Solo Years

I began playing solo with my guitar when I was 15, and performed alone in between bands, but I really did a lot of solo performing and college touring from 1974 – 1980. This promo shot was taken when I was living in Boulder, CO for a year before moving to Los Angeles in 1976. I wish I remembered the photographer’s name — he made me look like a movie star.

I played in Atlanta at The Great Southeast Music Hall and later at Aunt Charlie’s in Buckhead, my favorite venue. At colleges in the South, I remember opening for Steve Martin when he was starting out, and later in Denver I opened at a Hilton Hotel for Tom Waits — if you can imagine him playing at a Hilton Hotel. I also did a big gig at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall — I can’t remember who I opened for there (could I have been the headliner?).

I played lots of clubs in Denver once I moved to Boulder in 1975, and one local journalist named Grant (last name?) wrote an unforgettable line in the Denver Post — “This pea-shooter of a woman lobs cannon balls of emotion to the audience”! Quite a compliment, but a hilarious metaphor.

Comedian and friend Tom Parks and I toured colleges together and shared the bill quite a bit in 1975.