my autobiography.

I guess you know by now that I'm not a pop princess or one of those runway supermodel types who can sell records by batting their eyelashes at photographers and by selling out for anyone who will offer them enough cash to do it . If I want people to listen to my songs then it's my opinion that I need to write songs good enough to make people want to listen to them more than once. Otherwise I figure the people who truly want to find my kind of music will eventually stumble upon it someday, as I do believe in fate and I do believe that a heart can lead someone to a song when it wants to... and of course the internet has a way of helping out a bit by lending people a map to my music. I grew up in Byrdstown, TN, which is a very small town in Pickett County, and is the smallest county in the entire state. It sits quiety beside the TN/KY border in northeastern middle TN. It's beautiful there, surrounded by Dale Hollow Lake and the rolling hills of the Cumberland Plateau. I often miss the mere peacefullness of it all, and of coures I miss my family. My parents always told me I could be anything I wanted to be, and so after I graduated high school in 1994 I decided to go away to college and decide what I wanted to be. Turns out, I had no clue. I had several majors before I decided to major in photography at Middle TN State University in Murfreesboro, TN. I graduated from there in 2002 and now I work in a digital photography lab just outside of Nashville and I love it. Photography is only my second love. My first love, besides my wonderful husband Jeff Hightower,, is writing poetry and songs and singing them to a small handfull of listeners who enjoy hearing me sing. The handful seems to be growing somewhat, and for that I'm really thankful. . This all started when In February of 2001 I uploaded some songs to the internet on the mp3.com website. Amazingly enough, people began to find me and they began to ask for more songs. So I began to upload more songs, and before the original site closed down in 2003 I had over 100,000 downloads from that website alone. That seems weird to me, but I figure I'd throw it in here for those who like to read about numbers, I know you're out there. ;) I've been approached by a few labels looking to sign someone, but for whatever reasons I haven't signed with anyone yet and I don't really plan on doing so in the near future. I'm too happy where I am to change my ways of doing things for a record label. The money might be nice, I guess, but I don't sing for money, alot of people say that, but I really do mean it. I sing to get my feelings out, and to feel good inside, and sometimes for no other reason than just to keep myself company when I'm alone. I'm actually content most days just to sing in my living room and make my recordings at home where I'm most comfortable. I also like sharing my songs on the internet because it somehow makes me feel that I'm connecting with kindred spirits on a higher level of being. It makes me feel good when someone tells me they can relate to one of my songs, because maybe one day they were feeling the same way. All of life is about feeling, and sometimes it's good to share your feelings.