She is a country singer born in South Whitley,
Indiana, who grew up on a farm and was shown how to pay the guitar by her
father. She starting singing
in her local church as a child, with her mother being the pianist, and she
progressed from there to singing at high school and in coffeehouses.She took her further education at
Indiana University where she was awarded an Elementary Education
degree.Singing was the way
she wanted to go though, and began working in cities such as Dallas, Los
Angeles and Memphis and became an extremely successful singer of commercial
jingles on adverts by companies such as Coca-Cola, 7-Up and United
Airlines.This
got her noticed by artists in the country music industry and after
moving to Nashville in 1975 she became a session singer and has
since performed with acts that include Buzz
Cason, Marshall
Chapman, Barbara Dickson, Johnny Duncan, Donna Fargo, Crystal
Gayle, Vern Gosdin, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell,
Dean Martin, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Milsap, Mickey Newbury, Dolly
Parton, Charley Pride, Eddie Rabbitt, Charlie Rich, Tommy
Roe
, Tanya
Tucker, Mel Tillis, Ricky Skaggs, Hank Snow, B.J. Thomas, Conway Twitty and
Bobby Vinton.This led to
people asking who she was and she would soon be asked to perform duets with
Moe Bandy and Merle Haggard to name just a couple, and by 1977 she landed her
own recording contract. This
would be the making of her with at least 36 hit singles that include the
No. 1s "Always Have, Always Will", "Don't Worry 'Bout Me Baby", "He's a
Heartache", "Let's Stop Talkin' About It", "Tell Me a Lie" and "You're
Heart's Not In It". A very
busy recording artist she has appeared on 23 albums of her own that include
titles such the Grammy Award winning It Ain't Easy Being Easy plus From
the Heart, Love Notes, Singer of Songs and Somebody
Else's Fire and also I Love What Love is Doing To Me/He Ain't You
by Lynn Anderson, Son of a Son of a Sailor by Jimmy
Buffett , Friendship
by Ray Charles, Nights are Forever by England Dan & John Ford
Coley, Brother Juke Box by Don Everly, Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
by Johnny Paycheck, Walk a Mile in My Shoes: The Essential '70s Masters by Elvis
Presley
to name just a few. Recognised for her contribution to music she has been
named "Female Vocalist of the Year" by the Academy of Country Music, Billboard,
The Country Music Association and Music City News among others and also is
on the Country Music Hall of Fame Walkway of Stars. Although having her last country chart
hit in 1989, she continues to record for her own label JMF records and
released Bouncin' Back in 2000 and The Bluegrass Sessions in
2004.
An adventure into
television in the 1980s had her appearing as a criminal in the episode "Happy
Birthday, General Lee" in the popular show Dukes of Hazzard.Wanting to give something back to
her community, she began the Janie Fricke Scholarship at the School of
Music in Indiana University for members of the Singing Hoosiers ensemble.
