Amy Kuney

Self-taught player Amy Kuney learned guitar chords from a Wal-Mart poster her dad brought back to the family's Honduras home following a trip to the U.S. The child of missionaries, Amy, born in Tulsa, OK, spent her teen years in circumstances most kids would find hard to deal with. The experience helped inspire creativity in this versatile and talented young artist.

Amy says she wrote her first song when she was just twelve years old. "The Hanson brothers had just come out with 'Mmm-bop,'" she explains. "I wanted to write a song like that. But I wasn't schooled in songwriting at the time, so my version came out as Mmm-bad."

The singer and composer is not the only musical talent in the Kuney family. "My dad was in a band during his college days and toured overseas," Amy says the her mom has a beautiful voice and plays piano for church. Her older sister is a touring violinist for Kanye West. It's no wonder that Amy followed her muse into music as well.

"I always knew I would be somehow involved in music," she says. "It's really the only thing I have strongly pursued." Amy also loves to write humorous short stories about her family and the time she spent as a "missionary kid." She enjoys reading and foreign films, too.