I began playing guitar at the age of 7. I remember picking up my mum's old battered guitar that looked ancient, with 2 strings missing and she taught me 4 chords from House Of The Rising Sun. Not exactly the song choice for any normal 7 year old to listen to, nevertheless it became a song that I practiced for months.

After quickly becoming bored of strumming the same thing over and over I taught myself how to fingerpick the same 4 chords and became fascinated how the song could be played in a number of ways and sound different each time. Still too shy to sing in front of anybody, I would sit with a 70's and 80's songbook and try to teach myself songs I'd never heard of, let alone knew how to sing.

I was classically trained through my teens before opting in favour of playing the guitar, singing and song writing, something that I found to be more liberating with no rules to follow. I love everything from rock music to RnB, however my passion has always been singing whilst playing acoustic guitar thus inspiring me to do an earthy, organic sounding album with, some might say, a slight country edge. I recorded my debut album over a few months with producers and songwriters Henry Priestman and Guy Batson, along with writers Amy Wadge, Pete Riley who is part of the Edwin McCain band (USA), as well as Paul Garrett and Steve Erickson who form the writing partnership for Liverpool band '10 Reasons To Live'.

So far I have supported artists such as:

Katie Melua
Simon Webbe
Dwele
Sugababes
Westlife
Nate James
Hanson
Roger McGuinn tour
Joan Armatrading tour
Engelbert Humperdinck tour
Marc Almond
Van Morisson
Bryan Adams

I have also had the opportunity to have several photo shoots done with legendary music photographer Mick Rock (www.mickrock.com) who is renowned for taking iconic shots for the likes of Freddie Mercury, David Bowie,Blondie and Kate Moss. I was thrilled to work with him and he has taken the picture that is to be my album cover.

Jade GALLAGHER, UK