Take a folk singer-songwriter with classical piano training. Add a dramatic flair, a sense of compassion balanced with humor, a touch of jazz sensibilities, and a down-home, but vibrant, persona. Have her write and sing songs of social consciousness, love, friendship, heart-ache, death, money, and hope for a positive future. Ta-da! You have Tina Lear, and you can experience the breadth of her talent on her third album, The Road Home.

The granddaughter of a famous vaudevillian, Tina studied acting and psychology on the way to a musical career that moved into high gear in the early Nineties, when she was thrust into the folk world spotlight by winning the Best Songwriter Award at the Columbia Folk Festival the same year she was a finalist in the New Folk Songwriting Contest at the prestigious Kerrville Folk Festival. This led to her first two albums -- Classified Ads and Full Moon Big Circle -- which both garnered national airplay and gave her a considerable following among fans of smart, literate, deeply-felt songwriting.

On The Road Home, she plays piano and is backed by a national array of musicians including guitarist Mitch Watkins (Leonard Cohen, Lyle Lovett, Passenger, K.T. Oslin, Abra Moore), harmonica player Howard Levy (Bela Fleck & The Flecktones), violinist Gene Elders (Lyle Lovett), bassist Roscoe Beck (Jennifer Warnes), and several recording artists in their own right such as mandolinist Paul Glasse and jazz saxophonist Tony Campise. Mitch Watkins has produced or co-produced all three of Tina's albums. Watkins also produced an album for Abra Moore that was nominated for a Grammy Award.

My first two albums are full of sweet romance and searing introspection about self, marriage and family. I think of The Road Home as my Tina-grows-up CD. On this one my eyes are open and I’m looking out at the world. It’s a big one out there, and there’s a hell of a lot of stuff I want to be paying attention to.

Emerging in Tina’s songs is a mix of sophisticated, modern romanticism and sharp humor that can only come from a writer who is acutely self-perceptive and imaginatively world-wise. Musically the album ranges from the folky "There and Back Again" to the big-band horn-sound of "The Village is Ours". There’s the deep throbbing jungle beat of "Raise Your Voice", the simple jubilant happiness of "New Love", and jazz-inflected pop on the title track. The Road Home mixes themes and musical styles, but remains grounded as the vision of a woman with strong feelings about today’s society -- where we’ve been and where she hopes we’ll be headed.

The album contains several protest songs concerning the state of our society. "The Road Home" title track is a sing-along song to bring people together (the chorus says "we’re not meant to travel alone; take my hand and we’ll make it"). "We tend to be so disconnected from each other these days. I’m trying to get past my own self-consciousness enough to just be with other people in a more meaningful way." "Don’t Look Away" is a reminder of some of the world's darker and more painful issues, and encourages us to pay attention anyway. "Raise Your Voice" cries out for people to understand that everyone’s voice needs to be heard. "The Village Is Ours" is a celebration of what’s possible when we really decide to live in community.

Lear balances social consciousness with love songs such as "New Love" ("it’s a beautiful experience at any age"), "There and Back Again" ("watching my daughter find a man, knowing it may be hard for them, but hoping they’ll make it"), and "The Present" ("This song was a gift for my husband upon returning from a trip. It was either this or the t-shirt."). "I also try to include one song on every album about two women who are close friends and on this recording it’s ‘Woman to Woman’."

Two tunes on the recording deal with death -- "The Other Shore" (written for a friend who passed away) and "Flying Solo" (about a woman who lost her loved one in a war). The latter piece was inspired by the famous 1942 Edward Hopper painting "Nighthawks" which depicts several lonely-looking people late at night in a diner. Another pair of compositions, "The Box" and "Buy It Now," are from a stage musical (Out of the Box) that Tina wrote the music and lyrics for, and which debuted at the Whidbey Island Center for the Arts.

Lear’s grandfather was comedian and violinist Ole Olsen of the renowned Olsen & Johnson vaudeville team that toured the world. When Tina was very young, her singing was influenced by Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand, but in later years she has listened more to artists like Joni Mitchell, Diana Krall and Holly Cole. Lear’s songwriting has been inspired by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Shawn Colvin and Sting. Tina’s music also has felt the impact of Bill Evans, Pat Metheny and Ralph Towner.

Music has always been an integral part of Tina’s life. Born in Santa Monica, California, she grew up in Switzerland, where she began studying classical piano at age four at the Geneva Conservatory. "There they teach you theory before they ever let you touch the piano, which makes for a strong foundation." At seven, her family moved to Wichita, Kansas, and five years later they were back in Southern California until she was 15, when they went to Reno, Nevada. In each place Tina continued her piano studies. "I thought I was going to be a classical pianist until I heard the first Joni Mitchell album and started writing songs."

Tina also acted in school plays and the combination of acting and music led her to the California School of the Arts (founded by Walt Disney) where she studied composition with Mel Powell (who had played with Benny Goodman). She continued her education at Brigham Young University where she sang with the acappella choir. When she was 18, Lear went to Los Angeles, became a member of the Warner Bros. Acting Workshop, and performed her original music in clubs like The Troubadour. Then she put her own career on hold when she married well-known painter and sculptor Harry Jackson, whom she was with for 18 years.

Lear continued to write music and in the 1980s met musician and Grammy nominee Bill Ginn (then a composer and arranger for Jennifer Warnes), who encouraged Tina to begin recording her music and who co-produced her first album. She moved to Seattle, started performing locally and continued recording. At the same time, she attended Bastyr University where she got her Bachelors Degree in Applied Behavioral Science. "I thought I might become a therapist or counselor, but I ended up realizing that my life’s blood is in music."

In addition to winning awards at major folk festivals, Tina also received three "Honorable Mentions" in the Billboard Annual Songwriting Contest. Key performances in the past half-dozen years include the South-by-Southwest Music Conference, Northwest Folklife, the Women of Wisdom Conference (as the featured performer, she collaborated with a playwright, weaving songs and spoken word together.), Earth Day Celebration, and Seattle’s famed Jazz Alley club. Lear had the starring role in a non-musical play, "Mrs. California," which had nine community theater performances. She also has taught two songwriting workshops for teens.

"When I write a song," Tina explains, "it’s usually to reach something I’ve been pushing aside in my own heart. I write to bring it in close and give it a place. I also write for people with their sleeves rolled up and their hands dug deep into finding fulfillment but still paying the rent -- the ones who have embraced their own brokenness and despair with grace, humor and their own funky, personal survival skills. On a deep level we are all searching for balance and a good laugh. The songs I write are my contribution to the search."

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