Writers’ Bios

Mary Munsey

SoHA Coordinator

The entire vision of the Songwriters of Highlands Appalachia (SOHA), is Mary’s brain-child. Mary is an accomplished writer herself and encourages each member of the group to be all they can be.  She performs locally with a variety of bands and writes and records her own music as well.

Here is a sample of her work.

Daryl Ann Beeghley

Songwriter

Daryl Ann Beeghley is a Canadian-born singer/songwriter who has lived all over the USA, from Florida to Northern California, both East and West Texas, Tidewater and Richmond, VA. She currently resides in Abingdon, VA. She has always loved words and music and began playing guitar and writing songs as a teenager, then hit a long dry spell of about thirty years in which her creative energy was redirected to teaching and raising three children. During that time, she continued to sing but couldn’t find the creative fire to write. Joining the SoHA (Songwriters of Highlands Appalachia) group at the end of 2017 brought a breath of fresh air and the encouragement she needed to begin writing again, with life experience and greater emotional depth to bring to the creative process.

Daryl Ann finds SoHA to be a diverse and supportive group that meets monthly to listen to one another and respond to members’ new music, typically created from prompts given at the previous meeting. She now relishes the challenge of writing across different styles: Americana, folk, country, devotional, and blues. Sheplays guitar and does her own vocals and has just begun recording some of her original songs.

At present, her creative pursuits also include writing, art, and acting. She is actively involved in her church and community. She is a member of ACPW (Appalachian Community of Poets & Writers) and has served on the Arts Depot Board and the Steering Committee for COA (College for Older Adults). Daryl Ann has appeared on stage in several plays at VHCC (Virginia Highlands Community College) and loves gardening. But if her five grandchildren were within driving distance, they’d be at the top of her list.

Greg Franklin

Songwriter

Greg Franklin was born and raised in a small rural community about 30 miles outside of Birmingham, Alabama. He comes from a large family of musicians and storytellers that would get together on the weekends and play and sing music until the wee hours of the morning. This laid the foundation of his musical roots.

Greg is a published poet and author as well as singer, musician, and songwriter. Before recently moving to Abingdon, VA, his bands played throughout the southeast for over two decades. His self-produced acoustic blues album with the duo band “Soul Collision” received rave reviews from The Magic City Blues Society for both talent and songwriting.

Peter Gagnon

Songwriter

Peter was born and raised in New York where he developed a fondness for the mountains while taking family vacations in upper New York. As a teen he also gravitated toward music and eventually began a 15 year stint playing bass in his local church.

Peter worked for Music Television for 13 years where he was immersed in music 8 hours a day. He also mixed live sound in churches for 35 years and has contributed songs to 4 different contemporary worship music projects for Sovereign Grace Music.

Retiring in 2021, he and his wife Barbara relocated to North Eastern Tennessee where the mountains, the music, and the people have proven to be “more like home than home has ever been!” Together they enjoy exploring the mountains and music culture of Southwest Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Here is a sample of his work.

Sandra Lambert

Songwriter

Sandra grew up East TN and is now enjoying retirement with her husband Rich.  In 2019 during her pre-retirement years, she started learning the mountain dulcimer and wrote her first song.  She credits the mountain dulcimer as her gate-way instrument that led her to learning the ukulele, tenor guitar, bowed psaltery and writing more songs.  She has 50 songs under her belt and learns a little more about the craft of songwriting with each song she writes.

She is a member of the Knoxville Area Dulcimer Club and helped to start the Boones Creek Dulcimer Clan monthly jam.  Occasionally, she and her husband perform as The Butternuts.  She likes all kinds of music and enjoys songs that tell a story.  

Darris Stanley

Songwriter

Darris Stanley, currently of Bluff City, TN, lived in Wise Co. VA for most of his life. He states, “My dad was a bit of a gypsy so we traveled around a lot when I was young, occasionally even being homeless at times.” His life experiences have lead him on a path to his stories in song. When he was younger, he started out with a career as a professional boxer, and now he is an artist who has had his works shown in galleries, and as well, in his 3rd decade of life, he started playing music and began writing songs, now with a catalog containing over 300+ homespun tunes. Darris states that songwriting is a very satisfying creative outlet for him and just about a year ago, he recorded a gospel EP with mostly original music, producing his first full album, “Six Strings Made of Steel”, recorded in Nashville.

Here is a sample of his work.