Janice was born in the Atlanta suburbs but the family soon moved to rural central Georgia. Growing up her musical influences included her mother who played gospel piano, her father who played harmonica and her brother who sang and played guitar in a rock band. She developed an early love of country, jazz, big band, rock and blues.
She played clarinet in high school but never performed on stage until many years later when she joined Bud’s (her husband) bluegrass band where she sang, played rhythm guitar and mandolin. She and Bud also frequently jammed and performed with their friend, grammy nominated Randy Howard. Randy was a multi-instrumentalist who played on many of Nashville’s great artists’ albums. His encouragement and support led Janice to explore genres beyond bluegrass.
After her and Bud’s retirement from healthcare service careers they moved more into blues and Americana – both song writing and productions in their small home studio. Their friend and music partner from Australia, Peter Fulham, has played guitar on their tunes for the past eight years. While Janice has had a number of songs licensed it is simply the sheer joy of music that motivates her. She and Bud live in what she calls an enchanted forest and they equally love hiking and mountain biking.
Janice Merritt
