 Donna Lee was raised in the Massachusetts hill town of Pelham and, after winning in several local talent contests; she began her professional career at thirteen singing in the honky-tonks and country clubs of central Massachusetts. At this young age, Donna Lee had the opportunity to perform with world yodeling champion Kenny Roberts.
A good start for a young career quickly turned into a necessary occupation when fortunes of Donna Lee’s family found them homeless and with limited means to survive. They moved south seeking better fortunes with Donna Lee singing at truck stops along the way where a hat would be passed around to keep the family surviving and moving. Finally settling in Arkansas, Donna Lee got steady work with local bluegrass bands and performed at the Mountain View Folk Festival.
 Donna Lee’s talent led to the start of the very successful touring duo named Sweet Melody, who traveled from East Coast to California, the circuit-included runs at Virginia Beach and Durango Pass, which led to a stint with Carnival Cruise ships.
In Arkansas, Donna Lee married and became a mother, her life began to take root and become more stable. In 1982, Donna Lee returned home to New England but her happiness was to be short-lived, in 1984, she found herself divorced mother of three, so she turned to her music again and then in 1986 she joined the Connecticut-based country band Family Tradition. For the next seven years Family Tradition played in country fairs, concerts and clubs throughout New England and New York.
Donna Lee’s creative drive led her to develop her own sound and her own music in 1993 she collaborated with Massachusetts’s guitarist and songwriter James Armenti. Together the pair took their sound to Nashville’s County Q studio and recorded Donna Lee’s first CD, Dancin’ Around It. The album received rave reviews and international airplay.
 Donna Lee founded North Country Productions in 1996, a production company that caters to the group tour trade in Southern Vermont. Over the next four years, Northern Country Productions produced two original musical comedies and a very successful Tribute to Pasty Cline, which Donna Lee wrote, produced, and performs in all of the shows. Donna Lee continues to be very active in producing and marketing shows for the group tour trade.
Donna Lee and James Armenti recorded her first children’s music CD in 1999, Bees Go Buzzin’, then in 2003 her second CD for children, Butterfly Flutter By was released. She continues to regularly perform for children in a variety of venues in New England as well.
Today Donna Lee is continuing to perform her Tribute to Pasty Cline along with the Donna Lee band throughout the Northeast, performing on Cape Cod, Vermont and local venues such as Stanley Park in Westfield, Mass and Majestic Theatre in West Springfield, Mass. Her second album of “Northern Country” music, His Silent Son, a collection of songs from several of the finest New England songwriters, recorded in Wilmington, Vermont will be released in 2006.
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