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Cindy has been playing music since "Chopsticks" at age three on her grandma's piano. Flutophone was next, then
clarinet, bassoon, bass clarinet, cornet, drums and guitar, with Cindy writing her first full songs by time she got out of
junior high. She still owns the album she did with the combined Clear Lake Texas elementary schools in the late '60s,
but did home recordings on the family two-track starting in New Mexico in 1970 and continued her love of production in Seattle
area schools as well as making Film and Videotape production one of her two majors from Rice University. She was a member
of that school's infamous bands, the MOB, BOB and SOB, playing first clarinet, contrabass clarinet, a mean guitar, kazoo,
cornet, tambourine or bass drum as needed, as well as the school and her dorm's choruses and a regular fixture in various
stage productions throughout her years there, and a DJ at KTRU, the school radio station. She even squeezed a little
singing into the oral interpretation that qualified her for Nationals for the speech and debate team while she was at Rice.
This all got her on the albums the MOB did for Rhino Records and "The Naked Gun" soundtrack, as well as later got her positions
in Austin working on local rock music show production teams.
Between these events, Cindy slowly built up a large number of lyrics, and some totally self-penned songs. Finding
other musicians to write with, she found she was also adept at taking riffs and combining them into arrangements, filling
in the gaps with drum, bass and keyboard parts as needed. This won her a couple of local music awards, and got her acoustic
playing featured in showcases at the Llano Banano Festival and Chicago House. This propelled her into positions of Secretary-Treasurer
and a member of the Board of Directors for the Austin Songwriter's Group. With a whole band behind her, she was finally
able to put her full sound on stage, giving it the name Open Window. The band had several lineups, and was featured
at showcases in Best of Texas and Nukes By No Nukes before disbanding in mid-1995. She then lent her talents to singing
backup at Christfest and running sound for Friday night metal youth services and the usual Sunday services at Mission
Hills Church. Her production talents won her three top-ten Austin Chronicle reader's poll awards for
the two live rock music shows she worked on in two years for Austin Community Access Cable. Open Window still
exists on Garageband.com, and Cindy has a few dozen more songs she may put into another album or two sometime in the near
future. Meanwhile, she does the Music Writing Tips column at Suite101.com, does the odd song pitch, and can be occasionally
seen doing solo acoustic gigs for The Rotary Club and local charities.
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