Reading the prompt to this guest blog actually made me laugh out loud. I just sat smiling for a few minutes with my fingers on the keyboard asking myself, where do I begin?

I’m not sure what a typical music journey looks like, but I’m pretty sure mine has been anything but typical. I didn’t go to music school. I started playing solo bar gigs with my guitar in college so I didn’t have to work a crappy retail job. After I graduated from theatre school, I was off to NYC to make it on Broadway! After a year of showing up for cattle calls and trying to get seen by directors without much success, there was only one consistent thing in my life - singing and playing guitar.

If you would have told me that 20 years later, I’d still be working and supporting myself as a musician, I’m not sure I would have believed you.

My career up to this point has been one long, slow burn. It started when I was 10 years old, when my dad bought me my first guitar. Learning to play that guitar led to me joining my first rock band at 15 and falling in love with all things music. Music was my everything. It was my escape, my creative outlet, my building blocks. When my parents got divorced, music saved me. When I was struggling to come out of the closet at 18, music, specifically Melissa Etheridge and the Indigo Girls, showed me a way forward towards my authentic self. I would sit in my bedroom for hours trying to learn songs.

Music is and has always been the one thing in my life that never fails me. Even when I tried to quit music in 2012 while I was working on my master’s degree, music came calling and would not take no for an answer.

I recorded and released my first EP, It’s Home, in 2006. Since then, I’ve been on a mission to grow as a songwriter. I released another EP, The Ann Street Session, in 2013. The songs I was writing were stronger and my guitar skills were continuing to evolve. I was playing lots of gigs, and I even got to open for Ani DiFranco! Still, I kept my head down and worked on my craft in every way I knew how.

In 2014 I teamed up with singer/songwriter Christian Porter and we released a self-titled album called Porter & Sayles in 2016. Even though Christian and I parted ways in 2019 to pursue other endeavors, I’m incredibly proud of the songs we created together and I appreciate the growth they gave me as a songwriter and collaborator. Especially since those songs landed us a spot on the 2019 Melissa Etheridge cruise, where we played with incredible musicians including Melissa herself.

The pandemic was a weird time for creative folks. Some people THRIVED. I know artists who wrote entire albums or learned a new instrument. The pandemic had the opposite effect on me. The time at home forced me to finally slow down long enough to realize how absolutely exhausted I was - how burnt out I had become. But something about the shutdown of the entertainment industry ended up being a game changer for me. I needed a reset; a way to refocus and recenter myself. In 2020, I started taking music production classes at Berklee Online. I’d been in and around recording studios since the early 2000s, so music production was always familiar to me, but also so intimidating. I decided it was time for me to learn how to tackle the software - to push the buttons and push them with confidence. And if I was going to make a mistake pushing those buttons, at least I was going to learn how to fail fast so I could move on to the next thing.

Learning production is what inspired several of the songs on my current EP, Singles, and made me seek out a producer to get it off the ground. I met Julie Wolf (Ani DiFranco & Indigo Girls collaborator) on the Melissa Etheridge cruise, and knew pretty quickly that she was the right person for the job. I am endlessly thankful for her kindness, musicianship and guidance. Right now, I finally feel like after 20 years I’m standing in a space that feels right. Not because I planned things to go this way, but because every year I have remained dedicated to the process of being better than I was the year before. I know I can sing, but a lot of people can sing. Being able to sing doesn’t make me special. Being the kind of singer I am makes me special. My energy as a performer, my interpretation of every lyric, my stage presence - all of that makes me what I am. And I don’t mind telling you, as it’s taken me my whole life to say it out loud: there is no one like me. My voice is my own, and I can’t wait for the world to hear it.

The love and support I’ve received from my friends and family coupled with my determination to always improve has gotten me to where I am today. And despite being really tired sometimes, I know how lucky I am to live this life and I wouldn’t have it any other way. You are never too old to learn, and I think being a life-long learner has helped me feel younger and live with more purpose. If you’re feeling stuck right now, challenge yourself to learn something new - no matter how big or small. I promise it will lead to something new for you, even if it has nothing to do with the thing you set out to learn in the first place.

I finally feel like I’m where I’m supposed to be, and I make sure to remind myself of that every day. I am living my most authentic life as a woman, a lesbian and as a bi-racial individual, and I have music to thank for that. On days when I doubt where I am in my journey, my grandmother reminds me from the great beyond that it will be alright. I’ll look outside my studio window, and without fail, I’ll see her - a cardinal sitting in a tree, letting me know I’m right where I’m supposed to be, saying, “You’re doing fine love. Keep going. There are people out there who still need your light.”