User:LaraWhitten/sandbox

Lara Whitten is a singer that has worked in Nashville, Los Angeles and Las Vegas before returning to Berklee College of Music for her first Bachelor's degree. Originally from the Deep South and interest in writing music came late to her after she realized that there wasn't any material being pitched to her that she was really interested in putting her name on a recording with. After a time doing demos for writers in Nashville and singing other people's material she had an identity crisis and began to feel like an actress that just put on a little Stetson and became a country singer. After going on a couple of international hosteling trips and travelling across her home country in an automobile she finally started writing sitting in a Volkswagon van on surf tour in Mexico. After a job offer in Northern California from a friend in country music she relocated to Santa Cruz, California for 3 years where she continued to work in country music, singing the genre's classics, and opening for several big name legacy acts all over the Bay Area. She also joined a twelve voice jazz singing group that played champagne brunch and beer gardens in San Francisco and San Jose and joined her first working cover band. The invigorating experience of living and working on the California coast began to wear off and her dissatisfaction with doing other people's songs began to loom large again. A move to Los Angeles was always daunting being from a town of 13,000 people two hours outside of Nashville. But, the time had come to make the move or...