She came to prominence during the '60s as a piano player on The Lawrence Welk Show, but Jo Ann Castle was singing at the age of three. By the age of 13, she had appeared on both Tex Williams' and Spade Cooley's radio/television shows, playing piano and singing country songs. Castle later joined Lawrence Welk's variety show, but left in 1969 to raise her children. She returned by the 1980s, when the jazz label Rainwood signed her to a contract. Recording several collections of ragtime favorites, she has interspersed standards with her own originals. Castle also maintains a show at the Welk Champagne Theater in Branson, MO. ~ John Bush