At seventeen Rachael recorded her first album of piano songs, discovered the likes of Nick Drake, Joni Mitchell, Jeff Buckley and Kate Bush, picked up a guitar and learnt how to strum, and started singing about real life. Exchanging life under the walnut trees for that of an art student's in near by Winchester, Rachael soon began playing in the little city and promoting her own nights at the Mash Tun and Winchester School of Art student union. Inviting friends from across the UK to play, and hosting open mic nights in several Winchester venues, Rachael became a well known face in the local music scene as well as being involved in the Loudersounds network, a lottery funded scheme to help promote music events in the city.

Since her first performance in the acoustic tent 6 years ago, Rachael has become a mainstay of the Truck Festival near Oxford, (incidentally the best festival in the world: the main stage is an old truck and the farmer makes burgers out of his own cows), and she started singing at Truck's little brother, Trailer Park, in cellars in Oxford and Southampton. She has supported the likes of Jeffrey Lewis, I Am Kloot, King Creosote, James Yorkston, Diane Cluck, Nizlopi, Goldrush, SIA (from Zero 7), Peter Bruntnell, and Paul Curreri amoung others at various venues such as The Joiners in Southampton and The Folkhouse, The Louisiana and The Cube in Bristol, and Moles in Bath. She joined in some tour dates in England and Paris with Jeffrey Lewis playing clarinet in his band. She is also part of the Fence collective's extended family along with Romanhead and Rozi Plain, and they all played at the Homegame festival in April.

Inbetween all of this, finishing a degree and survivng, Rachael has recorded various albums and EP's. Her first was in her bedroom on a four track, a lo-fi medium that allows her to achieve what Matt Brown from Logo magazine describes as 'stripped down acoustic fragility, lonesome pianos and a voice as naked as the day it was born'. This demo album was even voted by Matt Brown as his favourite 'ear to the ground' album for April 2003's edition of Logo.

Since then Rachael has done plenty more recording and always makes sure that she has total control over the way her songs are recorded. She recently worked with friends to record Songs From The Crypt, which was recorded live with harp strings and trumpet in (as it suggests) in the crypt of a church. Prior to that Summer/Autumn Recordings was recorded in a back garden and the nine songs are accompanied by birds and dogs, the odd plane and reversing van, Martin washing his paint brushes an the garden tap and plenty of wind. These albums are released on Cleaner Records (an artist run collective label run by Rachael and her friends). And Summer/Autumn Recordings aswell as Whalebone Polly's Recordings with the Window Open, and Kate Stable's own solo album have all recently been released on Japanese Independent label Angel's Egg.

Since moving to Bristol 3 years ago Rachael teamed up with fellow music maker Kate Stables and the fine Finnish violinist Virpi Kettu, to form the experimental, multi instrumental and multi harmonious Whalebone Polly, comprised of guitar, banjo, melodica, clarinet and many a harmony. Last year they recorded their D.I.Y album Recording with the windows open which has been picked up and regularly played by Rob Da Bank on Radio One. Last summer they played on the acoustic stage at Glastonbury, and other festivals such as Priddy Folk Festival and Ashton Court Bristol Community Festival.

With Kate now in France, Whalebone Polly are having to survive via over seas collaborations. In the meantime, Rachael has more time to concentrate on her solo projects. She's been focusing on some home recordings with her new electric guitar and new banjo and many other instruments. And gigs wise this year she's played at Ashton court and Truck and went off in June on a little Cleaner Records tour to the corners of this country, followed shortly by an excursion to the USA where she toured with Francois.

All Rachael's cds are available at her gigs or simply go to the Listen page (the bird) where there are details of how to buy them and some MP3s.