Tina Lear is the granddaughter of famous vaudeville comedian John (Ole) Olsen of the team of Olsen and Johnson, best known for their long-running Broadway revue of the late '30s and early '40s Hellzapoppin. She spent her early years in Switzerland and began studying piano at age four at the Geneva Conservatory. During her childhood, her family moved around, while she continued studying with the goal of being a concert pianist, until she heard Joni Mitchell and began aspiring to be a singer/songwriter. She studied composition at the California School of the Arts and attended Brigham Young University. At 18, she moved to Los Angeles and joined the Warner Bros. Acting Workshop while performing in such local clubs as the Troubadour. But she gave up her career when she married painter/sculptor Harry Jackson, with whom she stayed for 18 years. She returned to performing in the 1980s and won the Best Songwriter Award at the Columbia Folk Festival as well as being a finalist in the New Folk Songwriting Contest at the Kerrville Folk Festival. She released her debt album, Classified Ads, in 1996. Moving to Seattle, she combined performing with attending Bastyr University, gaining a B.A. in Applied Behavioral Science. Her second album, Full Moon Big Circle, came out in 1998, followed by her third, The Road Home, in 2000. ~ William Ruhlmann