Tanya Savory   -  Biography

Tanya Savory was raised in Columbia, S.C., but moved to San Francisco as a young adult. There, she had discovered songwriting and decided to visit Nashville. On a quick trip, she managed to squeeze into the Bluebird Café -- at a front table no less -- for a sold-out Nanci Griffith show. Taking it as a sign, Savory moved to Nashville three weeks later.

At another writer's night in Nashville, she met Kim House, who helped produce her first independent album, Better Shade of Green. Savory won songwriting competitions at the Napa Valley, MerleFest and Kerrville festivals. Perseverance was definitely a key component with winning at Kerrville. Having been a finalist three times but never a winner, she decided to enter one last time in 1996. By chance, one of the judges that year was Lucinda Williams, another major influence. Savory won that year.

Not long after winning Kerrville, she made the leap to touring full time. Playing coast to coast in venues that ranged from bars to churches to theatres to a flatbed truck one time in North Carolina, her music continued to evolve as she absorbed the textures and towns along the way. Yet, she has remained true to the acoustic sound (a mix of folk, country and bluegrass) that drew her to songwriting in the first place. She has since released two albums (Town to Town and Where We Live) on Rounder Records.