My father had all kinds of instruments in the house that he would hide from my mother. He bought them through mail order!

She did not stay long. Peter Watrous in an article for the New York Times states: ". She graduated with a degree in mass communications.

Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country blues and folk music into her work Wilson has won two Grammy Awards.