..."A my name is..." -- and here we'll skip stright to my lou and -- "I my name is Izza, and my husband's name is Izzy, and we live in Independence where we sell Indie Music Downloads!" -- as some of you may have also played in childhood.

My name is Izzabella.  I am a singer-songwriter.  On the playgrounds and in the highschool hallways of my school years many also called me IZ -- whence the name of my record company (IZrecords) and songs publisher (IZsongworks).

I live on the Occoquan river in the tidewater country of Virginia, USA.  The headwaters of the Occoquan are found in the nearby Appalachian Mountains, and much of the Occoquan valley is now a suburb of Washington DC.  Northern Virginia (the phrase once wedded to Lee's army of that name) is an epicenter of the ongoing social and economic re-invention of America in this century.  The greater Washington DC sprawlopolis is home to one of the world's most varied populations -- and all their music traditions.  Some of these traditions are deeply rooted in this part of the country, while others are more recent arrivals to its musical landscape.  I lift my hat to Walt Whitman and make them all mine.

Latin American music -- the different fusions from each South and Central American country of the Iberian, African, and Indigenous -- are all here in the many Latino communities, and my music carries a touch of their influence.  Beyond the Tidewater's suburbs there is a -- often still distinctly Black and White -- amalgam of newly-evolving ex-urban society, and of deeply-rooted agricultural society, all also aswhirl with separate strains of secular and religious music traditions.  And, Occoquan is just down the road from the Great Smokey Mountains where, within living memory, there persisted a ballad tradition anchored in the music Colonial era settlers brought with them from the British Isles.  So, I see Occoquan as an interchange where many traditions merge into the freeway of my music.  Mine is a song sensibility at once open to global and urban influences, yet firmly rooted in the music traditions of the rural, American South.  I am an American, new traditional, country singer.

I cordially invite you to listen to my songs -- presented as a stack of digital 45s in a virtual jukebox (no need for any spare change to feed this jukebox however, as streamlistens are free).  I sincerely hope you'll find a song among mine that sings to you in that special way that we all are looking for from new music.

My sincere thanks to you.  Like every artist, I'm much obliged to you for whatever time, attention and sharing you may give my work.  To those so gracious as to have bought a permanent download copy of one of my songs for your mp3 players, a special thanks to you from me.  Listening to the song, I trust you'll share a bit of the joy and pleasure I took in composing it, and I hope you'll share your liking for it with your friends.  I want the songs to delight you -- I made them for your song-listening pleasure.

Thank you again, and Big Love to all lovers of every kind of music, and all the best to you in all your adventures in the melody and poetry of songs.

Yours Very Truly,

My next performance will be on Sunday 9 October 2011 at the Cock & Bowl in Occoquan, Virginia, USA.  Please do come -- I'd love to see you there.

IZrecords commissions and releases recording of my songs, sometimes performed by me, sometimes by other artists.

IZsongworks publishes my songs.  IZsongworks is a music publisher affiliated with the Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) performing right organization (PRO) .

I also play my songs on Jango internet radio at IZZABELLA & IZsongworks on Jango internet radio.  If you like the songs, please "click up" as a fan on Jango.  Most of all of course, I'd welcome your listening to the songs on my virtual jukebox of digital 45s while also pushing all those tweetlike'n'send buttons.  Thank you with all my heart for sharing my music with your friends who might like it too.

And thank you again for being here -- there are lots of other web sites out there...  One of the many really interesting things about the internet music revolution is that you -- out there in the galactic cloud of umpteen million internet users -- are not an audience of fans (that we musicians step out in front of to perform -- a right-then-and-there relationship, live and in-person -- and directly personal -- for the real time the performance lasts), rather, you're fans of my songs (the recordings are your only experience of my work).  I'm very, very proud of every single one of you who is a fan of my songs.  Thank you -- and I'm always glad to hear from you -- Izzabella at izzabellamusic@gmail.com.

Yours Very Truly,