Julie's Biography

There are dates in your life you remember all of your life,
because they change your life..."

I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa, the oldest of four children.  Music was a very big part of my everyday life; my dad played guitar, my mom the violin, and both loved to sing.  They became Christians in 1964, and so the music we had in the house was gospel until I was into my teens.  This was a good thing, because I loved to sing as much as they did.

I took up music seriously after one Wednesday night in April 1970, the first Earth Day.  The Torchbearers came to town, and they rocked my world.  For the next five years, they were my ultimate in music, and I wanted desperately to make music after that.  I took up every instrument I could get my hands on, learning to play many of them by ear.  I added songwriting to my skills in 1975; by this time, I was listening to the popular music of the time, and found myself influenced by many great voices. Anne Murray, Melissa Manchester, Helen Reddy, Carly Simon, Carole King, Barbra Streisand, Gladys Knight.  The list could go on and on, but at the top of that list stood Karen Carpenter.  Her voice was a perfect fit for my contralto, and I learned to phrase Carpenters songs exactly as she did.

Another major influence entered my life around that time in the person of Barry Manilow.  His dramatic, lush arrangements caught my ear, and as my skills at the keyboard improved, I began to study his sheet music, which was direct transcription of his records.  I learned much about harmony and orchestration from those nights.  I planned to go to college to be a music teacher, but I think every musician longs to be a performer first.

Real life intervened.  My college experience was not at all what I expected.  In the spring of 1978, love entered my life.  Jim became the center of my world, and the six months we were together will stay with me the rest of my life.  When I went off to college, the relationship strained, then broke.  I was devastated.  The rest of my time in college was a blur.  It was the first time in my life I'd experienced failure academically, and I didn't have a clue what to do about it.

In the midst of all this was a young man that I frankly couldn't stand at first, but I discovered he was a good listener and very caring.  I was drawn to him somewhat in spite of myself, and in late February 1979 Tim and I became a couple.  On July 21 of that year, I took his name, against the advice of practically everyone in my life and despite Jim's efforts to win me back, efforts that were so subtle I didn't even recognize them.

Tim and I moved to Portland, Oregon, and lived there the first year and a half of our marriage.  It was rough for me; I had just turned 19 years old and didn't have any idea what I was doing.  But Tim loved me anyway, and we wound up back in Des Moines in 1981.  That summer, his parents moved to Texas, and Tim came down to help them move.  A year later, Tim's mom was able to get him a job, and so we wound up in a little town in Central Texas.

An aborted try at music in Los Angeles followed for me, and some times that I wouldn't wish on my enemy followed in the late 1980's.  Once again, in the middle of a major depression, music was the way the Lord used to keep me from completely going off the deep end.  I made my first studio recordings in December 1989 at a home studio.  From there, music began to pay off for me.

Two days after Christmas 1994, my life took a turn that I thought it would never take.  Tim and I found out we were going to be parents.  Our son was born in the early hours of the morning of August 13, 1995, and things have not been the same since.

In early 1997, we got on the Internet to stay, and suddenly, opportunities opened that I never expected.  I saw the potential of getting my music out to people through the Net, and began to learn how to design Web sites.  Through an email list, I met Doug McComas, who was my first client in 1998.  Doug was also the first to feature my arranging on commercially recorded work with his CD, "My Favorite Time of Year".  I have done several musical projects with Doug over the years.

Doug, along with his father, evangelist Ken McComas, introduced me to Jon Ainbinder in late 1999.  Jon became a client for both his evangelism and counseling work.

I have been blessed to have several "dream come true" experiences as well in the past several years, including a "reunion" of sorts with all three Torchbearers, I thought I'd never see any of them in person again, but some amazing things happened to allow those events to occur. In the summer of 2007, I had the opportunity to meet my first actor crush, Dark Shadows star Jonathan Frid. The Dark Shadows Festival of 2007 also marked the public premiere of Light In The Shadows as a tribute video to him.

Competitive singing in talent shows has been a regular part of my life since my debut as a singer/songwriter in the fall of 1975. I have several wins to my credit, and a couple of appearances on national level competitions. In January 2008, I decided I was going to give contest singing one more go-round, and entered the USA World Showcase. I have not yet competed there as of this writing, but will include my experiences there at a future date.

So now I have a life full of friends, a marriage still standing after 28 years, a nearly-teenage son, and the joy of dreams come true.