely different experience. In those cases I have been given some “band” to start with. It’s a little nerve-racking.. I’m pleased with those songs but they feel different coming from that sort of work-oriented place. I have a lot to learn about writing. My work, what I record and produce feels so personal. Maybe even indulgent because it’s just what works for me. Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.

Can you play any instruments if so which ones and do you have a favourite.

When I was little I saw a picture of a saxophone in music class..like a flash card. I was so intrigued I asked my parents for one. They promptly signed me up for piano lessons. At the same time I had a babysitter who was also in a family mine was super close with and she played guitar. Kathy Pope. She had long, thick beautiful dark hair and a beautiful voice. She was my idol. She taught me some but I started regular lessons with guitar teachers when I was 8 or 9. A guitar has always been an extension of me. I’ve actually gotten fairly competent as a musician. I always write with an acoustic, except for ‘Gonna Have to Like It’ on “Stories”, that tune I wrote on my PRS (Paul Reed Stanley..electric...stunning guitar that I have yet to deserve). But the guitar is far more than an instrument to me...it is my vehicle to creativity in the larger sense of song-writing. And I actually choose different ones for different moods and environments... I play piano, too... It was a good foundational instrument to be instructed in...but I am a guitar girl at heart. I am also learning the mandolin and the mandola.

How did you get into music, was it from an early age?

One of my proudest moments in life was earning the Music Award in 7th grade. I think I finally felt like I was being taken seriously as a musician. But it was tricky for me. I grew up in a home where education was valued more than practically anything else. And because of my proclivities for music that was far from classical or chorus-oriented, my musical self was pretty stifled. I did perform in church with my guitar and I thrived on camp because of the campfire songs... Still. It is only in the last few years that my mom actually started to get the music thing...I think she thought that musicians are in band or chorus? It’s ok. I did my own thing in time. Eventually I made friends who were like-minded. My high school/early college boyfriend is a phenomenally talented guitarist. He even attended Berklee (as in the School of Music in Boston). Really great player. He and I once played a Street Fair together. Even back then I was writing. I started writing songs as early as 9th grade..ones that were written down. My sister is the best diary of those years... she is 8 years younger and had always been my biggest fan... she, by the way, got a saxophone!

Do you have any musical training?

I didn’t attend Berklee.... It’s a really cool place, though.. I was blown away by the seriousness there. I’m not a classically trained artist. And I don’t know theory beyond the basics. I am mostly self-taught. What I do is born of a deeply rooted need to share my life and voice and feelings with a universe I am part of.

Which of your songs are you most proud of?

Good lord that is a terrible hard question! If speaking only of the tunes on Stories, I think I have to say Come Back, the last track. It really stretched me as an artist. I had to make compromises and room for input and at times it didn’t sound like my song at all. But in the end..I can describe every lyric and scene it represents.. all of the inner meaning and concrete fact of it... and for that I am proud.

Where were you born, and do you still live there?

I was born in Seattle, Washington, which is in the Pacific Northwest of the US. And, in fact, I do happen to live here now. In between I have lived in Colorado, San Francisco, Boston, and New York.

Where would you like to see yourself in five years time?

Career-wise? At least three more records released. Performing regularly. An ambassador for an organization such as Save the Children. A helpful, loving, useful part of many many good people’s lives...

Six words that best describe you..

Competent, grounded, shiny, idealistic, nurturing, smart, A goddess! ☺

What’s your favourite of all of your songs? 

Right now? Today? The newest. Take Down Your Innocence. I wrote it for and about Barack Obama. I’m a supporter. It is one of my most skilled tunes, I think.... I wrote it initially as a mandola tune.

How long did it take to write and record the Music for the ‘Stories from the Treehouse’ album?

All in all... 2 ½ years, I’d say. But there were several circumstances that made it necessary to draw it out that long. Hence the “three chapters” theme. It really is a storybook. I have a whole records worth of tunes for a new record now and I write constantly.

Whats the best Live / recording moment you’ve ever had?

Playing live is always a trip. Especially when so much work goes into writing and recording...a totally unsexy process but very rewarding. Live is like a waking up right before the bus gets to your house! I just made that up. For me, to date, one of the best moments in this process was when Dan Tyack, a world-renowned pedal steel guitarist and all-around beautiful human being, came to the studio to record steel guitar for Goddess of Mercy. It was the first time another artist other than my producer and me had input on the tune and my first time meeting Dan. Goddess is a really special song to me. It is a reflection of my willingness to ask people to really see me and yet it is also a song that is far bigger than me as an individual. When Dan started playing his pedal steel I was in awe. He somehow felt the deeper meaning and his artistry just made the emotional elements come to the forefront. I cried the whole time. I cry when I tell that story. It was the first time I really felt like I was going to be making a real record, a real career as an artist.

Where was your first public performance?

Other than church stuff and street fairs I first played in a live act at the Vogue here in Seattle. Or maybe it was the Ballard Firehouse. I was once in a band called Stubborn Puppet. I still get grief for that gig...it was actually a pretty cool group...and I get the name...it’s clever.

stories from the treehouse

 1 Take a Trip

 2 Can I Bring You Home

 3 Yesterday

 4 Gonna Have To Like It

 5 Goddess of Mercy

 6 Summertime

 7 Ocean Call

 8 So Real

 9 Everything

10 December

11 Come Back

Something About Me (taken from Elle's website)

I picked up my first guitar when I was a little kid. For years I would carry one, down tree-lined streets, noticing and getting to know every crack and eruption in the sidewalk, to a family friend's house for lessons. I learned every camp and folk song in my songbook while discovering what it is about music, and the kinds of music, that draw me. Like so many people, I cut my teeth on Joni Mitchell, John Denver, The Beatles, Bob Dylan...

What would anyone like to know about me? I have always been a singer/songwriter, singing in church and bands, local clubs here in Seattle, street fairs. After college I became a teacher and eventually went to graduate school. I started a family and the last twelve years of my life has been most importantly a wonderous journey into motherhood and my own personal growth. One way I kept music alive when children were my main focus was to write a song to help raise money for homeless children. When that production first played at the annual auction for Our Place Daycare in Seattle the event raised a record amount of money. That experience caused me to realize how much I wanted and needed to take my musical self out of the shadows to meet the world again.

Shortly after I performed "You're Heart is My Home", my sister-in-law became shockingly ill with cancer and died over the course of 22 months. She loved music. One of the memorable things we did as a family was watch Trisha Yearwood perform at the Virginia Mason Hospital Dreambuilders Ball. I guess the easiest way to say how her death had an impact on my decision to pursue a serious career as an artist is that when you walk closely with death and life, in a way... you are called to the table to reflect upon whether you give your own precious life the justice it deserves. Charol would have loved to have been a country music singer. She would have loved to live long enough to have in some way shared this dream with me. I mention this simply to illustrate that I have sometimes needed lightning bolts in my life to keep me real and guide me. Her passing was it's own story but it did have a big impact on much of how I began to live after she died.

"Stories from the Treehouse" was more than two years in the making and it represents many parts of my journey through the ups and downs of love, life and loss. Some people have said my melodies are tantalizingly confident and my lyrics are intelligent and honest, revealing both style and soul with a voice you will love. That sounds good! I can tell you what I believe. I believe in keeping my feet on the ground and my eyes open wide. I have lately learned the magic of being confused when you are confused and the value of bringing difficult feelings out into the open.

I can cook, sew and ride a horse. I love my family. I love music. I am never far from a guitar. I see people and I know we all matter so much. In general, I have a lot of concern for our planet and the many people who live and suffer in turmoil and complexity. I have been tremendously blessed in meeting Daniel Christopherson and the artists he has introduced me to. I want people to like me...of course.... I hope, as my dear friend Renee does, that other folks will find themselves listening to my music while they wash their dishes and sing along

Artist

Advertise on LoneBoyStore