Raised in rural Virginia, Naomi Cooke Johnson was given her first guitar at age 7 and quickly found that her inherent talent gave perfect accompaniment to her powerful singing voice that cut through the noise of a traveling family with 11 children. At 15, she helped support her family by waiting tables in a Florida restaurant until the seas of Alaska came calling and she found herself working as a deckhand on a salmon fishing boat. Here, she was able to save up enough cash to chase her dreams to Nashville where she began performing late night gigs at the legendary Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge as a staff musician playing to the lower Broadway honky-tonk crowd. Leaning on influences Bonnie Raitt and Shania Twain, Cooke Johnson began crafting songs about her life’s struggles and determination to overcome them.