I’ve written songs since I was a kid, influenced by the jingles I heard on Los Angeles TV. At the time KTLA showed a lot of Gilligan’s Island, so I replaced the theme song lyrics with ones suitable for a lemonade stand.
In the early 80’s my family relocated from So Cal to Flagstaff, AZ where I was in choir through high school. I joined my first cover band at 17, played the lead female roles in Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar at Northern Arizona University, and produced my own jazz review show. In 1992 I studied abroad in Costa Rica and enrolled in a guitar class. It’s here I began putting my own lyrics to guitar. I spent the years of ’94-’96 going to open mics with my original songs and singing with bands in Denali, Alaska before returning to Flagstaff.
In ’97 I moved to Santa Barbara where I attended the Performing Songwriting Workshop facilitated by Jim Messina. It was there, sitting next to a fire in a river stone hearth and singing Beatles songs in three-part harmony, Jimmy suggested that Delilah Poupore and I should sing together. We sang, wrote, toured and played together over the next 10 years. We also toured with Jimmy for a few years as an acoustic trio.
From ’97 to ’07, Delilah and I recorded four albums of original music and we were lucky to work with many of Santa Barbara’s musical geniuses. We performed a hundred shows each year and we were voted Best Local Band five years in a row by the Santa Barbara NewsPress readership. We shared stages and sang with artists such as Cindy Alter, Lowen and Navarro, Glen Phillips, Kenny Edwards, Jackson Browne, Michael McDonald, Kenny Loggins, Kris Delmhorst and many more. Our music together can be found on many digital music distribution sites. Click on the links below or search Antara & Delilah.
Amazon
Apple Music
Spotify
YouTube Music
Simultaneously, in 1998, I started a music production company and began producing and hosting weekly open mic shows and songwriter showcases. For five years these shows attracted the very best regional and touring talent as well as fledgling artists. From these open mics and showcases grew a great, big, beautiful community of music-makers, many of whom became my closest friends. I count myself lucky to have been part of this piece of musical history of Santa Barbara.
After my husband and I welcomed a daughter in ’10, I was determined not to let my music falter. I was supported and joined by my dear friend, the late great guitarist and songwriter Bill Lanphar, for many solo shows. In ’14 I joined with Heather Stevenson and Bill to form Telltale Signs Trio where we performed our original songs rich in three-part harmonies. Our one and only show before my family and I moved away (back to Flagstaff), was recorded by Bill and is evidence of the beautiful music we wrote and sang together. Yearning for the musical chemistry we three had, I made the drive a few times between Flagstaff and Santa Barbara in summer and fall of ’18 to rehearse together in preparation to record an album. Sadly, in the spring of ’19, Bill died suddenly leaving Heather and me and many others deeply grieved but eternally grateful for the music we made together.
Recently I’ve attended two songwriting and one fingerpicking for guitar workshops. These classes have been great in that I’m accountable to create! I’m also enjoying learning new guitar techniques to add to my palette. I’ve posted a couple of my homework assignments (Torches and Saturated) on my SoundCloud page linked below. Thank you to School of Song, Performing Songwriter Creative Workshops, Robin Pecknold and Jonatha Brooke for excellent facilitating!
As we are emerging from pandemic times, I have set my sights on a few musical goals for the next year:
🎶 Record an album with a well-suited producer/engineer.
🎶 Connect with a like-minded collaborator to co-write songs.
🎶 Find one or two amazing singers/instrumentalists to make music with.
🎶 Build/participate in community around songwriting.