After some time of performing with various bands playing all styles of music including rock, jazz, and rhythm and blues, a guy at one of her shows suggested that she listen to Loretta Lynn as he thought that she had a voice that would be great for Country Music and how right he was! Tjaye had never really considered that style of music, but when she listened to Loretta she realised that it could be another string to her bow.

It was only a matter of time before she formed her own band ”Southern Sunshine” and they began touring the big Country Music venues that were thriving at that time, and performing in theatres and at festivals, supporting such legends as Lonnie Donnegan, Glen Campbell and Billie Ocean.

Tjaye married and had a son, who at ten days old toured with Tjaye's band sleeping through her entire act in a carrycot in her dressing room. So it is no wonder that Zachary has turned out to be a hugely talented musician, writer and singer, playing lead guitar, blues harp, drums, and keyboards to mention but a few  instruments. Zac seems to be able to do it all and is totally dedicated to music. He has recently completed recording an EP of original material with the band, Suttline Cheef, and is now in great demand working as a freelance session musician.  

A solo career came along again as her band wound down and Tjaye found herself driving up and down the motorways of the UK and performing in Europe to pay for her sons school fees and to help her husband obtain a degree in fine art. She toured with the White Rose Band, and performed at the Peterborough Festival backed by Derek Thurlby and Southbound, and also toured with top British bands Poacher and The Hillsiders. Popular band Medicine Bow from Plymouth invited Tjaye to appear as guest singer on several of their shows.

It was around that time that she wrote what is surely one of the most emotive songs ever written. "Highways Calling". Just listen to the lyrics and you hear a bubbly happy girl falling apart. 

Tjaye began appearing as an actress in films and on TV, and the many productions that she has worked on so far include, the original Crossroads with Noel Gordon, Boon starring Mike Elphick, The Bretts, The Jimmy Cricket Show, Aufvidersen Pet, Hard Cases, Casualty, Doctors and The Oxford Murders film with one of her personal favourites John Hurt. 

After her marriage broke up Tjaye continued working as a solo artiste and one of the acts/agents whom she worked with was to become a really great friend. This friend is, singer/songwriter, broadcaster, bandleader and a recording artiste with sixteen albums to his credit, Kelvin Henderson.

Also working for Kelvin's agency at that time was singer/songwriter Eddie Blackstone, a long time friend of Kelvin's, and so it was inevitable that Tjaye and Eddie would meet up sooner or later. This they did, drawn together by their mutual love of songwriting. Eddie had just finished recording his "Don't be a Stranger" album, which he wrote in Colorado and when he heard Tjaye's voice he asked her to go into the studio with him and add her vocals to some of the tracks. When she did the result was the icing on the cake as far as he was concerned. 

Shortly after, Tjaye was given a three months contract to appear at the Sheraton Hotel in Abu Dhabi which is in the United Arab Emirates. She was soon getting more and more offers to work out there as a duo and suggested to Eddie that they go out together. They both learned to play bass guitar so that they could swap over instruments on different songs and a few months later they had a three months contract in Bahrain as the new duo, "Tjaye and The Bear". This resulted in them working non-stop for many years in the UAE, Qatar, Syria, Dubai and one of Tjaye's favourite places, Muscat in Oman.

In Bahrain they had to learn new songs quickly as they played to 400 American servicemen every night in the "Saddle Bar" of the Tylos Hotel. The guys would bring in cassettes with songs for the duo to learn so Tjaye and Eddie would sit up most of the night after they had finished playing, learning the songs to perform the following evening.  

One of the clubs where the duo was resident was Dubai's "Highland Lodge". They would play until midnight when a rock band took over from them and played to 4000 people until six in the morning when breakfast would be served to anyone who was sober enough to eat it! 

In Qatar an example of Tjaye's kindness to others came about when a waiter, Sameer, who worked in the hotel where she used to relax after work with a "hubbly bubbly" pipe and strong Arabic coffee, told her that he had not seen his mother and family at their home in Syria for over two years. Knowing that she had a contract to work in Damascus coming up Tjaye promised to visit the boy's home taking messages to his mother. The village was many miles from Damascus but Tjaye went there on a bus in the steaming hot sun on her day off and spent the day with the family. The home was very humble but the family were wonderful and welcomed Tjaye with open arms. 

Tjaye and The Bear had a very happy time working in such hotels as, The Tylos in Bahrain, The Sheraton. Al Ain, The Intercontinental Oman, The Sheraton. Abu Dhabi. The Sheraton. Damascus, The Holiday Inn. Abu Dhabi, The Holiday Inn. Muscat, Le Meridien. Abu Dhabi, The Sheraton in Qatar and The Hilton, Abu Dhabi. Their days were spent working out in the gymnasium for a couple of hours each morning, relaxing by the pool, swimming in the blue waters of the Gulf of Oman, deep sea fishing and snorkelling, and walking some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. Yes, it was tough but somebody had to do it! 

On their return to the UK the duo was booked for a five months cruise playing to American tourists six nights a week. 

Then followed a month long tour of the USA starting and finishing in New Orleans. The hotel was right in the heart of the French Quarter and of course Tjaye fell in love with the music and the characters in that beautiful city. Along the way Tjaye played and sang in "Tootsie's Lounge" and  "The Pioneer" on the famous Printer's Alley in Nashville. She had a great response and infact was offered a permanent job as resident performer at one of the many music venues.

The trip took in Louisiana where Tjaye went to "Fred's Lounge" in Mamou at 9am on a Sunday morning which was the time when the Cajun band began playing to a bar full of people drinking and dancing through until noon, the whole thing being broadcast live on a 1950's radio setup.

Next stop was a log cabin on an alligator swamp in Houma where the alligators would come up onto the deck to scrounge food. No wonder Tjaye could be heard singing "Leavin' Louisiana in the Broad Daylight"

In Sammy B's bar on 16^th Avenue in Nashville, where they say that if you sit there long enough everybody who is anybody in music will pass through sooner or later, Tjaye found herself sitting next to a guy called Woody Cochran. He had a recording studio just across the road and only an hour before he had finished recording Cher singing a song that his wife had written, and he invited Tjaye over to listen to it. Sitting next to him was DeWayne Blackwell who had written "Friends in Low Places" for Garth Brooks and many years before "I'm Mr. Blue". He asked Tjaye if she would like to go to a songwriters evening at the Cafe Milano in Nashville that night for a "friends of Chet Atkins" show. She naturally jumped at the chance and listened to Paul Craft, "Drop Kick me Jesus", John Hartford, "Gentle on my Mind", and others. The night ended with DeWayne performing a hilarious parody of his smash hit "Friends in Low Places". Another night to remember! 

Tjaye's favourite tipple is Jack Daniels so a trip to the Lynchberg distillery in Tennessee was a must and although the area is "dry" she says that she was almost able to get "squiffy" from the fumes wafting from the vats. Hardly surprising as the guide had to keep back tracking to find her with her nose over the J.D. aroma and return her to his flock! 

Memphis was a high spot with Gracelands, B.B.Kings all the music on Beale Street and the young boys with bottle tops on the bottom of their shoes tap dancing and tumbling up and down the street. It was the week after the twentieth anniversary of Elvis's death and so Gracelands looked very special with all the tributes and flowers still in place.

Tjaye went to Sun Studios where Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis used to record and Tjaye herself got to record in the same room using the same equipment! 

Whilst in Tennessee, Tjaye paid a visit to Loretta Lynn's Dude Ranch. Loretta, who had first fired Tjaye's interest in Country Music, was in Nashville doing a charity show with Tammy Wynette to raise money and awareness for diabetes, which Loretta's husband had died from the year before. Tjaye did get to meet one of her twin daughters who is one half of a duo called The Lynn's. She performed a few songs written by her mum and Conway Twitty, and invited Tjaye to look around the house. Whilst chatting Tjaye told her about the huge influence her mother had been, in inspiring her to write from life's experiences as opposed to fiction.  

In Texas Tjaye came across Luckenbach, which has three houses a post office and a bar. It's there that Willy Nelson holds his annual 4^th of July picnic to ten thousand people and the Willy look alike who runs the bar opens the show every year with his band. As it was, he sat on a barstool and played some of Willie's songs just for Tjaye. Imagine her disappointment when she discovered that Willy had actually been in the bar the day before!

On her way through fourteen States and Mexico she visited a ghost town in Arizona called Stein, which had been left exactly as it was during the days when the Apache Indians lived there. Tombstone with it's memories of Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and Boothill, Branson in Missouri where she got to meet one of her hero's, Jerry Reed and the amazing Florabama bar which has nine different rooms all catering for different musical tastes and as the name suggests straddles the Florida/Alabama State Line. 

On her return to the UK Tjaye once more began playing the one nighter's up and down the country. She also performed her own material on the singer songwriter show at the Americana Festival in 2007 and on the main stage in 2008 with her Festival Band along with Manfred Mann and Asleep at the Wheel from the USA.

She has already been invited back to perform on the special 30th anniversary show in 2010. 

Tjaye is writing and putting the finishing touches to her songs in readiness to record an album of entirely original material. She continues to follow the career that she loves so much. Singing and playing the guitar. It might be blues, rock, rythmn and blues, jazz, soul, infact whatever the style one thing is for sure Tjaye always gives her audience 100% of herself while she is on stage and true to those early lessons from her step father, never sells herself short.