To finance the freedom to compose and create, Vanessa worked with her husband Jason Lively as a self-employed graphic designer. By supporting themselves independently, they had the liberty to shut the doors to their successful business in 2005 and travel to South America, where they worked as volunteers for the next couple of years. Vanessa’s musical voice blossomed in earnest while she and Jason lived in Salinas de Guaranda, Ecuador, where the thin cold air and bare conditions provided challenges that would give strength to Vanessa’s nascent songs. To alleviate the stresses of daily life, Vanessa would write songs, often by firelight when the city’s electricity failed.


Empowered by her experiences, Vanessa recorded her music right there in Ecuador, in the city of Quito – carrying her instrument over her shoulder she would endure the entire six-hour trip to the city. Quito served as a crossroads on the paths of many travelers; Vanessa met musicians traveling through the city and invited all of them to perform on her album. Vanessa’s openness to the musicians and instruments in her environment harmonize perfectly with the organic structure and empathetic lyrics of her songs. Most of her songs are drawn from the things Vanessa has seen and the moments she’s experienced, though she sees only the universality of it all. After a volcanic eruption covered her Ecuadorian home in a thick layer of toxic ash, Vanessa wrote “Let Me Rise,” documenting the hardships and struggles of women around the world. This song became the title track of her first album, recorded in Quito. Songs on this album recount stories, such as uprisings and strikes by indigenous people in Ecuador:


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