She is a singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Austin,
Texas, to a family where her father was in a barbershop quartet and her
mother was an actress on an amateur basis.She started her journey into a musical career when she began
learning the guitar when she was six years old and performing at fourteen.She took her further studies at the
University of Texas where she graduated with a degree in education, and
although she was a kindergarten teacher in the mid-'70s, she chose to
follow the path of music. She married the singer-songwriter Eric Taylor in
1976, they would later divorce in 1982, and in 1978 she released her debut
album There's a Light Beyond These Woods.Releasing several singles, that entered the country
charts, she was the first artist to record "From a Distance" in 1988, later
sung by Bette Midler.During
the course of her busy career she has appeared with many artists
either on her own recordings or those of others and has worked with
Rod Argent, Tony Brown, The Crickets, Phil Everly, Bela Fleck, James
Hooker, Andrew Jackman, Bernie
Leadon, the London
Symphony Orchestra, Lyle Lovett, Don McLean, Willie Nelson, Mark
O'Connor, John Prine, Tanita Tikaram and Peter
Van Hook
to name a few. Regularly
recording she can be heard on her Grammy Award winning Other Voices,
Other Rooms the Grammy Award nominated Last of the True Believers
plus others such as Flyer, Late Night Grande Hotel, Little Love Affairs,
Lone Star State of Mind, One Fair Summer Evening and Storms as
well as License to Chill by Jimmy
Buffett , Chieftains Celebration
by The Chieftains, Dublin Blues by Guy Clark, Fairweather Johnson
by Hootie & The Blowfish and the soundtrack of Annabelle's Wish, Falling
from Grace, Party of Five and Songs and Artists that Inspired
Fahrenheit 911. As a
songwriter she has seen further success with hits such as "Love at the Five
and Dime" sung by Kathy Mattea and "Outbound Plane" sung by Suzy Bogguss,
which she wrote with Tom Russell.In 1996 she discovered she had
breast cancer and in 1998 thyroid cancer, but she beat them both and
the 2000s saw her visiting Cambodia and Vietnam with Sheryl
Crow
and later Kosovo and Angola.She has never stopped recording
material either and released albums such as the 2002 Winter Marquee
the 2003 Hearts in Mind and the 2006 Ruby's Torch.Today she is heard still singing with
her band Blue Moon Orchestra who have accompanied her since 1986.
