Anyone who knows me knows that music's the Pole Star for my life.  Right now it points at Three Weird Sisters, an odd constellation of acoustic eclectic folk (Gwen Knighton and Teresa Powell) with whom I'm delighted to perform .

So how'd I get here? Mom says I came out of the womb humming and I never stopped.

It's been a strange and enjoyable trip:

• 2004 - It's all gravy!
  • In February I won a Sam, the British filk music award, in the category of Best Serious Song for Tea: An Explanation of Adoration, a song I finished writing on stage at the British filk con.  Totally floored me, guys...
  • My musical life got put on hold in order to work on Mythic Journeys, but it was so worth it.  The Sisters and Years and a Day played for Alan Lee, Brian Froud, and William Todd-Jones.  (Alan Lee really enjoyed our version of Boys Want Sex in the Morning.) And I got to have lunch with my hero, Janis Ian.  My feet still aren't touching the ground.
  • The summer issue of PanGaia magazine selected Rite the First Time as the #2 pick of the Top 13 Pagan Recordings.  Three Weird Sisters was the ONLY band to be selected and be recommended in the counter-article "Pagan Music: Beyond the Bardic Circle" which also appears in the same issue.  Woo HOO!
    • #2 Rite the First Time by the Three Weird Sisters Bedlam House Ltd., 2001.
      This eclectic CD features lovely women's harmonies. Standout tracks include "Dumb Dumb Dorothy," a whimsical reevaluation of Oz; "The Song  of Fey Cross," a ballad about a harper bewitched by the songs of the fey; and "Six Days," the tale of a Pagan trapped in a school where prayer is mandatory.
  • Songs Written This Year include:
    • Tea: An Explanation of Adoration
    • Bionic Priestess
• 2003 - My musical life just gets better and better!
  • Put the finishing touches on the second CD for the Three Weird Sisters, Hair of the Frog.
  • Employed by Mythic Imagination Company as the Event Coordinator for the Mythic Journeys conference. Three Weird Sisters will be performing at the conference.
  • Attended WorldCon in Toronto and got the opportunity to work with Heather Dale.  Also got to participate on a panel called "Chapter & Verse" that combined songwriters with the authors whose work inspired them.  Me sitting and singing on a panel with Connie Willis (author of Doomsday Book) and Tanya Huff (author of the Keeper Series).
  • Bill and I were Guests of Honor at DuckCon (Chicago, Illinois),  Marcon (Columbus, Ohio) and Conclave (Lansing, Michigan).
  • Wrote several new songs, including I Knew a Guy Once, What My Granny Taught Me, In Service, My Handyman, Pole Star and Ordinary Lives.
• 2002 - Again, no complaints.
  • Rite the First Time CD is doing well.  Gigging around with Three Weird Sisters and having a blast.
  • In a Gown Too Blue won a Pegasus Award for Best Spine-Chilling Song.
  • Three Weird Sisters won a Pegasus Award for Best Performer.
  • Bill and I attend our first Dorsai Thing in Kalamazoo, Michigan as invited musicians.  Had a wonderful time!
• 2001 - Banner year!
  • Recorded and released TWS debut CD Rite the First Time with the Greg Robert at The Rabbit.
  • Inducted along with Bill into the Filk Hall of Fame.
  • Nominated for a Pegasus Award - Best Writer/Composer, won for Best Filk Song for Strangers No More.  Wow!  Speechless for the first time in my life.
• 2000 - YaaD eventually morphs into Three Weird Sisters.
• 1999 - We start a little filk convention in Atlanta called GAFilk.
• 1998 - Singing with Year and a Day.
• 1994 - Recorded Owling at the Moon for Dodeka. Many many many filks.
• 1990 - Nominated for a Pegasus Award - Best Writer/Composer
• 1989 - My husband and son gave me my first bodhran. I hooked up with a group of sessiun musicians at McDuff's Irish Pub in Decatur, GA every Wednesday night for nearly two years.
  • Nominated for a Pegasus Award - Best Techie Song for In The Blood.
• 1988 - Recorded Strangers No More and Shake the Dust off for DAG at the Thor Studio.  Many many filks.
• 1986 - Met Bill Sutton at in the CompuServe sf and fantasy forum and again at Bay Filk. Life will never be the same.
• 1985 - Musical theater in San Pedro, California.
• 1984 - Attended my first sf convention (the LA World Con).  Wandered the halls of a hotel late at night and accidentally stumbled upon the filk concert.  (I got the last seat.  Fate intervened, I'm certain.) Wrote my first filk song, Dear Writer for LASFS convention.
• 1979 - 1982 - 
  • Musical theater in Fairborn and Yellow Springs, Ohio.
  • Directed children's choir and fought head-to-head with clergy who insisted we sing from one book and one book only... in spite of four books of great kid's music written by a member of that religion.  Can you tell that I still get steamed?
• 1972 - 1976 - Musical theatre in college.
• 1972 - Rented a guitar the summer of my sophomore year of college, took adult ed lessons, gave up and bought a Mel Bay chord book learning the handful of chords I play today.
• 1965 - 1971 - Jr. High and High School band.  My favorite class next to writing.
• 1962 -
  • Mom used Navy base choir practice as an excellent babysitter.  I eventually joined the children's choir.
  • My Dad insisted that all his kids play an instrument.  He didn't care what we played, but we WOULD be in band.  I wanted a harp, but darn, they were fresh out, so I started on a fiddle.  I punished my family with my excellent renditions in classic Jack Benny style.  Just as I was getting the hang of it, Mom told me to turn it in and try something else -- they gave me a clarinet.  What I'd give now to have stuck with the fiddle!
  • While all the rest of the kids played tennis racket guitar to mimic cuties John, George, and Paul, I played air drums with Ringo.  (ooooh foreshadowing...)
• 1961 - 
  • Wonderful nights singing gospel and old standards at Bunny and Pappy's house on Friday Island.  Pappy played mandolin, and his pal Bud played pedal steel, while Bud's boys filled in on guitars.  Nothing fancy, but good solid harmonies.
  • My brother and sister and I found our Dad's small reel-to-reel recorder (disguised to look like a book, no less) and taped ourselves singing with The Supremes.  Stop In the Name of Love!  Yes, we were going to be a hot soul trio. Right...
• 1960 - I wore out the grooves of a flea market boxed sets of Beethoven's 9^th Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet platters.
• 1954 - My parents took me as a toddler to Aunt Pinky and Uncle Fuzzy's restaurant in Boulder, Colorado (long before it became the trendy chic spot it is today.)  They'd give me a nickel to put in the juke box so I could sing and dance on the counter. Even at that tender age I was playing to the audience...
• 1953- My Dad sang me to sleep to the Everley Brothers All I Want to do is Dream.  Len Sinclair is one of the world's all time best whistlers, too.