Biography
Wendy was born Wendy Grose in 1955. 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 and decided to pick it up herself, practising in every spare moment.
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 work as a session/studio singer and guitar player herself, and would continue to do so for the next 12 years.
Meanwhile 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.
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. In 1980 Wendy appeared regularly on the ABC TV children’s' show Mr Squiggle, singing original songs.
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). 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 1991 Wendy moved to the Byron Bay area in Northern NSW and soon after changed her name to Wendy Grace (a family name).
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 lives in the Tweed Valley in northern NSW and she runs her popular singing workshops and weekly singing groups.
