one of our first gigs was at the fort lee officers club where a makeshift runway with g-string and pasty clad undulating vietnamese girls were replaced by me at 15 years old and my much older brothers playing doobie brothers and donna summer covers. yeeesh.

    my first really cool band was in college as a voice major at vcu trying to study opera and singing jazz and pop 5 nights a week in nightclubs. the group was jack diamond and friends and they did everything from sinatra to lou rawls to cherl lynn... eventually the clubs won out over college and on the road i went with various top 40 and traveling show bands which played the eastern seaboard from forgotten lounges in watertown ny and trump plaza casino lounge where folks were enticed to take a load off after all their once best friend quarter slots turned into the greedy enemy.

      when i settled in the dc area, i found a great band, al williams and friends, who i luckily ended up playing with and recording my first cd "prisoner of the heart" with those amazing musicians. jon ozment produced and played keys, andy hamburger on drums, gary grainger on bass, and the amazing al williams on sax.

   i'd been signed to a developmental deal with motown but was suddenly dropped when the a&r guy was removed from his post. ahhh the music biddness!

     i started my own band and began working the dc clubs and parties and then in 1995 we recorded the live cd at blues alley with guitarist mike ault, drummer deren blessman, bassist steve taylor, and keyboardist benjie porecki.    

     a few years later i met jon carroll and we put out "here i am" in 1999. jon brought all of mary chapin carpenter's incredible players to the studio and she graciously included herself on the alone but not lonely track that she also beautifully penned. ( john jennings, dave mattacks, duke levine...)

   during that time i was invited to be a part of the 1999 uso tour where i got to sing for the troops and be a part of an amazing experience that taught me what being in the "service" really means. more info and pictures from the uso tour are here. there's a picture of all of us gathered around christmas eve's eve on the trip home singing songs of peace in a war plane.

   somehow, through a mutual fan i also got involved playing from time to time with jeff skunk baxter from the doobie brothers. when he'd come to town we'd end up working together so after all those years of dormant doobie covers they finally came in handy... "skunk" introduced me to the ballistic missile defense guys and i was invited to some of the launches. i never actually got to see the fireworks, the first two were aborted and the third i couldn't make but the whole ordeal made me feel a bit like forrest gump. they were actually very kind for people that like to blow up stuff for a living. and hey ...it's a gig.

   right now i'm working with guitarist lenny stevens, bassist dr. samba and drummer jeffrey neal and just completed cd#4 with john jennings.

    the rumors are true, i do live in a really cool cabin with my aussie shepherd and my 2 cats and lease a horse. it's just like being at a summer camp.
   
    i still play at clubs and private gigs around town and we travel if the gig looks like a fun time. what can i say, i'm extremely blessed.
    and hey ...it's a gig.
                love y'all.
                    thank y'all.
                        come see me.
                                                                           
                                       blessings,
                                              mary ann

p.s. buy a cd i need the gas money.