Pat is a singer, songwriter and performer living in Southern Illinois. She has performed at local coffee houses and as a guest musician for organizations throughout the South and Midwest in the US, and in Central America. During the summer of 2005, she had the opportunity to participate in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington DC in celebration of the Forest Service centennial as a performer and as a recreation planner (Pat’s day job). She also performed at the Kennedy Center as a solo musician, and as director of the Jasper Street Singers, A women’s a cappella group and a children’s choir that she formed to celebrate the Forest Service centennial. In July, Pat spent time in Africa playing music with kids and adults, and learning about the impact of AIDS on families and communities Kabwe, Zambia.

     Pat developed an ear for a cappella vocal music growing up around Barbershop music, eventually singing in a quartet with her mother and aunts, and then forming her own quartet in high school. As an adult, she added the guitar and djembe (drum) and other rhythm instruments to her solo work.

      Pat formed the Jasper Street Singers in 2004, a women’s ensemble singing songs rich in harmony with an African rhythm. Through her business, Rhythm and Harmony Within, Pat offers rhythm and harmony workshops for businesses, churches, schools and other groups with the purpose of re-discovering the great music that lies within each of us. Participants have an opportunity to try different rhythm instruments and sing songs that create a rich community of harmony, not to mention have fun.

     You can register for the next rhythm and harmony workshop on Sunday, April 30th from 2-4:30 pm at the Cobden Community Center (A workshop for kids is from 12:45-1:30pm).  You may experiment with a multitude of rhythm instruments, increase your skill, make great music in community with others, and connect more deeply with your inner rhythm.  For more info, you can call me 618-697-4414.
 The cost for the workshop is $15.00 for adults ($12 seniors) or $8 for kids and can be paid by check or cash at the door, or through paypal.
Click here for details.

    Her New CD, Listen More… was developed to celebrate the Forest Service centennial and our human connection to the land. The song We Belong to the Earth interweaves the call of the Humpback Whale with voice and instruments to a poem by Chief Noah Sealth. The Inevitable is a lively and optimistic rock-n-roll piece about where our lives will eventually return. How we live each moment is what truly matters.

     Pounds Hollow  was the first recreation area constructed in the 1930’s on the Shawnee National Forest by the Civilian Conservation Corps under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and may represent how communities in our nation felt during these times of scarce opportunities. Children of the Forest was inspired by an African pigmy tribe melody and George Harrison’s Within you and Without you.

Click below to Listen to a Quicktime sample,

Breaths (Listen More Often)     

Children of the Forest

The Inevitable

Pounds Hollow