Born in 1957 in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, Diane taught herself guitar during long winter evenings, her feet perched against a wood-burning stove. She wrote her first songs in high school and began working her way through 100 English Folk Songs, a classic collection of ballads. She was captivated by the beauty and power of the melodies, and the way the words provide a glimpse into the past.
Diane moved to the Boston area to earn a degree in elementary education, then a graduate degree in communications. She honed her stagecraft at the wealth of folk venues in the Boston area, and her first cassette of six original songs received much local radio airplay. She supported herself as a freelance editor, working for various publishers and magazines in the Boston area.
In the late 1980s Diane studied guitar with 12-string master Tracy Moore and polished her vocal skills at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge. She began writing more mature material and created some striking songs on the lap dulcimer that make the most of its quirky charm. Diane also fell for the quirky charm of her husband, John, whom she married in 1991.
In 1993 BCN Records released the CD Shoes That Fit Like Sand, which includes one of her most popular songs, "Raisin Pie." Also in 1993 Diane joined the Gloucester Hornpipe & Clog Society, a band with a 30-year history of performing traditional and original music on fiddle, guitar, accordion, whistles, mandolin, banjo, bodhran, spoons, and bones. In 1995 the Wizmak label released their CD Airs From Who Knows Where. Diane continued to perform solo, as well. In 2003, she took a break from the band to record a solo CD.
In 1994 Diane and John welcomed Laura Cecilia to the world. During her pregnancy Diane recorded four songs for a BCN Records compilation CD, The Songs of Jack Hardy. That year took her to South Carolina for a concert arranged by a devoted fan.
In 1996 BCN Records released Gathered Safely In. The title cut uses the classic form of repeated second and fourth lines to encourage listeners to sing along.
1999 saw the release of a holiday CD called Hope! Says the Holly. Diane chose her favorite songs for mid-winter, including a wry version of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," complete with sound effects. She added three new verses to the classic "In the Bleak Midwinter" and used the African calimba, or thumb piano, to accent "People, Look East" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."
Diane occasionally presents a program called Songs About the Lives Women Once Led, in which she sings in costume and uses ballads to explore the lives of women in centuries past. She also leads sing-alongs for infants and toddlers twice a month in Arlington, which are regularly attended by dozens of joyful bouncing babes.
In 2003 Diane released her fourth solo CD, Beat of the Heart, a lively trip through time. She visits Quebec, Ireland, England, and the U.S. with songs from land and sea, past and present.
In 2005 Diane rejoined the Gloucester Hornpipe & Clog Society, along with chantey-singer Lynn Noel. They played on Georges Island in Boston Harbor for the July 4 holiday in 2005 and 2006, and added many new songs to their repertoire of sea music, Celtic jigs and reels, Colonial tunes, and original songs exploring events and people from New England's past.
Another 2005 event was the performance of Diane's Solstice poem, The Longest Night, at First Parish UU Church in Arlington. She led a group of about 50 children in reciting and adding sound and visual effects to her original poem about two children lost in the woods who meet a most unusual bear, who takes them on a spiritual journey to encourage the sun to return. She wrote music for the piece, as well.
A new direction in 2006: Diane was commissioned by the choral group In Choro Novo to arrange her song Silver the Moon for four-part harmony. This led to her embarking on arrangements of other Taraz songs for choral groups. Another choral development was her joining the renaissance group Vox Lucens, a 12-member group conducted by Jay Lane.
Also in 2006 Diane received a commission to create a quilt of Shaker themes as part of a project created by New England Voices. The project included two concerts, in Arlington and Amherst, and a CD. Diane sang in the chorus presenting Shaker songs and works inspired by Shaker music, including a new piece commissioned for the event. The quilt hung as a backdrop for the Arlington concert.