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TERI GARRISON is a unique and expressive singer who has
performed with numerous artists. Years as a background singer have given way
to a vibrant performing and recording career both solo and in front of her
own band. Musicians in her live and studio bands have included; DAVID
LINDLEY, JEFF BAXTER, MICKEY RAPHAEL, ROCK DEDRICK, GUY FORSYTH, JOHNNY
GIMBEL, RUSS KUNKEL, KENNY LYON and ROBBEN FORD.
Having recently returned to Maui from a Midwest road tour opening for WILLIE
NELSON, TERI released her latest album on CD: "THE EYES" on Willie
Nelson's new PEDERNALES LABEL and TYG RECORDS. It includes 10 new songs from
TERI and 2 new RANDY TRAVIS songs featuring harmonies by WILLIE NELSON.
Having written over 300 songs, TERI was honored when her song, "THE
EYES" won at Nashville's "EMBASSY MUSIC SONGWRITER'S
CONTEST". Garrison will be featured in the TV pilot of the same event
filmed at the Gaylord Opryland.
TERI is a long time resident on the island of Maui in Hawaii where she
performs whenever she's not on the road touring. She also had the house band
for NBC's REAL PEOPLE. TERI has sung with or opened for: LEON RUSSELL, LEO
KOTTKE, PETER ROWAN, STEVE GILETTE, DAVID CROSBY, HOYT AXTON, TANYA TUCKER,
THE FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS, DON HENLEY, and BONNIE RAITT among others and of
course WILLIE NELSON, who she singles out as a great inspiration, saying,
"He is one artist who not only has a heart of gold, but lives by it
too."
You can purchase "ONLY LOVE" - TERI'S studio collaboration with
DAVID LINDLEY, "THE EYES", OR "]OY" (PEDERNALES RECORDS
compilation CD featuring WILLIE NELSON) at WWW.TERIGARRISON.COM, WWW.
AMAZON.COM, or WATERLOO RECORDS.
But the real story here is her music. Belying her fragile, chiseled,
blue-eyed beauty, TERI's voice is rich and powerful; a blues instrument of
Joplinesque power, yet capable of bringing tears to an audience with the
softest of ballads. Add an uncanny knack for writing songs that explore not
only herself, but her world and her faith and you have a compelling
performer of the highest order.
But these are just words, find the music, then listen, then you'll know.
Here's a recent write up from the September 12th, 2005 issue of Maui
Entertainment Guide:
This story is as much about inspiration as music, or maybe more. In either
case, it is a heartwarming story of a woman with a bunch of talent, “sheer
determination” and ethe-real vision. We have all heard the cliche
“things happen for a reason”. By the end of this story, I hope you will
agree that never has such a generality had more truth.
Teri begrudgingly admitted to being born in Knoxville, Tennesee and was not
too fond of having gone to “twenty schools in eighteen years”. But that
experience, although it made her shy, from always having to adapt to new
environments, gave her the determination to get where she is today...on top.
She is not only on top of her career, but seems to handle her life, and her
family, just as well.
At nineteen, she had a baby, didn’t have a husband, didn’t really know
where to go in llife, and harbored a lot of questions. Throw in a major car
accident and you have the equation of a young woman in trouble. “ I woke
up in the hospital with ten tubes and a morphine drip after major surgery
and I was in intensive care. I remember writing a note to the doctor that
said, “I’m Ok”. The Doctor said no you’re not. You’ll be here for
another six days, and in the hospital for a few more months.
After several more demands, the tubes came out that night, and I was out of
the hospital the next day. I was out of the hospital in four days and I
started writing songs, and I got this kind of vision. God gave me a vision
of this earth and what to do and how to be addressing it. Sometimes I hear
songs that have the fabric of that vision, which comes from a distance. I
heard that not long after my experience and I thought, now that’s a song.
It’s all about making a difference and doing the right thing.
So I just started writing songs in a journal. Then shorly after, I began
wondering how to transpose them. I didn’t play anything, so just by sheer
determination, I picked up a guitar because I had to find a way to record
these melodies that were in my head. I had never written at all, this is
really when my life began. I was pretty bad (at guitar).
Within the first year of the my vision, I had written two songs, and one of
them was about New Orleans, called Jellyroll Blues. I was nearly killed on
the same road as Betsy Smith was killed, and I survived a very similar
story. So I felt she was my guardian angel, and I started writing all these
blues songs. That’s when I met Willie Dixon and immediately felt a kindred
spirit. I got to sing with him and, you know, I didn’t really know how to
play guitar. It was really bold of me to be there in the first place, so I
played a song...and he said, “Well, you got a really big voice. I like the
voice. You definitely got a voice but you gotta learn how to squeeeze that
guitar a little bit harder.” I hung out with him and his family but I was
too shy to accept his offer to record me. I just kept moving on and meeting
amazing people in the music world.”
And meet amazing people she did meet, mostly through her biggest fans, her
girlfriends. “I came from the street university. The first person I gave a
demo tape to was Lowell George of Little Feet. I met him a few months before
he died, Lowell, “I’m a songwriter, can I play you a song?” He harsh-
ly agreed, (he was pretty sick at the time) and said “OK bring a demo tape
to my room in ten minutes”. I looked at my girlfriend and said,
“what’s a demo tape”. So she told me, and we stayed up until two in
the morning and made a demo tape... and it was junk.
I ran up to his room, he allowed me to enter (I had my keyboard player
downstairs for backup). He played it right away, which I respected, and
stopped in the middle of the first song and said, “this really sucks”. I
thought, it’s all over before it begins, it’s over. He said “you
don’t know what you’re doing do you”. I said “no”. He said, “you
got a great voice but you don’t know what you’re doing. The whole key to
music is who is behind you, the musicians. You’ve got to surround yourself
with people who are better than you. You go out and find them, and beg them
and call them. Do whatever it takes to get the best people. Now get out of
here”.
That was so informative for me at that time. I was on this mission. So, I
was writing, and I had a dream of Neil Young, and then I ended up meeting
him. Then I dreamed of Willie Nelson, and met him a couple months later.
When I met Willie Nelson. I had the house band for Real People, and he was
doing the Glen Campbell show across the hall. So, as usual, a friend who
really loved my music and worked in the studio where Willie was working,
introduced me to him at a time when I was just singing back-up, and had not
really told anyone about my songs. So he invited me over to his hotel room
to sing and I was, whooooo! And he was such a gentleman, and so kind...I
walked out of his hotel room and said to myself...I’ve met angel!!! And to
this day he hasn’t changed.
As far a songwriting goes, I never had a sense of making a career and being
well known, I just feel like I have to get this song right, it’s going to
make a difference. It is the greatest time in my life whenever I get a song,
it’s still the same feeling, it’s wonderful, so I just wait for those
moments. I just wrote a couple of new ones for New Orleans that I think are
my best ever! When you follow your heart it happens. And that’s what
brought me to Maui. Maui was so refreshing after LA. In LA, I did a couple
of TV shows, had a house band for NBC’s Real People and worked with Jeff
Baxter of the Doobie Brothers at the end. We had a house band at the House
of Blues, but I was not inspired there.
My first gig on Maui was at the Pioneer Inn in 1989. Brooks Maguire turned
me on to some of my first work, and John Barbier. Back when Front Street was
vital, you could work eight days a week and we all helped each other. Like
Scotty Rotten and Barry Flanagan and Willie K. I remember one evening
singing at the Pioneer Inn on Hallowen when this guy dressed in a BIG
devil’s mask came up behind me carrying an electric guitar and everyone
was wondering who it was until he started ripping. Willie K and I always
used to goof around, have fun and try to show each other up.
Presently, I have one CD with David Lindley called “Only Love” which was
the most fun I’ve ever had in my entire life. Mr. D, he’s my hero, I
love Mr. D. He and his wife Joni are my buds.
Another CD is called “Joy”, a compilation, it has Willie on there, Billy
Joe Shaver, Kris Kristofferson, Don Cherry...a bunch of people. “The
Eyes” is my latest compilation and includes many stars, including Willie
Nelson, Bonnie Bramblett and a new song by Randy Travis, pick it up.
I’m very excited about my new projects, I’m working on a Hawaiian CD
and, I went to Nashville and did this thing with Charlie Louvin of the
Louvin Brothers, who are a seminal influence on most of the country singers,
which is where I started...and I got to sing with them. And we talked about
doing a Bluegrass CD. That’s what I’m most excited about, because I
would get to work with one of my heroes.
It’s all about the musicians. I often think about if I were to do an
interview, how could I do it to help another up-and- coming or struggling
musician.”
Teri, think no more.
Please check out terigarrison.com for more information about his lovely and
talented angel. One of her songs is entitled “Follow Me”. If you have
the pleasure of hearing this song, you will definitely want to follow her.
Teri Garrison
Her song “The Eyes”, won the 2005 Embasy Music Songwriter’s Contest in
Nashville! “Music is my anchor, music is, ironically, what settled me down
”
The Maui Time has named Teri Garrison as BEST MUSICIAN on Maui for 2006 in
its annual reader's poll issue:
"A country and blues singer/songwriter with over 300 original tunes
under her belt, Teri Garrison achieved great renown when her song “The
Eyes” recently won the Embassy Music Songwriter’s Contest in Nashville.
She’s been on Maui forever, garnering vocal comparisons to Janis Joplin
and playing gigs locally whenever she’s not on the road touring. She’s
sung with and opened for Leon Russell, Leo Kottke, David Crosby, Tanya
Tucker, Don Henley, Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson. And she’s got an album
produced by and featuring Nelson, also called The Eyes—hey, it’s a lucky
title. You can catch her live on Sundays at Jack’s Terrace, 843 Waine’e
St., Lahaina, from 7 p.m. to close."
Do you play live?
I play live in many clubs and at concerts in Hawaii and in the mainland U.S.
Your influences?
Willie Nelson has been my mentor and biggest supporter. Bonnie Bramlett has also been a great influence and supporter.
Favorite spot?
LAHAINA, Hawaii
Anything else...?
Vocals, Harmonies and Rhythm Guitar:
TERI GARRISON
Rhythm and Lead Guitar:
DJANGO PORTER
Bass and Lead Guitar:
DANNY performs on "Wise Up Woman"
Rhythm Guitar:
MICHAEL KLEIN performs on "Wise Up Woman"
National Steel and Harmonica:
GUY FORSYTH
Bowed and Upright Bass:
BB MORSE
Drums:
PAUL PEARCY
DONNIE performs on "Wise Up Woman"
Fiddle:
JOHNNY GIMBLE
CHAMP WOOD performs on "Will I Find You"
PAUL ROBERTSON performs on "Love No Longer Lives"
Back Up Vocals:
MALFORD MILLIGAN
GUY FORSYTH
DJANGO PORTER
BB MORSE
Visit
Teri at her website
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