MP3 Tanya Pluth - Saving Graces

Music - four parts country, six parts folk, two parts rock - moves, shakes, and comforts. Fans say: Like while listening to Ani, you got my foot tappin' and head bobbin'.

12 MP3 Songs
FOLK: like Ani, COUNTRY: Modern Country



Details:
Tanya's Stats:

Age: 32
City of Birth: St. Cloud, MN.
Gender: yes
Favorite candy: Milk Duds, in movie theatre popcorn, with brewerâs yeast. . .
Best concert experience: Giving Kenny Rogers a plastic yellow rose while he sang âLadyâ at a concert in Minneapolis when I was 11.
Longest rock climb: Dreams of Wild Turkeys, Red Rocks, NV

About Tanya:

Music history. . . Imagine it: 1970s shag carpeting, browns, reds, oranges, up to my knees in the room I shared with my little brother growing up in St. Cloud, Minnesota. The living roomâs centerpiece: a stereo with record player, and me, kneeling in front of it from the time I was old enough to say, âMom, play this.â Kenny Rogers. Anne Murray. Abba. Neil Diamond. Dad played Mozart, Beetoven, and bluegrass of all kinds. Tapes and shoe-box sized tape players ushered in my next wave of music listening outside the living room, as I took Pat Benatar, Duran Duran, and all the big-hair bands of the 1980s into bedrooms and back yards and front steps and pressed the âplayâ button.

Thank God my older brother worked as a DJ at his college radio station, because he sent me early R.E.M., the Sundays, Nine Inch Nails, the Creatures. Life with roommates in Northeast Portland, Oregon, brought me to the musical brilliance of the early 1990s: k.d. lang, Jane Siberry, Salt nâ Peppa, the Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco. Mix all these with Joan Armatrading, Lucinda Williams, Bonnie Raitt, and the likes of Veruca Salt, Luscious Jackson, Team Dresch, and maybe it makes sense that I have a hard time naming one or two musical influences.

Tanya Pluth Stats. . .

Number of times in love: 3
Number of times heartbroken: donât ask
Number of years of national service: 2, with NWSA. Or 5, if you include staff time. . .
Best job ever: animal tracking survey in the Bull Run Watershed in Oregon
Worst job ever: concert security, specifically âguardingâ an empty parking garage stairwell for 8 hours. . .
Longest road trip: 3 weeks
Longest plane flight: To New Zealand from P-town, Oregon, about 21 hours in-flight.
Lowest point reached: scuba-diving to 12 meters (how many feet is that??) in Fiji.
Scariest moment in life: oh, thatâs too long of a story. . .
Biggest regret: see answer above. . .
# of years in therapy: see answer above. . .

Instruments. . .

I started playing violin at age 6? 7? and I played in orchestras and learned to read music. My uncle gave me my first guitar (plastic) when I was 9, but after he did something I thought was mean, I sold it at a garage sale the summer I was 10. Iâd already written my first songs, though, and the rest is history (I believe the opening lyric to my first song was, âmy life is boring and exiting, living on an exciting blockâ. . .I like to think my lyrics have gotten better??). I picked up the guitar again at age 16 and never looked back.

Thanks much to Liz Nelson, who I played with in the group, âDutch,â from 1992 â 1996. We had a fun time writing, collaborating, and performing together all around P-town, including being featured on KBOOâs âChurch of Northwest Musicâ for a live set. We didnât want to be the Indigo Girls but the comparison came up a bunch of times. I performed with the Way Back choir in the mid-1990s, and learned so much from the women of the Way Back about music, artistry, healing, and community-building through the creative arts.

Tanya Pluth Stats. . .

Highest jackpot won: $160 bucks at a $3 craps table
Largest audience performance: Lead guitar at Marine World with Tiffany Petrossi on the bay areaâs ALICE morning radio show. Did I mention it was 5:45 in the morning?
Star signs: Saggitarius, Taurus, Leo. You guess which is which.
What youâd find if you opened my refrigerator: rice milk, lettuce, tartar sauce of questionable age, cheese, tortillas, pita bread, 3 jars of raspberry jam, 2 bottles of Deschutes Breweryâs Jubelale, a can of Readiwhip of questionable age, eggs, asparagus, broccoli, yesterdayâs leftovers (actual contents of refrigerator on 3.29.06).

Recent history. . .

I started writing and performing more seriously as a âsoloâ act in 2002, when I hit the performance circuit all over the state of Oregon. The open mic down in Medford kicks ass. I played solo shows in 2004 and 2005 on the West Coast while working out my CD, including a set at the Folk Alliance Region West conference in LA and at Mississippi Pizza Pub in Portland in fall of 2005. For a while I performed as lead guitarist with Tiffany Petrossi, in the bay area and at the ROCKRGRRL Music conference in Seattle.

The last two years Iâve devoted my time and energy to writing (fiction, non-fiction, science fiction, songs. . .) and singing. Somehow I got into an MFA program at Mills College and learned much about the craft of writing, teaching and performing. Next comes time on the road, moving back to Oregon, and playing tunes wherever I go.