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Crazy Bitch Night… that about sums it up. One wild ride at The Basement in Nashville, TN with three lovely ladies Stacie Collins, Greta Gaines, and Tonya Watts. StageShottz Magazine caught recently caught and sat down with Tonya Watts. Tonya is known for her wild live show and heartfelt lyrics and on this night did not disappoint. If you want to see a great show in a cozy setting, the next Crazy Bitch Night at The Basement is March 25 but if you want to see whats on Tonya’s mind…keep reading.

The lineup at this evening's edition of the Messaround — the monthly no-cover music series presented by the veteran country-music critic and L.A. Weekly contributor Jonny Whiteside — might be the strangest and most pleasingly diverse bill he's assembled so far. It's headed by Alabama firebrand Tonya Watts, who subverts traditional country expectations with slyly rebellious Southern rockers like "Music Made a Man Out of Me" (from her new album, Handcuff My Soul) and such insightful ballads as "Daddy's Redneck Flaws."

Alabama-born but a self-professed California girl at heart, Watts' combination of charm and sass pleased audience members of all ages. She even went so far as to poke fun at her own accent in the song "Alabama Crimson." Most folks were surprised to hear the strength of the voice belted out by this tiny blond bombshell — she used to body double for Pamela Anderson on "Baywatch" — but were pleased by what they heard.

It’s a long way from Glencoe, Alabama to Hollywood, but Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has made the voyage, and has lived the life of a troubadour. Watts grew up on a mainstay of country music that included Cash, Bocephus, David Allan Coe and Loretta Lynn, but it was Dolly Parton who she felt a kindred spirit to. Her earliest musical memory goes back to when she was just five years old where she’d go around the house putting on performances of Parton’s “Me and Little Andy” complete with hairbrush microphone for her family. But it wasn’t until nearly twenty years later that her musical dreams would become a reality. Watts landed the role of Parton in “The Barbara Mandrell Story: Get to the Heart”, and it’s from there that she realized she had a deeper connection with music than acting -- in the years that followed she’d start turning heads, opening ears and touching the hearts of the audiences she played for.

A markedcontrast to Howson’s self-propelled, dirt-under-the-fingernails artistry is the only slightly less intriguing singer-songwriter Tonya Watts, who as the only child of the South in this story — and the sole commercially viable performer — represents the latest in a long line of expatriate girl singers seeking approval in the entertainment capital of the world. For the past couple of years, she’s organized the "It Came from Nashville" night at West Hollywood’s Genghis Cohen on the second Tuesday of every month. The shows are built around Watts and like-minded Southerners Levi Kreis, Austin Hanks, Travis Howard and others who came West to avoid the stifling factory conditions of Music City.