“Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel.”

This is a statement attributed to singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, with which I wholeheartedly agree.

Cris with her guitar

I grew up watching Buck Owens and Roy Clark on “Hee-Haw” and listening to the likes of Bobbie Gentry, Joan Baez, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Simon and Garfunkel, Charley Pride, and Glen Campbell. As a teen, I idolized Barbara Streisand and the late Whitney Houston for their incredible voices and enjoyed the surge of country pop music featuring the incomparable Dolly Parton, and many others.

My love for the piano drew me to the music of Elton John, Carole King, and virtually any artist or band that featured the piano. I have always had a passion for close vocal harmonies and in my formative teen years couldn’t get enough of Fleetwood Mac, Manhattan Transfer, Boston, and the Little River Band.

Favorite singer-songwriters today include Bonnie Raitt, Miranda Lambert, Alisha Keys, India.Arie, Sarah McLachlan, and Shania Twain. If I could be one megastar for a day, it would be REBA. I also have a secret (well, not-so-secret) passion for Josh Groban.

Since joining the Nashville Songwriter’s Association and traveling to Nashville, Tennessee for the first time in April 2009, I have devoted myself to professional songwriting, primarily in the country genre. My songs are inspired by my own life experiences as well as stories I hear of other people’s challenges and victories.

I have a lifetime of original music in many categories, and I work nearly every day creating new music, and honing my songwriting craft. I am the mother of five children and grandmother of six, and I currently live in Eastern Washington in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with my husband, youngest son, and golden retriever.