Gretchen has been a professional singer for about 20 years.

She began her career singing the blues in New York City with various groups and projects. While in NYC she trained with the famous blues/gospel vocal teacher, Georgia Louis, as well as with the operatic teacher, Mike Mitchell.

She arrived in San Francisco at the heart of the city's acid-jazz movement. There she found the great bass player, Scott Arnold and formed the band, Sideways. They played in the Bay Area for about 4 years. The original make-up of vocals, bass, drums, percussion, saxophone/flute, and keyboard was in tact for about 2 years. During the latter two years they were fortunate enough to have some of the top jazz instrumentalists in the Bay Area sit in with them. While in San Francisco she worked with Faith Winthrop, a renowned jazz singer/teacher in the Bay Area.

After Sideways, she joined The Skull Funk Tribe, for the first time as a back-up singer. It was a fun band loosely based off of P-Funk. They played all original funk.

In 2003 Gretchen moved to Colorado. Jasco contacted Gretchen from a listing she had placed on online and the rest is history. The Shamans' combines her jazz, blues, soul & funk influences and experiences into one band.