Sandie is a native of Virginia, one of ten children born to John and Hazel Alvey.  She grew up listening and loving all genres of music, and developed an early talent for creative writing.  One of her first jobs was as a teen correspondent for the local newspaper.  While in high school, she started writing poetry and dreamed of being a songwriter, but never acted on those dreams.  It wasn’t until the approach of her fiftieth birthday, or as she likes to refer to it, her forty-tenth, that she decided that she would always regret not trying, so she joined NSAI and set about learning to become a songwriter.  Undaunted by her total lack of performing skills, Sandie found a wonderfully talented and kindhearted musician/songwriter/studio owner, Ken Smith at Lighthouse Studio in Lorton, Va.   Ken was able to interpret her off-key mumblings well enough to record her demos, and she started attending Symposiums and Song Camps, learning the craft of songwriting and making wonderful new friends.  Although she has written many songs on her own, Sandie has been fortunate to couple her lyrical skills with several very talented co-writers, most recently Frank B. Jones, Jeff Hudson, and Sandy Williams and Bob Clay.