(Beki and Yank, 1996)

At 15, Beki was winning folk music competitions, writing her own music, and failing in school.  Rock and Roll was here to stay.  She eventually graduated and went on to college but music was always the most important element of life.  Also at 15, she met blues legend James "Yank" Rachell, and this was the beginning of  a long friendship that fueled Beki's blues career. 

In 1981, a 20 year old Beki landed her first job as lead guitarist in a blues band.  In 1983, she was invited to audition for an all-girl glamour band in NYC.  She flew to NY and auditioned for the band.  While waiting for two weeks to find out that she did in fact get the gig, Beki went up to Woodstock, NY to jam with some friends and subsequently joined two bands;  The Tom Pacheco band, and Eric Andersen 's tour band.  When the glamour band called, she said she was not interested anymore.  She played with these bands for several years and also worked with rock luminaries such as The Band 's Rick Danko, Richard Manuel, John Sebastian, and others. 

In 1988, Beki joined Tom Pacheco for a year when he moved the band to Dublin, Ireland.  While she was there, she also joined the Mary Stokes Blues Band and experienced over-night Irish fame due to playing the Guinness Jazz Festival in Cork City and also due to a week long performance on the National TV show, "NightHawks."  In Ireland, Beki shared the stage with Hot House Flowers, members of U2, The Waterboys, members of Thin Lizzy,  and backed up blues artists such as Carey Bell, Johnny Mars, and Fenton Robinson.

During Beki's year in Dublin, she was commissioned by Bono of U2 to run a blues workshop at a middle school (show was called "Jo Maxi") focusing on the blues.  The show was  success and ran in Ireland, Italy and Sweden.  Beki's favorite place to eat in Dublin was "Bewley's Cafe'" on Grafton St., near Trinity College, Dublin.  In 1989, back in the U.S., Beki joined the Warner /Reprise band "Grace Pool"  with whom she recorded and toured with until 1992. 

In 1992, Beki moved back to Indianapolis and began playing with Yank Rachell again. She made two albums with her band, "Windopane," and also played with Jerry Lee Lewis off and on.  Windopane topped the Italian psychedelic and College music charts as "Album of the Year" in 1995 among other things, and more about these albums can be found in the reviews section of this website.

In 1998, Beki moved back to Upstate NY where she is currently living with her husband Ralph Scala (see www.bluesmagoos.com) and assorted cats, dogs and kids and recording.