• Think outside the box and open the door of unimagined opportunity.

It’s interesting. You never know where life might take you. The world is changing so quickly, and if you think outside the box, doors can open that you might never have dreamed would open. Lana Howard has embraced the new world and is stepping through an unexpectedly open door.

Though she never imagined that the opportunity to be a recording artist could blend with her role as a wife and mother of three, she has embraced her whole self and is sharing her gift with the world, releasing two albums through CD Baby on September 4.

The fifth child born to Dan and Christy Chamberlain, of Fairview, Lana’s youth overflowed with musical opportunities. As an elementary school student, she won a role as Marta in the 2001 Star Valley High School musical production of ‘The Sound of Music,’ and welcomed musical exposure through several avenues. As a teen, she played piano in the SVHS Jazz Band and sang in the choral program. Though she didn’t consider herself a great artist, she felt inspired by art museums, so she joined the Art Club and enjoyed the field trips offered there.

By the time she was 15, Lana branched out from playing music and began reserving a significant amount of time for composing. She felt deeply grounded in processing her emotions and experiences through music. At high school graduation in 2011, she gave copies of a CD to friends and teachers filled with recordings of her pieces that she was ready to share.

Her intentional song composing increased as she attended dental hygiene school in Sheridan and earned her degree through the University of Wyoming. This is where she began recording.

“I was just a writer that wrote about my life and what was going on, and I don’t know that I ever intended to have anyone hear them at that time, but it’s kind of stood the test of time for me,” Lana shared. “All the music [on my album ‘To Make it Better’] is original. I wrote all of it. These songs are actually old songs that I recorded in 2012 when I was in college. The recordings are just me and a guitar and basically, like, a camcorder. They’re not extremely high-quality recordings, but I don’t want to redo them because there is a lot of emotion in them. They’re pretty authentic from that time.”

At the age of 23, she met and married her sweetheart, Gage Howard, and they have worked together to pursue his career sourcing parts to the aerospace industry. This took them to Wichita, Kansas, where they are currently raising their three children.

Most of the songs Lana has written have been lullabies, and she hopes to release those next. Releasing through CD Baby essentially means that she is her own producer and is taking the step to release her songs publicly as a solid musician. CD Baby manages the marketing of her recordings and provides them to over 50 streaming platforms.

“I really credit my husband for bringing this back into my life,” Lana admitted. As a youth, she considered her musical activities as something self-indulgent for a wife and mother, but as her relationship with Gage has developed, she has found that it’s healthy to pursue her interests. “He has his own personal interests and he encourages my personal interests. It’s a balance that has come into my life. I think when I was young, I almost didn’t think of mothers as being true human beings, but we are. We have hobbies. We have interests. He’s been really supportive of me having time to do this. He’s been wonderful.”

As Lana began to blend music with her life as a wife and mother, she found that it was very accessible to build an income as a musician from her home in her flexible time and to collaborate with other musicians.

“I actually work with other musicians online.” Though nothing in her current releases is collaborative, she has enjoyed creating with musicians from all over the globe and has been commissioned to write and record many songs. “I did background vocals for a singer in the UK all online just collaborating back and forth, and I was paid for it.” She has written custom songs ordered for specific events or relationships, or as gifts.

“I’ve sung things for a city centennial celebration in California. I sang a song about Orcs that someone ordered. I’ve done whatever people were interested in.”

She has hired people to do guitar work for some of her more recently composed lullabies. “You can collaborate with other musicians without having to go be in a coffee shop or a bar or a studio, and you can do it from home which is incredible. Who knew that kind of opportunity would be available? It’s so affordable [to produce an album]. You don’t have to be a superstar to participate anymore, which is really fun. I know there’s a lot of local talent in Star Valley and they could be releasing if they wanted to.”

Her collaborative and commissioned opportunities have come to her through fiverr.com. Through the site, she offers vocals and song writing, and charges a small fee for those. She also can find other artists to contribute to her work. “There are all sorts of musicians on Fiverr that you can work with and it’s a really easy platform. All the payments are handled by the company so there’s not really any risk involved.”

“I’ve invested so much time in my craft and no one’s really heard it yet.” So, she has stepped through an open door to sharing her music through online opportunities, and hopes to also share it moderately in live performances, while still putting her responsibilities as a mother at the top of her priority list.

Lana is so grateful for her heritage and her upbringing. “The community and my teachers were just so supportive.” Coming from a place like Star Valley has shaped her musical perspective in such valuable ways.

“For me, music has always been deeply spiritual, and I don’t mean that just religiously, I mean it as a journey of self-exploration and trying to learn from my spiritual nature and my relationship with who I believe God to be. My songs are not expressly Christian, but as I write, I always try to take something that is just raw emotion or raw struggle from life and elevate it a little bit to find some deeper wisdom in it or to find some deeper hope or some deeper form of dignity or grace. It’s therapeutic for me in that way.”

Now that she is stepping through the open door toward increased musical opportunities from home, she has a few things to say to the folks at home. “Don’t put your life in a box. You can do all sorts of things, and you can have all sorts of things. You don’t have to sacrifice everything to do some of the things that you love. The world has changed a lot. I never imagined that I would have these kinds of opportunities. Anyone can have them.”

Lana’s albums can be found on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, Amazon Music, IHeart Radio, Pandora and dozens of other streaming platforms. Ask Alexa to play Lana Howard ‘To Make is Better,” and imagine yourself stepping through the same door.