b. Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. Weatherly was close to her forties before her debut album was released. When she finally reached vinyl, critics relished her deep, sultry vocals, which some judged akin to Patsy Cline. Weatherly grew up in affluent Beverly Hills, her father working in television and her mother a jazz singer, but soon became attracted to the honky tonk culture and the ‘Texas Shuffles’ locals introduced her to. Eventually, after the failure of her first marriage, she moved to Nashville in 1988 to take work as a backing singer. She also worked with pop singers in Los Angeles, and toured Europe with Peter Hofmann, who eventually gave her a spot as support artist. German audiences loved Weatherly and her interpretations of old Everly Brothers and Tammy Wynette material. In 1994 she and new husband Willy Wainwright, fiddle player with Ricky Van Shelton, moved to Switzerland. Based in Geneva, she began to play European festivals with a cosmopolitan array of backing musicians, including a Peruvian percussionist, Turkish guitarist and Swiss keyboard player. She formed her own JK Records with Clay Baker as her producer and songwriter, releasing two albums in the mid- to late-90s which anchored her European popularity.