Renee Harvitt/ Renee and the Enablers

"You were so lovable!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Singing and recording are what I do instead of being in therapy or sky-diving. It brings me home and it sends me traveling.

I grew up in a house with a lot of music but it wasn't really the kind of music that spoke to me until my brothers and I started buying our own records. My mother was a violin teacher and she played classical music. My father was into dancing, especially Latin Salsa. I took violin lessons but didn't love it. It was at summer camp that I first learned to play a few chords on the guitar and where I found my music and how much I loved to sing. Songwriting came later and has been a wonderful way to explore what's going on both within me and around me. Recording has been a really thrilling part of the adventure - I love being able to collaborate on a song and keep working on it until we either get it right, or run out of time. And performing... that's the most like sky-diving of all of it!

My musical obsessions and/or influences over the years have included the music of The Grand Slambovians, Dan Bern, Van Morrison, U2, Eva Cassidy, Joan Armatrading, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morisette, Suzanne Vega, Joni Mitchell, and others.

I have two great kids, Craig and Linda. Unfortunately, we are all getting used to a new chapter in our lives as we recently lost David. He was the biggest encourager of my music of anyone and I am finally creating this electronic press kit as a way to honor his memory and because his sister told me that this year I have to try to play at the music festival we would always all go to. David was a wonderful husband and father and he would stay home with the kids and send my friends and I out into the world to play or listen to music, saying "You kids go have fun!" I feel like he's still saying that so here we go...

Renee and the Enablers are a loose collaboration of musicians working on my first release. With Renee and The Enablers, I am hoping to change the world by, among other things, lessening the stigma associated with the term "enablers" because, hey - enablers rock!!!! I couldn't and wouldn't want to make music without them!

I hope you'll listen and that you'll like what you hear! Cheers! Renee