Tabitha Monet

Tabitha Monet is a Singer-Songwriter based in Houston, Texas. Although she was born in California, she considers herself a native Houstonian, having been transplanted in 1979. Tabitha’s start in music dates back to early childhood in which she played various musical instruments by ear and understood the music language. She began playing piano at age 5, and wrote her first song at age 6, but had a serious dislike of practicing, so she never studied music seriously as a child. As she got older and listened to more and more popular music, she discovered she loved to sing in the privacy of her own car, and was for a long time, the extent of her “music thing.” However, when she was in her late twenties and contemplating a career change, her mother gave her a torn out Houston Press Classified of a folk-rock group seeking a back-up singer. Tabitha had never been on-stage before, and had not really performed in any capacity, but her interest was tweaked. Her shower-stall singing days were numbered after she auditioned and was immediately accepted by the band. And after performing with numerous local rock bands and jazz groups, Tabitha accompanied The Kendrick Band (now dissolved) on an international Military tour in 2000-2001. During the year-long tour over Asia, she played 6 shows a week, for nearly 15 months. She taught herself to play guitar and keyboard while on tour, and as she learned to break down the formats of cover songs to learn her instrument parts, she began to understand how her musical creative process worked, and she began writing songs.
With this experience behind her, her passions, desires and ambitions convinced her that there was a need to compose, correlate and produce a compact disc with her music to share and achieve personally. Tabitha purchased and learned to use electronic recorders and workstations, purchased her first Taylor Guitar, bought a new sketchpad, and began to write. And write. And write.
In 2003 Tabitha took a few guitar lessons from Houston guitarist Eve Woodard, and then began her ambitious musical project. Through trial and error, by October of 2004 she had accomplished working the lyrics, melodies and styles of 13 songs and recorded them on a demo CD called ‘Adventures of Me and Me.’ The title song was chosen because the songs are made from reflections in Tabitha’s real life, and it is also representative of the fact that she achieved the entire project virtually of her own effort. All music, lyrics and performances are that of Tabitha Monet with the following exception: ‘Empty’ (track two) has the drumming contributions of Todd Fulks and bass guitar and electric guitar contributions of Eve Woodard.
Tabitha reluctantly allowed the work to be released in November of 2004, stating “this album is largely acoustic and is a good representation of my live sound.” She then found Hank Hamberg of Magellan Sound Studios, and began recording her first studio album, ‘Sky.’
Tabitha’s early work has gained notoriety in several writing competitions:
Tabitha Monet reluctantly released ‘Adventures of Me and Me’ in October 2004. The artist feels it is a good representation of her independently completed work, but longed to complete the album’s production with the help of another guitarist.
The album is a collection of life experiences and reflection of the writer, Tabitha Monet. Tabitha uses a unique collection of words to deliver her message through passionate storytelling.
In just a few months, Tabitha’s songwriting skills earned notoriety at VH-1 Supporting ‘Song of the Year,’ where the song ‘Adventures of Me and Me’ earned the winner status of folk-rock genre in November 2004. ‘Good and Bad’ earned runner up status at the International Acoustic Music Awards. ‘Kept A Secret,’ the song referencing Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk in New York City, and her song ‘Hear Tori Amos Play’ remained on the top 20 free music downloads in Amazon.com’s Fold-Rock category the first year of it’s release. ‘Empty’ continuously earned top 10 status in Broadjam’s Rock/Easy Listening category and the song ‘Closer to Finer’ earned Top 10 in Broadjam’s Progressive Rock Category.
Kweevak Music Magazine’s 2005 “Reader’s Survey Awards” were presented to the top 35 winners as chosen by the readers and listeners of the music web-zine. Nearly 150 music projects were nominated, and Tabitha Monet’s first demo album, “Adventures of Me and Me,” earned second place overall.
‘Sky,’ written by Tabitha Monet and Hank Hamberg, in 2006, won an honorable mention in folk-rock category in the “Song of the Year” contest.