Darby’s Bio

I was born in San Francisco, adopted and whisked away to a sleepy town in Oregon. My mother was a Southern belle and my larger than life father is a larger than life W.W.II Fighter Ace, Sportscaster turned Lawyer. Their Albee-esque marriage crumbled when I was twelve. My mother and I moved to Portland, OR and I completed my school years there at Lincoln High and Catlin Gabel School.  Looking back, I realize that I was always an outsider. I never really felt like I belonged, nor I could ever figure out how to “calm down”, as was a frequent Oregonian exhortation. Nothing has changed. People still remind me how eccentric I am, but now they say it has its charm on a good day. School was cruel and I have my share of horrible memories. Like many artists, whenever it got tough I would retreat to my room and sing, play and write songs and poems -a secret I kept from my friends until I escaped to New York and to Sarah Lawrence College at the age of 17.

I was musical from an early age, giving my first public performance when I was three singing “Oh, Come All Ye Faithful” somewhere in Salem. No one remembers where it was, which doesn’t surprise me. I began playing the piano at three and also played the accordion, violin (an instrument that I did not excel at), and the guitar. In those days Oregon was very rural and there were few radio stations that you could hold on a long car ride.

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