my bio, written in first person

hello!  i am sara beth geoghegan. the last name’s pronounced go-hay-gen.  i’ve been told by many music industry big-timers that i should change my name because it’s too difficult to pronounce and i think that’s silly.  plus it would make my dad very sad because he gave me the name, as well as my life.  i have (kind of) lived in nashville for the past 8 years (i have this tendency to want to escape so i’ll move for a few months to places like minnesota, new mexico, florida, etc.  but mostly i live in nashville).  my roots and my beginnings can be found in new orleans though.  

i grew up going to all-girls schools and originally wanted to be a famous actress star.  one fateful morning as a 13 year old i double-pierced my ear in defiance against my mother.  she saw it because i put my hair in a ponytail and i guess the rusty safety pin i used caused my ear to swell, pulse and turn a reddish color.  as punishment, my mother restricted me from being in any plays for an entire year.  i sobbed and had many breakdowns, then, once again in defiance against my mother, i decided to pursue music. 

i made it (painfully, awkwardly, laughing, fighting with my mom, and trying to figure things out) through high school and went to Belmont in nashville, tennessee to become a famous singing star.  well, i mostly learned who i DIDN’T want to be, and had many crisis’s of faith and identity.  i picked up a joni mitchell cd, blue, and fell in love with the art of writing songs to communicate life.  i learned, and am still learning, that it is far less about me and way more about Jesus: not in a religious sort of way, but in a too-big-to-understand-way-too-beauty-FULL way.  and i’m done with apologizing for sounding trite.  and that’s what i write about.  

now i am a 27 year old songstress, a little birdie with a big mouth.  this morning, after listening to a great sermon by tony merida, i started to call myself marthamiah, a combination of Martha the worrier and Jeremiah the depressed from the Bible.  Those are my 2 biggest struggles right now and the things i like to address.  my theory on humanity (which of course spills over into the music) is this: we are all relatable.  there is nothing i have gone through that someone else hasn’t gone through.  that is comfort to me.  like a big huge cup of coffee right when you wake up.  and my objective is to communicate the comfort and bring people into the beauty of following Jesus.

what do i specialize in?  worship leading and singing some songs that i’ve written.  traveling is a forte of mine, also.  i come as a solo deal or with a band.  i’ve been doing both since the awkward high school years so there is a lot of experience under my belt.  although ironically, i don’t wear belts…

so.  how can you hear the message?!  just contact me.  i’d love to come to your church, your coffee shop, your bar, your living room, your garden, your greenhouse, your picnic, your sanctuary, wherever that might be!  it is my goal to combine my passion with my vocation so there is a bit of business involved but we can handle that.  email me and my people at sarabeth@sarabethsongs.com and we’ll book something! 

thanks for reading my quirky words, i hope you are chuckling.  if you’d like some music, go to www.myspace.com/sarabethnet