Sara Hickman was raised in Houston, Texas and launched her professional career at age 14 at a Houston Oilers party with just her guitar and voice. This led to performances at bank openings, psychiatric units, and weddings. She graduated from the High School for Performing Arts in Houston and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in painting from the University of North Texas. Her independently released debut, Equal Scary People, was picked up in 1989 by Elektra. This was followed in 1990 by the album Shortstop, which yielded the #3 adult contemporary hit "I Couldn't Help Myself."
Sara has twice been a guest of NBC's Tonight Show, hosted her own VH1 special, and produced an independent video, Joy, which won first place in the USA Film Festival. With the help of fans, Sara raised $50,000 to buy back the shelved masters of her third album, Necessary Angels, from Elektra. The album was released on Discovery. She has since released three discs on Shanachie: Misfits (a collection of musical odds and ends from her life and career), Two Kinds of Laughter (produced by Adrian Belew), and Spiritual Appliances, produced by Sara herself.
On Sara's private label imprint, Sleeveless, she has produced and released six more CDs: the limited pressing run of the CD one flower to the left sold out within a few months; a CD version of her highly popular "official bootleg" audio cassette Ready To Pop; a re-issue of her popular Equal Scary People; a Christmas/holiday CD, This Christmas Wish; and her romantic Faithful Heart, which was released on St. Valentine's Day 2002. Most recently, Sleeveless released a limited edition DVD, I Am Going On a Journey, featuring six hours of video clips highlighting Sara's career.
Through her self-released children's album Newborn, she has donated over $50,000 to the Hill Country Youth Ranch (which aids abused and neglected children) and to the Mautner Project (which helps lesbians with cancer). She is extremely involved in many humanitarian issues and serves on the board of directors for the Mother's Milk Bank/Austin and the advisory board of Arts for People (Dallas). She served as the 2001 honorary chair for the Humana Women in Health Initiative, the Umlauf Sculpture Garden Party and the 2001 Austin Race for the Cure, which raises monies for breast cancer research. The entire CD booklet of Spiritual Appliances is dedicated to fighting the homelessness problem, and she has visited Romania to work on behalf of the Romanian Orphans Fund.
Sara followed up the child-friendly sound of Newborn in 2001 with Toddler, a collection of songs, stories and poetry that teaches counting, colors, animals, sounds and geography. In 2004, the third in Sara's children's series was born: Big Kid is targeted towards children who are learning to read, write, explore and create. Sara has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Association of Music Therapists, the Kerrville Folk Festival, and the Dallas Observer Awards.
Returning to the world of adult music after five years of creating award winning music for children, Sara released her Motherlode, a two-disc CD set of 20 songs, in June, 2006. Disc One contains songs of universal woe and quiet lament in conjunction with womankind: from depression, addiction, domestic violence, murder, insomnia, Sara's family ties to President John and Abigail Adams, a mother's hands, and finding faith in one's own song. Disc Two is a woman's heart, bright and sparkling, with undercurrents of frustration and wanting: returning to the joys of love, sex, hope, saints, children, little birds and the garden. This project includes guest artists such as Shawn Colvin, Kelly Willis, Ruthie Foster, Adrian Belew, Jimmy La Fave, and more.
But what she really wants you to know is that she loves chili cheese fries and does not like brussel sprouts. Her high score in bowling is 197, and her goal is to break 200.
