New Orleans music darling Theresa Andersson is best known for her contagious and radiant musical energy. That infectious presence has earned her the reputation, and multiple awards, as Best Female Performer/Violin Player/Singer in New Orleans for the past 10 years - which is no small feat amidst the rich musical diaspora of the Big Easy. Perhaps its her genuine voice, which often draws comparisons to Emmylou Harris, Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield, that won New Orleans over and. Or perhaps it..s her unique violin style, or maybe even her Swedish beauty, that caused New Orleans to fall in love with her.

With an upcoming tour of the Southeast and a new EP that was the third highest selling CD at this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Theresa stands today on the tipping point of real stardom. And she has the music credibility to back it up - having sat in with rock legends David Gilmour, Ronnie Wood and Brian May, in addition to the Neville Brothers and members of the Meters.

Up to this point, however, nothing has been certain for Theresa. Things started out innocently enough on a farm on the Swedish island where she grew up. After morning lessons from her mother who was a music teacher, Theresa spent her childhood days riding horses bareback and singing to herself in the sunset of the wide-open sky.

It was against this romantic backdrop that Theresa first met Anders Osborne, a bold young slide guitar player who would go on to earn a Grammy nomination and write a number one hit song for Tim McGraw. As Theresa describes, ..It was definitely a ..sparks-flying.. kind of thing... The couple formed their own band and their instant chemistry was evident on and off the stage. Intoxicated with love only the way 18-year-olds can be, the two free spirits left Sweden to play music in New Orleans.

Theresa, despite her sense for adventure, was shell-shocked when she got to te American city. ..I was mortified to pick up the phone or interact with a lot of people. My English was so bad and it was such a culture shock that I was really paralyzed at the beginning,.. she says.

The couple eked out a living playing a weekly gig at Checkpoint Charlie..s, a dive bar on the backside of the French Quarter. Every Tuesday night they rolled their amps 12 blocks through the cobbled sidewalks and played for the tip jar. Things got so tight that they were saving pennies just to split a cup of coffee.

Then, while playing to a virtually empty club at three in the morning, the couple was discovered and signed to Sony Records. Osborne was to be the front man while Theresa remained in his shadow as a backup singer and violin player.

With this sudden success immediately came the seedy underbelly of the rock n.. roll industry, and of New Orleans at nighttime. Drugs seeped into the band, and were accompanied by an entourage of lowlifes stuck in a dizzying cycle of despair. Theresa was uninterested in the drug world yet she was too afraid to challenge her situation in her role as backup singer and dependent partner of Osborne.

After nine turbulent years, the tension came to a head. Theresa had finally decided to confront Osborne about the drugs during a show at the famed Howlin.. Wolf in New Orleans. The conversation predictably turned confrontational and with the usual crowd of partygoers surrounding the backstage area, Theresa snapped. She flung her violin through the window of the club. Glass shattered all over the ground and her violin lay broken beyond repair. It was over.

Theresa found herself driving on a dark highway out of New Orleans as fast as she could. She had no instruments, no clothes, nothing except her dog, Ruby. When she approached the rolling hills of Tennessee, she decided shed stop in Nashville and try her luck there.

She reached out to contacts she had made over the past decade and recorded a solo demo. After sending it out to every label she could think of, she was met stiff rejection. One A&R man even said that he loved her voice but she was five pounds too heavy and wouldnt sign her.

Disillusioned with the music industry, Theresa became drawn to the noise rock bands of the 90..s like My Bloody Valentine and Sonic Youth. Late one night in her rehearsal space, she ran her violin through an old effects pedal and a loud amp she had bought in a pawnshop. She let it rip, experimenting with the effects and distortion, which released all of her anger and frustration. She found beauty in the noise - and her signature electric violin sound was born.

After three long years of soul searching, Theresa returned to New Orleans. Her wicked new style of violin playing and her textured vocals quickly attracted the attention of fellow New Orleans musicians who hadnt noticed her before. Soon, she was sitting in with legendary musicians including the Neville Brothers, The Radiators and several members of the Meters. Hoisted by the peaked interest in her solo career from all of these famous musicians, reputable local label Basin St. Records offered her a recording contract.

On her first recording with the label, Theresa put forth the powerful track, Its Gonna Be Okay. It was written by none other than Anders Osborne. Having gone their separate ways, the song represented a final resolution between the two free spirits. This time, Osborne backed up Theresa on guitar.

It was also a great song, and was chosen as the theme song for the film, The Brooke Ellison Story directed by Christopher Reeve. Searching for over a year for the perfect track, Reeve decided Theresas ballad about getting through tough times was the one. Theresa's music was also featured in another major film, A Love Song for Bobby Long featuring John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson.

Now that Theresa has stepped to the front, it is clear that she is a burgeoning New Orleans name. She is backed by an energetic four-piece band that consists of former members from the hipster rock band, World Leader Pretend. Theresa and her band are currently touring to support her successful new self-titled EP (release July 2006 on Basin Street Records) and are beginning to record an album to be released in time for Jazz Fest 2007.

Everything has come full circle for Theresa. That is why when you hear her music you experience her entire journey. From her pastoral folk roots on her home island in Sweden, to her romantic teenage sense of adventure, to the deepest heartache her soul has ever felt, it..s all there. From the desperate loneliness of riding down a dark highway, to the anger that energizes her enthralling violin solos, that too is there. Yet, most of all when you hear Theresa Andersson, you feel her joy and triumph of experiencing it all and still being around to tell you about it.