Wendy Grace

A few years ago when Wendy was in East Timor, Australian music icon Molly Meldrum played a very old Countdown clip of Wendy singing in a rowing boat, and he asked "what ever happened to her?"  Well, this brief history of her time so far may clear that up!

Wendy was born Wendy Grose in 1955.  She spent her happy childhood in the Sydney harbourside suburb Parsley Bay and attended Ascham, a private school for girls.  She started piano lessons at seven and also played the flute in high school.  At 15 she fell in love with the guitar.  She listened to her brother learning to play the guitar and decided to pick it up herself, practising in every spare moment.  She taught herself at first, and played and sang with friends.

Wendy's brother introduced her to musician friends in a band.  She had guitar lessons from a member of the band, learning to play on a 12 string guitar. She played intricate Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young tunes until she had very strong fingers!  Her hard work paid off.  At 17 she was writing her own songs and recording them at her guitar teacher’s studio.

After completing school Wendy took piano lessons again, learnt music theory, studied the guitar and had weekly singing lessons. She regularly performed in a number of folk clubs around Sydney.  During this time she started working at Clover Recording Studios, where she was assigned to ring musicians to book them for session work.  It was soon recognised that Wendy was talented, and she began to play the guitar and sing on commercials herself and would continue to do so for the next 12 years.

The musical doors continued to open for her and at the age of 18 Wendy was given a recording contract with Albert Music.  At that time Albert Studios signed up a handful of young singer/songwriters, of which Wendy was the only woman.  Wendy met up with the band Crossfire, the first Jazz/Rock fusion band in Australia.  Crossfire played on her debut album Backyard of Blue, released when Wendy was 19.  She toured with Crossfire as their support act playing at universities around Sydney and Melbourne.  She made many TV appearances in 1975 including Countdown, Radio with Pictures and GTK.

After playing at a sell-out concert at the Sydney Opera House supporting Crossfire, Wendy got the travel bug and went backpacking with her partner Don. On New Years’ Day 1976 they set off on a 10 month trip travelling overland from Bali to Europe, then to the U.S. and back to Australia across the Pacific.  Her lasting memories from the trip include arriving in Katmandu and seeing the Himalayas, driving in a Kombi through the Khyber Pass, white water rafting down the Colorado River and celebrating her 21st birthday in a Greek restaurant in Waikiki.

On returning from her travels Wendy formed a band and played regularly at the Roxy Café and at the Pin Ball Wiz in Sydney.  The band included some of her old friends from Crossfire, and guitarists Tommy Emmanuel and Steve Murphy.  They performed at concerts for the Save the Whale campaign in Sydney in 1977.

In that year Wendy teamed up with guitarist and singer Lorraine Silk.  The high-point of their time together was appearing as support act for Ry Cooder on his Australian tour.  He wanted to book them for the following year but by then they both had newborn babies and were unable to oblige!  While Wendy’s daughter Amelia was young, Wendy appeared on the ABC TV children’s' show Mr Squiggle, singing songs written by her partner Don.

In the early 80s Wendy recorded 3 tracks at Sydney's EMI studios, which are on her CD More Than Hope.  Wendy sang for a season in the Magic Pudding Band (a band formed by Australian composer Nigel Westlake).  At this time Wendy also began studying Tai Chi.  Every morning she started her day with 45 mins of Tai Chi and 20 mins of meditation.  In 1983 Wendy spent 6 months in Jeff Harvey’s band on the Mike Walsh Show (a popular TV variety show) as a backing singer with Kerry Bidell, Sally Dodds and Mickey Leyton.

In 1985 Wendy met Richard Jones, the Australian Greenpeace co-founder and publisher of the magazine Simply Living.  He’d heard her sing at the Save the Whale concert and had followed her career since then.  At this time Wendy decided to put her music on the back burner, only doing occasional session work, and worked with Richard on Simply Living as an editorial assistant.  She helped to get him elected as a Member of the Upper House in the NSW State Parliament as a Democrat.  In 1991 Wendy moved to Possum Creek near Byron Bay and soon after changed her name to Wendy Grace (her godmother's maiden name).

In 1992 Wendy met singing teacher Chris James.  Chris introduced Wendy to the beauty of singing a single note – toning.  She joined him as a teacher, bringing with her her experience as a singer and musician, and as an exponent of Tai Chi and meditation. For several years they ran singing workshops together, helping people discover their singing voices and to feel more confident.  They ran these workshops all over Australia, England and at the Findhorn Community in Scotland.  Chris and Wendy recorded several CDs together.

In 1997 Wendy released a CD of her original songs entitled Infinite Sky. The CD was recorded at the Music Farm, a studio in the Byron Bay hinterland. It was produced and engineered by bass player Jeremy Alsop and featured Mary Doumany playing the concert harp and Riley Lee playing the shakuhachi, a traditional Japanese bamboo flute.  Wendy took the CD to New York and performed some of her new songs at Tupelo Honeys on Long Island with some local musician friends.  Another highlight of her trip was helping with a psychedelic light show for the band the Zen Tricksters, in the Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon on New Year's Eve and then conducting the audience of 1500 people to sing Om in 3 part Harmony!

On returning from the U.S. Wendy met her husband Ron and in 1999 they had a son Benjamin.  Although playing less music, her adventures continued.  Ron got a job working for the UN and they moved to Dili for a few months, staying with an East Timorese family.  Benjamin took his first steps there surrounded by his smiling East Timorese friends.

Wendy and her family now live in a solar powered home in the village of Uki, northern NSW and she continues to run her popular singing workshops and weekly singing groups.  She has just released The Joy of Singing, a DVD of her singing workshop filmed in Uki's historic School of Arts Hall.  Uki is nestled at the base of Mount Warning (Wollumbin) and is surrounded by World Heritage National Parks.  Mount Warning overlooks the beautiful Tweed Valley and some of the spectacular beaches of northern NSW, including Byron Bay.

Click here to see the lyrics of the new DVD