Nikki grew up in the Mennonite farming town of Moundridge, Kansas - but you wouldn't know it by looking at her. With wild hair pulled into pigtails, homemade tie-dye shirt and flowing skirt, she hardly fits the conservative Kansas stereotype. Nor is there much Gen X to be found in her 1920s-era glasses or burnt-orange VW Westfalia bus (built the same year she was born). Nikki looks every bit the quirky, comfortable old soul friends know her to be. In a time and culture of pretentiousness, Nikki is adorably herself.

At 24, after college, marriage, divorce and a move to Wichita, Nikki picked up the guitar. Six months later, she wrote her first song... > MORE