I grew up in London in the 1960s as Barbara Keith and attended Camden School For Girls. My father, a refugee from the Holocaust, was an engineer by day and played classical piano and popular standards at London pubs in the evening, while my mum liked to sing as he'd play at home. My dad bought me a Spanish nylon string guitar when I was 13, and I would love to work out chords and vocal parts to Beatle songs.

          My first real gig was in a coffee bar on the Finchley Road singing Joan Baez and Dylan songs. I also sang in a rock band run by a classmate's brother called Gravel Camp. We were influenced by Fairport Convention and did some folk-rock songs and blues, which gave me a chance to stretch my voice at bit. We did a couple of gigs in Soho before we all went off to college.

I went to Bristol University to study Psychology and would often frequent Bristol’s rich heritage of folk clubs like The Troubadour in Clifton and venues in Bath and surrounding West Country. It was then that I was introduced to some of folk music's great artists, both British and American. I would sometimes play original songs at open mikes with a few paid gigs, one of which was a biweekly spot at an Italian restaurant in Clifton’s Princess Victoria Street. I also joined forces with fellow student and musician Pete Finch with a lady on cello, in a folk group called Leviathan. We performed several gigs at the university Folk and Blues club.

           After graduating I joined up with fellow Bristol graduate Steve Brown, and two local West Country lads, forming the Fred Bloggs Band. We were much more commercial than the folk music that I had been used to, and played in pubs in the West Country and on military bases in Europe. While I missed the intimacy of the folk scene, I welcomed the opportunity to stretch my vocal muscles singing rock and soul. I also enjoyed singing harmony with Steve and learning how to contribute musically to the band sound. My role was mainly as lead singer, but I did also play some rhythm guitar and percussion.

By 1979 the touring was becoming difficult and I was beginning to feel rather frustrated in my role as dolled-up front person, usually for a club room full of servicemen. I formed The Gladys Bloggs Band with some of my former band associates and we got together a repertoire of original songs, performing at Bristol’s annual free summer festival. I then joined up with university friend Ruth King on bass guitar and guitarist John Sweet to return to Spain for a 3 month stint where we all wrote songs which would become part of our future repertoire. Ruth later formed her own band in London, named King Kahn.

          I met my husband Ron Ferrara in 1980 on a visit to Los Angeles, married in 1984, and I gave birth to my son Michael in 1986 and daughter Katie in 1988. Ron was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1989, but survived for 16 years with a balance of chemotherapy and holistic nutrition. During the 1990s I worked part time as a substitute teacher and writer for some magazines.

I also wrote many songs during this period, and made my first CD, Nothing Between Us, in 2000, on a Roland 16-track home studio. This was followed by Mojave Moon in 2001 and Time Flies in 2002. I continue to occasionally write songs and have also revived my love of traditional British folk music which I sometimes perform at gigs. I also recently started a YouTube channel on which I have used some of my music as audio tracks to creative video.