From House of Blues to TV success

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

Listen: "Just Okay" is on iTunes, and "I Won't Let You Go" is at myspace.com/sarahthiele1 or arselect.com (artist search: Sarah Thiele).

Next performance: Toys for Tickets, 7 p.m. Dec. 9, Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, admission is a toy valued at $10 or greater.

Singer, pianist and composer Sarah Thiele often performs at the House of Blues' Unplugged sessions on Thursdays.

But the 26-year-old performer could be on the verge of bursting out of the local scene. Her songs "Just Okay" and "I Won't Let You Go" were picked up by the USA Network and used on its series "Dead Zone" and "The Starter Wife."

"It's pretty rare to get two songs placed in two months on two major shows," Thiele said. "It's a real good sign for me."

When "I Won't Let You Go" aired, USA was deluged with callers wanting to know who Thiele was and where they could find her music. "It climbed from being something like the 500th most downloaded song overall to No. 9 in less than 30 days," Thiele said.

The Flagstaff, Ariz., native is passionate about music. She began teaching herself to play the piano at age 3. She studied classical piano and composition at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in Southern California and received scholarship offers from prestigious institutions such as the San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Berklee in Boston and others.

She accepted an offer from UNLV to study piano with Dr. Carol Stivers.

"There were only 14 students in her study program," Thiele said. "Everybody was getting a lot of one-on-one time."

Thiele ended up dropping out of graduate school when she began making a living writing, producing and arranging music.

She calls her style "a mishmash between, like, a Fiona Apple, Erykah Badu and George Thrillgood ." It's a blend of jazz, alt rock, R&B, soul and country. These days it's more country than anything because she's promoting rising country artist Derek Sholl, who has a hit with "Don't Threaten Me With a Good Time."

"I haven't been playing a lot in Vegas lately," Thiele said. "I'm on the road a lot, producing Derek, writing for him, traveling to Nashville. He's pretty good. People liken him to Garth Brooks."

But she isn't neglecting her career.

She's usually at the House of Blues for Unplugged at least once a month, and she continues to study piano and write.

"I'm always the composer," she said. "That's what I've always wanted to do, write music and get it out there."

She recently found a producer and will start work on an album in November, which will curtail her local appearances for the next few months.

However, she will take time off from the album to join other artists performing in a Toys for Tickets concert at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino in December.