"I listen to it all and I'm influenced by it all.I don't think in genres and I don't sing in them either."

Olivia West has been influenced by everyone and everything."But I mostly write about life. Mine and everyone else I know. It's kindadangerous to know me if you don't wanna hear someone sing about you." Orblog. Olivia's blog about raising herchildren while pursuing her career (Livi's Life Story - A Single Mommy'sAdventures In Becoming An Overnight Success http://liviwest.com) is anintimate, interactive and humorous look at the way her mind works.

Olivia earned her first paycheck singing Country music atthe Truman Lake Opry in Tightwad MO. Since then she's waited tables, torn off roofs, cleaned houses and endedup "begging from stages with my tipbucket and my guitar" inNashville's competitive and underpaid music scene. She's played everywhere from the KentuckyMusic Hall of Fame Inductions at Lexington Center in KY, the Frank BrownInternational Songwriter Festival in Alabama, and the Hard Rock & Tootsie's(in Nashville and Florida) to the Bluebird Cafe and shared a bill with JohnRich, Lady Antebellum, Jerrod Neimann, The Henningsens, Lee Brice, and evenCasting Crowns and Reliant K. No one in Nashville is working harder at climbingthat ladder to the top of the charts.

"Once I even won a karaoke contest so I could drivehome from Nashville for a weekend. Haha! I think it's supposed to go theother way around" quips Olivia whose humor developed well as a defensemechanism against "more heartache than you can fit in a whole career ofCountry songs, that's probably why it ends up sounding more hard-edged likeRock."

Growing up under the poverty line, a supportive father'searly and unexpected death, a failed marriage, the hardship of struggling toraise two boys alone, and the typical aches and pains of a growing artistcareer. It makes for a lot of material to write about.

"Nothing's off limits for my songs. I write about it all. I think music reachesmore people if it's honest, and I can't afford a shrink, so I hold nothingback. I put it all in my music."

Olivia writes that music “with my heroes! I’m the luckiestgirl in the world to get to make songs with the people who influenced me!”

Her cowriters include: Greg Barnhill (House of Love,Walkaway Joe, That Kind of Day,) MarkOliverius (She’s A Whole Lotta Gone, Dos Divas,) Reese Wilson (You Take MePlaces I’ve Never Been, Not On Your Love,) Stan Webb (I’m From the Country,)Rodney Janzen (Free and Easy Down The Road,) The Henningsens (You Lie, The OnlyGirl You Love All Your Life,) Mary Francis (Whiskey if You Were a Woman,Tonight the Heartache’s on Me,) Jon Nite (Save Water Drink Beer, Glass,) AmandaWilliams (B-E-E-R Run.)