Thank you for taking the time to read my story....

The reason I decided to tell a "story" rather than write a biography is because so many people have a terrible misconception about what defines an "Artist." I know because I used to be one of them.

I grew up in New York on Long Island. I have always loved music, ever since I was a little girl. Somewhere in my mind I have a very vague, distant memory of listening to my grandfather playing the piano in his garage but it's so vague that I can't even really call it a memory.

My Grandfather, Ernest G. Schweikert was a wonderful man. He was a sweet, sensitive soul and while I was only fortunate to have him in my life for a short time in the physical world... I love him with all of my heart. The memories I have of him really don't have anything to do with music at all. I remember different things. Grandpa things, like how he would always bring my brother and I our own box of Good N Plenty's so we wouldn't eat the candy he kept in the console his car to help control his diabetes. I remember how tall he was. Compared to me he was a giant! And I remember how kind he was...

In my teenage years I started singing a lot more. I had no mic control so I probably did more yelling than I did singing but I loved it and I practiced every day until I really learned how to use my voice. I fell in love with performing and I would literally go out every single night to sing. I was only sixteen but there were certain places that hosted open mic nights that would let me in to sing as long as I didn't go near the bar. That was fine with me because I didn't drink anyway. I had no interest in that. I just wanted to sing.

I guess you could say that the first thing I did that was really special to me was when I competed at the Apollo Theater in NYC. I didn't know anything about the Apollo but I caught Amateur night at the Apollo on TV one night and decided that I wanted to do it. Everyone always asks me if I was nervous and surprisingly enough I really wasn't. I was just really excited about it. I competed and won for six weeks and I can honestly tell you that those were some of the most memorable moments of my life.... 

A few weeks after I sang at the Apollo I got a phone call from a television producer who wanted to invite me to perform on Queen Latifah's talk show on FOX. I was so excited but played it cool.... then I got off the phone and ran up the stairs screaming to tell my mother!

I did some other stuff that was a lot of fun, too. I did a half time show for the New Jersey Nets. I recorded some stuff for a children's television show called "Zebbie Zoo." I performed at the Winter Music Conference in Miami and recorded some stuff with the Marley's while I was down there. I just loved it.

I recorded some works with a wonderful person who recently passed away, someone I am proud to call my friend, Mr. Charlie Craig. We had a great time working together but I still didn't feel as though I had found "my voice." In 2004, I decided that I wanted to move to Nashville to really pursue a career in music. It was then that my life completely changed.

I hadn't been living in Nashville three weeks when I called my Grandmother completely frustrated because I couldn't find material that I felt was my own. It was then that I learned the secrets about my Grandfather.

My Grandfather was a composer in 1950's. At some point he hooked up with a Lyricists named Frank Reardon and from that  moment on magic was made. They went on to write for Billie Holliday, Sammy Davis Jr., Guy Lombardo, Carmen MaCrae, The Four Aces, Perry Como, etc. They both had been completely ripped off by the Publishers. Neither of them every received a single penny for their work and one day my Grandfather just couldn't take it anymore. He was so disheartened and angry that he got up, took all of the music he ever wrote and threw it in the garbage. He never spoke of it again.

I was shocked. I couldn't believe that my Grandfather had been so successful and no-one had ever told me before! My Grandmother made me promise to find his lost compositions. She was certain that they were a perfect fit for my voice. I was hesitant because I was looking for fresh, radio friendly material. I had always sang power ballads... loud stuff....but I made the promise anyway. I wasn't really expecting to find anything I could use but it was still sentimental to me. My Grandmother passed away the very next day, unexpectedly and so it was that my journey began....

I spent every waking moment searching for his music. Believe it or not I recieved a phone call on Christmas Eve letting me know that boxes of his music had been found. The very first song that I got the sheet music to was a song called "How Do You Say Goodbye?" I'll never forget the first time I heard it. It was beautiful. I still get the chills thinking it because it was at that moment that I knew I had found my material and my own Grandfather had written it for me before I was even born...

I have since found hundreds of beautiful songs that my Grandfather and Frank wrote together. I rescinded all the rights and started my own publishing company. Then I got to work in the studio....

This is where the misconception of what defines an "Artist" comes in. Like every other aspiring Singer I believed that it was all about me. I was the Singer so I was the Artist. I couldn't have been more wrong. Recording the lost compositions of my Grandfather was a very eye opening and humbling experience for me.  I learned that music is a culmination of many amazingly talented people and I was just the voice. If it weren't for my Grandfather and Frank I wouldn't have had such beautiful material to record. And if you were to replace any single musician who played on the record it never would have been the same. There wasn't one Artist. What we created was all of ours... 

It is my honor and my pleasure to share with you some of the lost musical compositions of the very talented Ernest G. Schweikert and Mr. Frank Reardon.

May your life be filled with love and blessings...