For anyone who grew up listening to music in the 50s and 60s, there will be a sense of familiarity. It echoes a time when elemental music was defining the essence of rock and country. Shades of slow swing ballads playing in 3/4 time on the jukebox at the local dive bar; Grand Ole Opry broadcasts crackling on the radio on a humid summer night; storytelling songs being shared on a porch in Appalachia; stripped down rhythms whomping against black-painted basement walls.

For listeners whose musical references are primarily contemporary, Stevens will take them away from heavily produced MTV fare and into a world of exposed emotions delivered with unadorned impact. Stevens's recorded work keeps it simple. Her live shows pack a visceral wallop.

"Life is my biggest influence. I write for the confused young girls who sit in their rooms and cry. I know what it's like to rise above the ashes and what it's like to endure the worst of life. The best part is that I've also endured the best. I take nothing for granted, and live each day with passion pouring into everything I do."

Stevens grew up in South Dakota. "I picked up a guitar when I was ten, fascinated by how something made of wood could understand my depressed brother more than any person I knew. I was drawn to it, but after he committed suicide the next year at age 21, I didn't go back to it until I was sixteen. I had his Fender Stratocaster (my mom gave away his acoustic, and we still kick ourselves for that) and I began to play to accompany my poetry. The words I wrote for the hard life I had lived. The words I wrote for him."

She headed to Minnesota for college, but didn't stay. "I was on my way to California to pursue my dreams, got sidetracked by a love affair, and there I was in Colorado."

She's done her turn as a solo artist playing the coffee house circuit, but I really wanted to expand my sound so it could completely engulf all who listened. She formed her three-piece band in January 2005. They spent February in the studio. In March they released I'm Okay. By April, invitations to play at high visibility events were rolling in and people were recommending her to industry reps locally and nationally.

In December 2005 she was the featured artist on Noise Floor, a monthly music series on Comcast and Coors became a sponsor of her band.

In January 2006, Hapi Skratch Entertainment named her Emerging Artist of 2005. In March, Westword proclaimed her Denver's Best Singer/Songwriter.