By the age of fifteen she was playing drums for a local theater company and in her late teens she sat in with Foreigner on a performance of "I Want to Know What Love Is".

She graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island with a degree in history and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where she began working the folk rock circuit.

[1] She did not gain wide recognition, however, until a successful appearance at The Bottom Line in New York City led to a contract with EMI/Guardian Records and the re-release of Truth from Lies in 1996.

[5] Her songs have featured in Alias, Dawson's Creek, Grey's Anatomy, Felicity and Chicago Hope, as well as in several independent films.

In 2005, she and Mark Erelli won the Grand Prize in the International Songwriting Competition for "People Look Around", a song written in response to Hurricane Katrina.