Born in Oregon, Meschiya Lake moved to South Dakota when she was 8. It wasn’t soon after that, at age 9, that she entered a singing contest and won. Besides winning $500, she also got a regular gig. Her vocals were mainly focused in country music, but as she got older things changed. “I was always in bands, but I stopped at 13. I was getting into punk rock in high school. I was very rebellious,” she says.

In 2009, she founded the Little Big Horns, with whom she still regularly performs. Soon, after spending years saving up enough money, she went on to produce her first album, Lucky Devil, adorned with an image of Lake styled like the E.J. Bellocq photograph of a Storyville prostitute with striped stockings. She is currently working on her second album, and recorded some of it live this past March with Tom McDermott at Chickie Wah Wah.

You can regularly see Lake perform around town at clubs (including Buffa's) – be it herself, with McDermott, with the Little Big Horns or with other bands. It is commitment but, as she says, “At the time I started in New Orleans, I thought it was unattainable – it was a dream back then to make a living at music,” she says. “But, I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.”

Click a video above to see performances at or for Buffa's

Click a thumbnail below to see other performances from YouTube.