The shortish biography
Idgy Vaughn was born in Chillicothe, Missouri (“The Home of Sliced Bread”), to a non-musical hog farming family on the same day that Jimmy Hoffa disappeared. Her folks lost their farm and moved to a Mississippi River town. Idgy taught herself to play guitar and became the only songwriter she knew.
In 2001, she packed up her small daughter and, sight unseen, moved to Austin, Texas, buoyed by a tax refund check and a bunch of songs nobody ever heard. A single mother and new to the scene in “The Live Music Capitol of the World,” Idgy got by waitressing at a truckstop a few miles south of town until a customer won the lottery and loaned her just enough to make her first record.
A second stroke of luck came when she won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Competition.
Her debut album, ORIGIN STORY, was recorded entirely in Austin with a dream team of all-star musicians. It garnered an amazing critical response in Great Britain and the U.S., as well as nominations for Album of the Year, Producer of the Year for Paul Pearcy, and Best New Band at the 2006 Austin Music Awards.
The album spent 11 weeks on the national Americana chart, peaking at #32, with the unique distinction of being the only self-released record on the chart at the time.
National Public Radio made “Good Enough” their Song of the Day. ORIGIN STORY was on the much-coveted “best of the year” lists by Austin NPR affiliate KUT’s David Brown, the Austin Chronicle’s longtime music writer Margaret Moser, and many, many others.
Idgy has opened for music icons Kris Kristofferson and Richard Thompson, as well as great artists like Billy Joe Shaver, Joe Ely, Jimmy Webb, Mary Gauthier, Ray Wylie Hubbard,Leo Kottke, Kelly Willis, David Bromberg, and the Derailers. She has shared the stage with Hayes Carll and Susan Gibson. Idgy tours nationally, and is often accompanied by Will Sexton.
ORIGIN STORY musician credits
ORIGIN STORY, Idgy Vaughn's 11-song debut album, boasts a veritable A-list of Austin giants. Musicians include: producer/drummer Paul Pearcy (Darden Smith, Jerry Jeff Walker, Terri Hendrix); guitarists Redd Volkaert (Merle Haggard), Rob Gjersoe (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, The Flatlanders, The Greencards), Marvin Dykhuis (Tish Hinojosa, Jimmy LaFave, South Austin Jug Band), and Guy Forsyth (solo artist and founding member of the Asylum Street Spankers); pedal steel player Lloyd Maines (Terri Hendrix, Joe Ely, Dixie Chicks, Richard Buckner); dobro player Cindy Cashdollar (Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Dylan); fiddler Eamon McLoughlin (The Greencards), keyboard players Riley Osbourn (Marcia Ball, Willie Nelson, W.C. Clark) and Earl Poole Ball (Johnny Cash, The Byrds, Buck Owens, Gram Parsons); and bassist Glenn Fukunaga (Eliza Gilkyson, Terri Hendrix, Dixie Chicks), and many, many others. Special vocal accompaniments were performed by Texas singer-songwriters Ruthie Foster and Pauline Reese. ORIGIN STORY is a completely independent full-length album.
Idgy Vaughn in a nutshell
Idgy Vaughn, a Missouri native, came to Austin with her daughter and not much else, worked at a truckstop, won Kerrville’s New Folk Competition, and self-released an award-winning debut that reached #32 on the AMA. Now she tours nationally and opens for folks like Kris Kristofferson, Richard Thompson, Joe Ely, Billy Joe Shaver, Mary Gauthier, and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
Idgy Vaughn is Trouble - short bio
Idgy Vaughn is big trouble.
She’s trouble for those who like singer-songwriters to fit nice and quietly into single-serving genre molds like “folk,” “country” or “rock.” She’s trouble for those who don’t like their sad songs leavened with humor, or their catchy, silly songs rubbing elbows with songs that punch you in the gut and wrench your heart out. Idgy’s trouble for those folks because she does it all, without apology, prejudice or even knowing any better. Which, of course, also makes her all kinds of trouble for anyone who just considers themselves a sucker for a great song, whatever the flavor — and doubly so for suckers for a great voice.
Idgy Vaughn is trouble in the sense that she excels at throwing people off their guard, and then knocking them flat. Misjudge her by the way she might traipse onto a stage in a sun dress and cowboy boots, all playful red curls, big green eyes and bigger smile, and she’ll blindside you with a song she wrote about raising her daughter as a single mother in the projects, or an equally devastating character study of a co-worker she knew during her “Truckstop Waitress” days. Sometimes she surprises even herself. At the 2004 Kerrville Folk Festival, when her big violin solo during her howler of a song about needing to find herself a “Redbone Hound” went tragically awry due to a broken bow, she broke down in a fit of laughter, then rallied for a finish that brought the audience to its feet — cheering as though they’d just seen her pull a flaming DC-10 out of a nose dive for a safe landing. She ended up being one of the six winners of that year’s prestigious New Folk Competition for Emerging Songwriters.
Idgy Vaughn’s debut album, Origin Story, was produced by Paul Pearcy with a veritable A-team of Austin’s best and most in-demand players, none of whom quite managed to steal the spotlight from Idgy herself. Which could mean big trouble for anyone averse to the possibility that the brightest, freshest new voice on the Texas music scene just might be an unsocialized farm kid from the wide-open spaces of the Midwest.
Looking for trouble? The good kind of trouble? Idgy’s got it. But don’t say we didn’t warn you.
www.sonicbids.com/IdgyVaughn
Electronic Press Kit now available with a downloadable high-res photo.