From days of peanut farming to dreams of flying, Destinee Farmer has always found inspiration in making music, no matter what obstacles she faced. Photo by Phil Houseal

Details:
Destinee Farmer will perform her original music at Lincoln Street on Friday, Dec 1. She can be reached at 830-285-2693.

webmaster: phil@fullhouseproductions.net

Destinee Farmer:
Waiting to be found

by Phil Houseal
Nov 15, 2006

She didn't think she could sing, couldn't play an instrument, and still can't read music.

So how on earth did Destinee Farmer become such an original singer/songwriter? It is a twisting and delightful journey that has taken her from roots in farming to dreams of flying.

It began in Pearsall, where her family raised potatoes and peanuts.

"I loved the farm life, but it was hard work," she said. As she pulled weeds in the peanut fields, she dreamed of the sky. "I always wanted to fly."

So much so, she did crazy kid things such as jumping off the tin roof of their chicken coop. "I had to get tetanus shots like you wouldn't believe."

Destinee took off for college to study aviation. But that dream ended the first time she went up in a plane and... well... her stomach came up all over the cabin.

"That's when I realized maybe flying wasn't for me," she admitted with a grin. "But I could fly in another way."

"Another way" was music. So she switched her major. Of course, she did it "Destinee style."

"Here I was trying to major in music, and all I knew how to play on the piano was Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater," she laughed. "So they set me up with their brightest music student."

That turned out to be future husband and songwriting partner, Andrew Farmer. (The irony of the name was not lost on her: "I always wanted to be a farmer, but without being a 'farmer,' and I found a way to do it.")

They married and moved to South Carolina, where she was the Sunday morning DJ for music she had never heard.

"I kept mispronouncing names, but they kept me anyway because they said I had a great speaking voice," she said. They also asked her to "tone down" her personality because she sounded too happy reading the obituaries.

Then on to Georgia, where the Farmers worked as church youth leaders. That was when Destinee first picked up the guitar.

"Andrew had taught me one chord - G - but I kept slaughtering it," she said. "Then I learned D, and a D suspended. You could just sling that pinkie up there - boy, that was cool! That's what did it for me because I realized I actually had two new chords I could use!"

Now she had the "playing" part of singing and songwriting. The "writing" part was never a problem. In fact, she wrote her first song at age 8. She still has it, and it reveals her approach to the final piece of the singer/songwriter puzzle - "singing."

"I had written in pen - 'REJECTED! Not able to sing!'" she explained. "I wrote that because... dang it, I wished I could sing."

She still claims she can't sing, although fans compare her voice to Jewel. She shrugs. "But I love singing so much I don't care what anyone says now!"

It is obvious that obstacles do not bother Destinee. In fact, they seem to motivate her.

"Things keep happening to me," she insisted. "They keep falling through for me, and I don't know why."

But then she shared a parable of a time she and her sister followed an old woman driving one hot, dusty July day.

"There was this old-timey car, and all we saw was a hat," she said. "The windows were rolled up, and she's got the windshield wipers going! We're like, it's a sauna, lady! But she must have had faith that it was going to rain. And it rained later that day, sure enough."

"Well, my music is all I've got, but sure as a nannybird I'm going to do it," she said. "My voice and my style are who I am."

Not to be weary but to be strong
Not to give up but to carry on
No don't go don't break what we've bound
Cause I'm right here... waiting to be found
Lyrics by Destinee and Andrew Farmer

XXX