Snohomish woman puts her poems to catchy folk-pop

Published 10:38 pm Thursday, August 23, 2007

Singer-songwriter Beth Whitney hasn’t quit her waitress job for the full-time musician’s life, but she’s staying positive about her musical future.

“I feel like a success right now,” said Whitney, 23, a Snohomish resident. “I feel the most successful when I finish writing a song. Making where you are right now a success is important. You keep waking up and doing your thing.”

Whitney, who graduated from Whitworth College and finished a discipleship with Canadian Mennonite University, did not take vocal lessons but did take some guitar instruction.

“I come from a family with six kids so we would always sing in the car, and Mom had us sing in a children’s choir. And Mom is in a bluegrass group,” she said.

At first, Whitney wrote poems, not songs.

The turning point may have been when she was 14.

“One day I had an explosive moment. I just knew that I wanted to write songs and play the guitar. I had never played the guitar or thought of myself as a performer. Then someone gave me a guitar and I put those two together. I was writing because it was fun, and poems could use a melody,” Whitney said.

“Now, I don’t have a big defined goal but I love writing and performing and my immediate goal is to get the CD out there and play lots of shows. I’d like to play in other countries some day, too.”

She’s already been to Canada, Australia, Mexico and South Africa. She received a political science degree in peace studies from Whitworth.

Her about-to-be-released CD is “Leave Your Shoes,” full of catchy folk-pop songs, some of which are very personal.

“As a musician, I’m prone to stages of melancholy, but some of that is just natural,” Whitney said. “You can also become attached to the idea of being sad as a mystery and (it makes you look like) a deeper person.”

But the song “Miss Misery” also includes ways “that I discovered joy and that it’s good but harder to be joyful than to be sorrowful in this life.”

“Wayfaring Stranger” is a traditional song.

“I’ve had some deaths in the family, my grandmother, my brother a few years ago (so) the album (“Leave Your Shoes”) has themes of death and life and joy and sorrow. I changed part of the lyrics to “Wayfaring Stranger” to mention my brother Jeff.”

The road to success in the music business can be difficult, but Whitney is not to be deterred.

“I can’t stop writing, for one thing,” she said. “It’s not about success or being known; I just love to go out and love to play … I will always continue writing and playing. I made a deal with myself that if any opportunity comes along, I’ll take it. If I don’t have a show that day, I’ll take (the gig). You just keep following those leads.”

And those dreams.