She can belt out a lively “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” suitable for her audience singalong, or bring the same group to tears with her own “Christmas Corsage” — dedicated to her mother. She’s versatile at the keyboard and loved by many locals as Oregon’s songstress.

She followed her dreams to Nashville, and made Redmond her home when the Nashville dream didn’t turn out quite the way she had hoped. She’s performed in venues throughout Central Oregon for the past two decades, but since the Covid pandemic has dedicated herself to the clientele at the Redmond Senior Center and other senior living facilities.

Lindy Gravelle was born in Tillamook in 1954 and lived in Beaverton and Heppner before settling in McMinnville, where she graduated from high school. She was the fifth of seven children whose family roots were steeped in music. Her father played the guitar, and her sister Lorraine taught her the basic chords so she could participate in the Leonnig Family Band.

Songwriting sustained Lindy in Nashville, and publishing companies introduced her to many notable vocalists after she wrote “A Bottle of Wine and Patsy Cline,” but a recording contract eluded her before she returned to Oregon in 2000.

She settled in Bend, then Redmond, where she became a weekend regular for several years at the old Harris Wine Cellar on Seventh Street, which she still pays tribute to in song. Brassie’s Bar at Eagle Crest became her next primary keyboard home until Covid.

It was there that she met Tom Gilkey attending one of her concerts. They married in 2006. She supplemented her time with private parties and events such as the Sisters Quilt Show. She once appeared at the Les Schwab Amphitheater.

In 2015 Tom and Lindy moved to Ellensburg, Wash., where they built a home to be closer to Tom’s daughter and three grandchildren. Lindy continued occasional gigs in Redmond. On one of those trips back they realized they should never have moved in the first place, so they returned.

Lindy began writing songs at an early age including one composition that became a candidate for Oregon’s state song, “No Place Under the Sun Like Oregon.” It was always among the often- requested numbers in her weekend gigs. At the urging of State Senator Bev Clarno, she played it for the Oregon State Legislature. A budget crisis during the recession and subsequently Covid intervened, but she still gets many requests to sing it.

Another of her most requested songs include “Crazy,” the Patsy Cline standard, and “I Love My Dog,” a Lindy original recognized by the Hollywood Humane Society. She and Tom have always owned dogs, including Charlie, the whippet who greets their visitors. And then there’s “Seat Up, Seat Down” an audience favorite about what to do with the toilet seat when one is through.

The pandemic mandated semi-retirement for Lindy, so she and Tom have traveled more. But she enjoys performing for the senior community, playing more old standards as music therapy for her audiences. She is still writing music, her latest being “Climate Change” and Joyce Kilmer’s classic poem “Trees” put to music.

“I love the people who have been so great and so supportive,” Lindy reflects. “I always said, ‘I don’t have to work. I play for a living.’”

Lindy fans can find her at the Redmond Senior Center the third Friday of each month during the noon hour performing for the monthly birthday session.