Keri's Original Music

Producing global music that mixes traditional acoustic sounds with contemporary dance beats and some electronic instrumentation, Keri has worked in professional recording studios in Austin, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Nashville with some of the best musicians in the country.

An accomplished musician who plays both electric and acoustic guitar, ukulele, piano, bass and congas Keri's chameleon-like vocals change character with each distinctly crafted song.  Sultry torch blues peppered with jazz, country and folk rock along with enchanting, edgy harmonies are her signature sound.

Singer

Her chameleon vocals change character with each distinctly crafted song.  Sultry torch blues peppered with jazz, country and folk rock along with enchanting, edgy harmonies are Keri's signature sound.

Elegant delivery with beautiful results along with a passionate, sultry, soulful style, Keri's voice is a blend of many styles.  She demonstrates a well-rounded ability to capture simple, plainspoken emotions and frame them in a number of genres.  Keri is at her strongest on melancholy numbers where the depth of her rich voice and delicate delivery of lyrics are showcased.  She digs into songs with her emotive, versatile style and can make a children's song joyful or politically song charged.  Whatever she sings comes straight from the soul with all her heart!

Influences

Growing up around country music in Bakersfield, California, Keri was first influenced by singers and songwriters from the Cousin Herb Henson Show, her grandmother's favorite.  Singers and songwriters like Buck and Bonnie Owens lived within walking distance of her home on the eastside of Bakersfield.   Because she was friends with Buck's boys, Mike and Buddy, Keri and her older brother, Terry, would often visit them.  Hearing them write songs in the kitchen was and still is a fond memory.

She crossed paths with Billy Mize, another Bakersfield country legend, by mere coincidence.  In the fifth grade, she met Karen Mize, his daughter, in elementary school and they were instantly great friends.  She got her first glimpse of Billy Mize writing songs in his studio one night when she spent the night with Karen. 

Keri began to show an interest in songwriting when she was 14 years old.  Her Uncle Robert gave her his old guitar with a hole in the back.  She taped it up, put on new strings, bought a Mel Bay chord book and began to strum and write. At first, she only composed three chord country songs with themes that ranged from love to war.

After Keri graduated from high school in Bakersfield, she moved to Rolling Hills, California and lived with Mize family her freshman year in college.  She fondly remembers slipping into Billy's garage recording studio and listening to the new songs he was developing.  She is still in close contact with Billy who lives in Bakersfield, and to this day enjoys and admires his work. 

As she matured, she began to create her own sound.  As a teenager, her favorites artists were  Elvis,  The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly,  The Everly  Brothers, Rick Nelson, Patsy Cline, Patty Page, Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark.  In her In her 20's she loved Billy Mize, Merle Haggard, Gordon Lightfoot, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Lou Ralls, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gay, Earth Wind and Fire, Carol King, Joni Mitchell and Joan Biaz.  In her 30's she began to appreciate jazz and Mississippi Delta music. During her daughter's teen years, Keri was inundated with Bob Marley as they drove to school together each day. Thanks to Heather she has an appreciation and influence of Reggae music.  Keri's poetic songwriting skills are a culmination of all her influence and rare talent and treasure.

Musician

She is an accomplished musician who plays both electric and acoustic guitar, ukulele, piano, bass and congas and a little fiddle .  Her third grade, teacher Mrs. Ozantich, discovered her genius for music.  When the other kids would go out for recess, Keri would remain in the classroom and pluck out the melodies that she had seen Mrs. Ozantich play.  Her teacher realized Keri's gift and made arrangements for her to take a music test to see if she would qualify for the strings program at Pioneer Elementary.  Passing it with flying colors, she was placed in the flutaphone program to learn how to read music and was assigned a school violin and promoted to the string program.  She played in the school orchestra for two years and then graduated into junior high school.  Since there was no string program in junior high school, Keri picked up the guitar and began to teach herself. Taking piano and guitar classes throughout her life, she has refined her skills both as a musician and producer.  While visiting her daughter in Hawaii, Keri purchased an eight string ukulele that has expanded her horizons as a musician. Taking many percussion workshops throughout her career, she plays the congas with precise rhythm.  Her mastery of a wide range of musical styles and genres allows her to crossover and write across the board.

Songwriter

This native Californian spent years traveling and crafting both her accompaniment and songwriting skills on the west coast in LA, the east coast in New York and Toronto, Memphis, Nashville, Austin, Kerrville, and the Mobile/Pensacola Gulf Coast area.  She defines her original sound with lean, lyrical poetry packed with imagery and metaphors that dig into everything from love to war.  Keri's poetic songwriting skills are a culmination of all her influence and a rare talent and treasure.  Writing with depth and wisdom in an array of genres, she consistently demonstrates the finesse of a poet along with an extraordinary talent for lyrical content, and an artful approach as craftswoman of song.

Composer

Keri's strength as a songwriter stems from the melodies that she composes.  Growing up around a father who could play anything from Beethoven to Blues and original tunes on the harmonica gave Keri her foundation in creativity and composition.  The smooth melodic lines and influence from Billy Mize not only had a profound impact on the shape and direction her melodies would flow, but also gave them all a touch of a distinct Bakersfield sound Keri refers to as Blackboard. During the late 50's and on into the mid 70's, a famous club in Bakersfield called The Blackboard, featured all the best country and western singers and songwriter in the San Joaquin Valley.  Even when Keri was a teenager, she would peek through the door and listen to them.  As a young adult, she would drive down from LA just to catch a show.

Lyricist

Keri' lyrics are as close to poetry as a song can get.  Beautiful similes and metaphors, vivid imagery, personification, alliteration, assonance, clever rhyme schemes along with concise lyrics and catchy hooks married to the right melody makes her writing one of a kind.