Ms. Nona Piha is our songwriter of the year for her co-writing Don't Look Back with Ryan Shea Smith.
Ryan Smith recently produced the CD titled Guilty & Blue, released in January 2007. The title song was originally handwritten on a tablet over 38 years ago  and had been sitting around for years.

Not only is Nona an accomplished writer and musician, she is Ryan's 80 year old grandmother.

She was one of 13 children, born in a small town, Wray Colorado. Her family lived a simple life on a small farm. She rode to school in a cart. Her father was an excellent banjo player so all of the kids learned to love music, particularly country/western. They learned to play the guitar and banjo as this was their primary entertainment. One of her highlights as a little girl was winning an elementary school contest playing the banjo. When Ryan was small, she would run his fingers across the keys of her organ and sing to him. She taught him to love music and love the keyboard. To this day, they still have special times together sitting around playing music together and it remains a bonding experience for them.

She and her husband have been married for 60 years, have 4 children and 7 grandchildren