Born in Houston, Mississippi and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Gwin Spencer spent her childhood immersed in the music of Al Green, James Brown, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, and artists from the legendary Stax Records catalog.

At around five, Spencer got her first guitar, but the five-year-old boy next door sat on it and broke it, postponing her career for a few years.

Spencer went to her first Heart concert at 13. It changed her life.

"Ann Wilson had so much energy onstage and just commanded it like it was her castle, and it just blew my mind. I'd never seen women rocking like that," Spencer says.

"I remember hearing Janis Joplin on the radio and knowing it did something special to me, but not know why, but when I saw Heart live, it really made me want to rock."

Spencer practiced constantly. "Yeah, I would be under the covers with a flashlight practicing 'Little Queen' and 'Barracuda,'" Spencer says. "When I'd be taking my lesson, the other teachers would come get my guitar and take it to show their students. Just in a matter of six months I had rubbed the finish, the frets from practicing so much. I had already had the finish rubbed off the neck of the fret board."

Influenced by Humble Pie, original Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green, and English blues guitarist Gary Moore, Spencer formed The Mother Station, whose 1994 debut Brand New Bag was compared to such artists as Janis Joplin and The Black Crowes.

"I wanted to do a record that was full of rock and passion, and good songs, and I think Brand New Bag is that," Spencer says.

"It still gets played all over the world. I have a hard time picturing somebody in Taiwan listening to 'Heart Without a Home,' but I'm really proud of that," Spencer says. "Just the fact they can dig on something with it, that's cool. "

Spencer brought the band into the studio one more time to record the still-as-yet unreleased Soulistic. Soon after the group disbanded, Spencer wrote new songs and formed a new band -- with herself as the lead vocalist for the first time.

Then someone from Buena Vista Television contacted Spencer. The Keenan Ivory Wayans Show was assembling an all-girl house band, and bassist Dominique Davalos had urged the show's producers to contact Spencer.

Spencer drove out to Los Angeles. After wowing the show's producers with her guitar-playing, she was one of only five women picked for the band out of the 3,000 who tried out.

"I got an opportunity to do something that I've never done before, but it also reminded me of who I am and what I am," Spencer says.

"I'm just a blues woman when it comes down to it. And I want to write songs that move people."