Jackie Tice

Singer/songwriter Jackie Tice discovered her self-identity through folk songs and Native American spirituality. It was her song "The Marijo Tonight," about life at an Irish bar in Pennsylvania, ironically enough, that placed her on the singer/songwriter map when she won the prestigious New Folk Award from the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas in 1996. Tice didn't begin her music career with visions of becoming an award-winning folksinger. She started her musical studies at age 12 with classical piano in Swedeland, PA. She switched to organ, playing Bach chorales at church until age 14. She also sang in church choirs. She took up guitar at age 13 at school. After a friend loaned her an acoustic guitar at age 17, she wrote her first song, "Finding Myself," which showed her budding interest in grappling with issues of self-identity. Her first professional gig came at 19, performing cover songs at the Fruitville Hotel in Pottstown, PA. She began performing at open mic nights in Pennsylvania with her friend, singer/songwriter John Gorka, whom she met in Bethlehem, PA, at Godfrey Daniels. Tice moved to Washington, D.C., where she heard Mary Chapin Carpenter at Food for Thought, in 1982. Carpenter showed her D.C.'s club circuit and Tice began to perform her songs for the first time outside Pennsylvania. She moved back to Pennsylvania in 1986 and studied social work at community colleges. She started working with battered women. Around the time of the birth of her first child in 1989, she began performing her own songs at clubs in State College, PA. By 1992-1993, Tice had won a folk award at the Folk Factory in Philadelphia. She appeared on the 1993 compilation CD Philly Fast Folk on Fast Folk/Smithsonian Folkways. She released her debut CD, Grateful Heart, (produced by Bill...