You know from the first note that Laini Risto is at home with swing tunes, country ballads, jazz standards or pop classics. She sings them like they’re old, comfy friends. And there’s good reason for that – she’s been belting out these songs since the age of five, when she started singing with her family’s dance band, the RistoKats. She grew up in a home where the music of the 40's, 50's and 60's supported and nurtured the whole family.

Laini's older sister Anne Marie, who passed away at only 23 after living with the most severe form of cerebral palsy, spent her life in a wheelchair. One of her few joys was listening to music all day long.

Laini's own words describe it best:

“She had a beautiful laugh and one of her greatest entertainments was to listen for hours to the stereo record player. My job was to make sure it was loaded with LP records. Thanks to Annie, my first vocal teachers were Patti Page, Perry Como, Patsy Cline, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Doris Day and all the great crooners and singers of the fifties and sixties. Her favorite songs were Mockingbird Hill and How Much is that Doggy in the Window.

To this day, Annie is in the same room when I sing her songs. I wrote “Echoes of My Life” in tribute to Annie's life and all that she gave me.”

( Echoes of My Life can be heard on Laini's CD Where I Belong or downloaded at www.itunes.com or www.amazon.com

Laini received her first formal voice lesson at 13 and pursued classical vocal training in college. She performed and soloed with the Oregon State University choir, who was then touring through the Pacific Northwest and Europe. She spent several years performing and soloing with well known Pacific Northwest choral groups. In addition, she gained stage experience in both performance and musical direction in such favorites as "Carousel" "The Sound of Music" and "Once Upon A Mattress".

But, lucky for us, she decided to return to her musical roots – swing, country and jazz - and for the last 20 years performed with bands at festivals, fairs and jazz clubs in Washington, Oregon, California and Texas. Talk to Laini's many fans and you will hear them compare her to Judy Garland, Patsy Cline, Rosemary Clooney, Anne Murray or even Bette Midler. Her warm, sultry vocals have been described by one columnist as “liquid silver…the smoky quality of a great saloon singer with a distinctly modern edge”. While a talented vocalist, Laini is also an accredited songwriter and several of her songs, co-written with long time musicial friend/producer Jim Fischer, can be found on her albums.

Laini's first cassette recording, Secret Love, was released in 1996. In 1998 her first CD, Lost in the Feeling, was produced to benefit a women’s shelter; and that, as they say, was the beginning. She has since produced 5 more CD's: Where I Belong, The Songs of Patsy Cline, Still In Love, A Northwest Lullaby for Christmas and her most recent release "Take This Heart".

Reviewed by christmasreview.com in 2004, A Northwest Lullaby for Christmas was chosen for the top 50 Christmas CD’s out of 200 CD’s on the world wide web.

In 2005 she reached #1 with “Sweet Dreams” on the Indie World Country Charts in Nashville, TN as well as taking the #1 spot in March on the country music chart of Spain with he version of “Crazy”.

After several other charting singles, Laini was awarded “Best Traditional Female Country Artist” for 2006 by Indie World Country Record Report in Nashville, TN.

On The Music Review, July 2007 Top 40 Independent Country Songs, Laini’s song “I’m Gonna Be Your Last Dance” was #25. “Northwest Lullaby” found it’s way to #20 one more time on The Music Review’s Top 25 Independent Christmas Songs for 2008.

Laini is as an acclaimed international recording artist.

In 2004, Comstock Records, in Fountain Hills, AZ, introduced Laini’s CD “The Songs of Patsy Cline” to the European market.

Since then, this CD and several of her other songs have traveled the world radio charts and back. Laini's version of Crazy reached the #1 spot on the European Country Music Association chart in Spain in the Spring of 2004.

Sweet Dreams and Walkin' After Midnight both achieved #1 on the Indie World Country chart out of Nashville Tennesee in 2005 and 2006. A country music network in New Zealand announced they have put Laini's music into "permanent rotation".

All of Laini's music can be downloaded from several sites on the internet including iTunes, Napster, Amazon and Rhapsody. It can also be purchased online at CD Baby, and Best Buy.

Laini's music has been downloaded worldwide thousands of times in the last 6 months.

While enjoying the rapid growth and popularity, it is by no means a time for Laini to slow down.

When not singing, writing, producing and touring, Laini enjoys volunteering and performing for a wide range of foundations and causes, specifically for cancer research, abused children, children with disabilities, environmental causes and animal rescue.

She currently volunteers for Center for Creative Therapeutic Arts, a music therapy organization in Las Vegas that supports healing through music and the arts.

She has been an active volunteer for: C.A.S.A (Court Appointed Social Services) and Make a Wish Foundation

Laini currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada and still maintains the family home in Battle Ground, Washington.

She enjoys spending time with family and friends, her pound puppies; Pepper, Bogart, Scruffy. Then there is Grumbles the parrot.

Birdwatching, nature, a good book and online computer games are her other loves.