Kiya Heartwood

b. Middletown, Kentucky, USA. When the R&B label Malaco Records set up a country music subsidiary in 1993, the first signing was the singer-songwriter Kiya Heartwood. She had released her first cassette, Gravity, in 1983 but several years later she joined the band Stealin Horses. A self-titled album was issued by Arista Records in 1988 and a follow-up, Mesa And Mandolins in 1991. Stealin Horses disbanded in 1992. Heartwood then went on to make a solo album in the Muscle Shoals Studio in Alabama but the results were uninspiring. In 1995, she formed the folk roots duo Wishing Chair with Miriam Davidson (b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; vocals, accordion, guitar, banjo, percussion). They released Singing With Red Wolves (1995), Undisputed Country (1998), The Ghost Of Will Harbut (2000), Crow (2002), with Kara Barnard Dishpan Brigade (2003), and Underdog (2005) all on Terrakin Records.