Artists:Kristie Stremel

Kristie Stremel sings from the heart of America. It's a tough place. Yet her songs turn the details of the daily grind into reasons to keep pushing. In a time of despair, her music fights for hope.

Stremel's western Kansas childhood home can be found precisely in the middle of nowhere-too far off the beaten track for most concert tours, or even to receive FM radio. It's the kind of place where most Americans live their lives: off the radar - unseen, unheard and easily forgotten - facing a regular diet of boredom and bad jobs.

In that world, Stremel began to fashion a place she could call her own out of the Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings songs that her guitar-playing father taught her. In 1986, at age 12, she entertained her family with her first electric guitar. At 15, she caught Joan Jett at the county fair and decided to put together a band; it performed at the local skating rink and school dances. Transplanted to Kansas City the summer before high school, she got serious about writing songs. read more.