If there were such a thing as a 12-step support group for people from embarrasing places, then TC would be its Grand Poobah... but there's not, so she remains a proud native of Midland, Texas.

As soon as she learned to read a map, (as restless teenagers often do) she said, "Mom!! Dad!! We can get outta here!" and traded that town's sandblasted streets for the waterlogged freeways of Houston, Texas.

Since Then, she has lived in El Tigre, Venezuela and Port Harcourt, Nigeria in the role of expatriate wife to an oilfield engineer. This brought on a severe bout of introspection that led her to begin playing guitar.

Her travels found their end back in Houston, where she began to raise two small children and one large husband. They support TC by sliding food and DAT tapes under her studio door, and she supports them by sliding the empty plates and tape cases back out again.

After attending her first original music showcase, she polished her guitar and joined the Houston/Fort Bend Sogwriters Association. Then she joined NSAI.  And SGA. And BMI. And began winning songwriting awards. Lots of 'em.

She recorded a 3-song demo that sold 800 copies from the confines of her office. This made her wonder if a career in the music business would be any more insane than spending a third of the rest of her life inside a glass cube.

So while at the top of her game in the oil industry, she decided to leave a really good-paying job to pursue music full-time and won't let anyone forget it. Armed with her three song demo and knock-off Ovation guitar, she began to play at open mic nights.

When local producer, Jack Saunders heard that she was gainfully unemployed, he offered her a job as booking agent for the Jack Saunders Band. Under his sage tutelage, she learned how to run live sound, manage a recording studio, and start her own company, SoundChick.net.

Three albums later, you can find TC schlepping heavy soundgear around the state for the likes of John Evans, Rusty Weir, Owen Temple, and Hayes Carll. She has found a willing co-conspirator in Gary Taylor, who has joined forces with TC to create the acoustic duo, Smythe and Taylor. "S&T" have been successfully subverting live music fans toward the altar of original music for two years.

Her musical influences don't want anything to do with her, but include David Wilcox, Chuck Pyle, Shawn Colvin, Allison Krauss Dave Gardner, Tom Lehrer, and Mary Chapin-Carpenter. It's a 'folk-noir' kinda thing, doncha know?...