With her "warm open highway voice," which has been likened to Joni Mitchell and Melissa Etheridge, Littlebird performed on both coasts for about nine years, most recently with her life partner, Kristi Martel. 　　 　　Primarily an acoustic guitar player, her songwriting influences ranged from gospel choirs (she sang in one, at Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco) to Irish folk songs to African percussion. 　　 　　Littlebird started writing songs while at art school in Rhode Island, where she met perhaps her greatest influence, New England Irish folksinger and songwriter John Corcoran. He was hosting an open mic at Finnegan's Wake, and although on her first try she couldn't quite make it all the way through "The Boxer," his encouragement of her talent led her to persevere. She studied his performance week to week and witnessed the magic and hardship of a life of sharing songs-- all the while developing her own voice as a writer and performer. 　　 　　In 1996 she moved to the Bay Area to work in the animation business and develop her music. In the years after that first night in Providence, she played countless open mics, clubs, coffeehouses, and train stations, with and without collaborators. 　　 　　Littlebird's songs "get you right away, even if you don't get them right away." They bring the listener through deep territory. "Xmas Song," for example, tells a contemporary Nativity story, where the Christ child is a crack baby with HIV, and Mary must stand by for a different kind of crucifixion. 　　 　　Littlebird brought an obvious passion to her performances and art (so beautifully represented in her mostly live CD, "Angels Wait"), until her tragic death in San Francisco in August 2003.