Betty seems to have had a good life in Nashville, too, which she calls “the place where all songwriters go before they die.” Other places she’s lived and performed include some “pretty interesting” ones, like The French Quarter of New Orleans. “There my then-little son learned to tap dance with the street kids in Jackson Square using Coke bottle caps on the soles of his tennis shoes for sound.”
Betty taught herself to play the guitar with a Mel Bay Ukulele Book, and figured out the piano one night in Nashville when a woman told her to just “lower the third to make a minor chord.” But then to learn the instrument she says every convict seems to be able to master – the harmonica – she had to pay someone for lessons.
Her music has been called “North of Country…South of Blues, which means we can’t figure out what the heck it is. I love to write humorous songs, but it’s the sad ones that really compel me.” But this working songwriter has also created jingles, songs for conventions, birthdays, pets and charities, and she says she loves it all.
And where does all that writing happen? “My best place to write is alone in the car with about three hours of road staring me in the face. Well, that and the shower.”
About performing she says, “I love to play venues, I can fall in love with an audience at the drop of the hat, and I am especially fond of House Concerts. If anyone is planning a House Concert, count me in. It’s a great excuse to travel and spend the night in someone else’s home.”
Coming up: Betty wrote the music and co-authored the script for the musical “Choking Out The KUDZU” that’ll be performed at the Greenbelt Arts Center in 2015. It had a successful reading at the 13th Street Repertory Theater in New York City and will be read again this year in Nashville. She says it’s been awesome to see her work being done and interpreted by other people and to hear the songs come from someone else’s heart.” I bet.
But don’t wait. Catch Betty at a third-Thursday open mic night soon!
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