Jorie West is part of the award-winning duo Sayani.

Music has always been a part of my life. When I was three years old, Mom and Dad put me on top of an orange crate so that I could reach the microphone at KPRO radio in Riverside, California, and my little voice hit the airwaves for the very first time. And I've been singing ever since.

My father, E.V. Medley, of Cherokee/Choctaw/Irish/English heritage, was born in Catoosa, Oklahoma. He later moved to Arkansas where he met and married my mother, MaryAnn Ford, whose parents were Cherokee/Creek Indian. Mother's family had moved around quite a...