Album Notes

I was born and raised in California. At the age of fifteen, I realized that I wanted to be a singer. I told my dad, and he brought me a guitar and a Bob Dylan songbook. To this day I do songs by Bob Dylan that I’ve never heard done by him. I like to think that he’d appreciate my renditions. I started performing by wandering up and down the strand, a sidewalk that runs along the beach from Manhattan to Hermosa. Later, I performed as a street musician at the Redondo Beach Pier. It was there that I learned to project my voice. I’d spot people from far off and draw them to me as I sang…

In 1976 I spent some time at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in Agoura. My friend Carmen Cicotti had an uncle, Michael Rugg who sold his Capritaurus dulcimers there. We would hang out in the booth and play the instruments. At the end of the summer I gave Michael all my savings (I think it was about $40), and he sent me a dulcimer from his shop in Felton, Ca.

I got married in 1977 and had two daughters. By 1984 I was single, and left southern California. I had two more daughters before I married my second husband. Later I had two sons with him as well.

Throughout the years, I wrote many songs. At first I used the guitar and dulcimer for melodic inspiration, but I came to declare myself a frustrated musician. I gave myself permission to continue to create songs without instruments, by simply singing what was there for me. Sometimes I would sit down with my guitar and a chord chart and try to find the chords, but it was a painstaking process. I created few performance opportunities, singing a song for someone only if I was really inspired and thought it would be well received…

In 2003 I participated in The Landmark Forum (landmarkeducation.com). It was during that educational process that I realized how stingy I had been with my gift. I became determined to find a way to share the songs I have inside me, knowing that they have the power to inspire…

I had read an article in the local newspaper about a musician known as Screaming Jimmy Townsend. I knew he would be my teacher. We worked together and he helped me regain some confidence in my guitar playing and put some chords to about fifteen songs. As time went on he told me his goal was to teach himself out of a job with me, and he also declared himself a fan of mine. I did become somewhat independent, but he moved away before his job was complete. I still miss him!

I had started playing at open mikes and parties around town, and sharing my songs at seminars and at spiritual centers. I also joined the Sierra Songwriters Group, “Works In Progress”. People were asking for my CD, so I began visualizing having that available as I continued performing and writing songs.

In early 2006, I found out that another Jimmi I knew had a recording studio. This album was recorded at Jimmi Accardi’s Hit House over the course of nine months. It’s pretty much a spontaneous work. Basically, we recorded one song per session (except that one day I was really ambitious and we did two songs in one day). Many of the sessions were really inspired, and the day we recorded “Surrounded” was especially amazing. Jimmi shares writing credit for this song as he was as inspired as I was as it flowed out of us that day.

My friend Kim Oxarart is a photographer, and we went out to the Biblical Gardens in Grass Valley with her son, Christopher, and my friends Jessie Hennick and Debbie Yasmin to take the photos in the CD booklet. Jimmi’s wife, Meg, did the computer work to get it all together, and the CD was manufactured by Disc Makers in New Jersey.

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Thanks for your interest, and I hope you enjoy the music!