Jan Terri

Endearingly bad amateur Italian-American singer/songwriter Jan Terri was born on June 17 in Chicago, Illinois. Short (5' 1"), plain, and dumpy, with a gratingly nasal off-key voice and a strangely engaging abrasive, yet earnest persona, Jan possesses a certain lovably ham-fisted charm that makes her essentially the latter-day equivalent to notorious 60's freak celebrity old lady singer Mrs. Miller. She grew up in the Chicago suburb of Franklin Park. Terri was in a jug band with her mother while her father used to perform in local bars in blackface as the "Black Elvis." After earning a B.A. in Broadcast Communications and a Management Certificate for Sound Engineering from Columbia College in 1983, Jan became a back-up singer for the country band The Windy City Cowboys. Alas, Terri was forced to put her musical career on hold because of family problems. She worked as an assistant manager at Montgomery Ward's and eventually got a job as a limousine driver in 1992. Jan started recording h