Singer/songwriter, guitarist and fiddler Karen Collins and her Backroads Band play in locales in Virginia and Maryland. Photo courtesy of Karen Collins and the Backroads Band

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Karen Collins loved singing along to records as a kid. Growing up a coal miner’s daughter in southwest Virginia, she struggled for years to get an instrument until her mom saved up enough S&H stamps to buy a guitar with Green Stamps.

Decades later, she has recorded five albums and leads three bands, including her own Karen Collins and the Backroads Band.

Now living in Takoma Park, Maryland, Collins still has some of that soft twang from her youth that comes out in her singing.

Retired from teaching computer programming in a magnet program, Collins has free time to plan her next recording project. 

The hardest part of playing with her bands while teaching high school was that performing music goes late and school starts early: “I was sleep deprived for years,” she said.

Always new things to learn

Collins enjoys learning new styles of music, repertoires and approaches. 

She began work with a vocal coach to learn how to yodel, but has kept up her lessons for years: “I feel like there’s always new things I can learn about singing.”

Don’t let her lessons fool you — her voice has a compelling country style that’s earned her a teaching gig at Augusta Heritage Center during Classic Country week. She’s taught a country gospel vocal class with varied electives for the last six years.

Collins played casually most of her adult life, first joining an old-time band, then learning Cajun music, before returning to her roots with traditional country. 

About 15 years ago, a voice teacher assigned her to write a song, and Collins discovered how much fun it was. She kept at it, and has written dozens of songs since. 

“After I started writing, I realized there was a community of songwriters around here. They’re a good group of people to hang with and exchange ideas,” she said. “One thing with songwriting is to find people to run things by. That’s been real helpful.” 

With a few streaks of silver now accenting her brown bangs, Collins wears cowgirl boots and an embroidered Western shirt when she performs. 

Lyrics from an early song, “Guitar Queen,” show her humor and modern sensibility mixed with a honky-tonk approach:

The pickin’ world for way too long

Been running on testosterone . . .

I strongly feel that it’s a sin

This lack of guitar heroines

The hard work of recording

Recording is a necessary way for her to get her songs out into the world: “I feel like I need to make these CDs. I send them out as promotions, sell them at gigs, give them out to people.” 

Although online streaming is changing the industry and CDs don’t sell like they used to, “people aren’t going to hear my songs or know about me if I don’t have music out there,” Collins said.

When Collins and her band record, like most ensembles they start with the rhythm section by laying down the drum and bass tracks. 

The whole band does a scratch track, then each instrument and voice gets recorded individually. Afterward, she works with her “perfectionist” guitarist, Ira Gitlin, to do the mixing with the engineer. 

It takes “more time than it should” to finish, but having a team with great ears helps add that needed polish for a great sound.

“Music has been really important to me — it’s part of my identity,” Collins said. “I’m a musician, a singer, a songwriter.” 

This is an excerpt from Mills’ book Making Music for Life: Rediscovering Your Musical Passion, published in 2019. To learn more, visit gaylamills.com.