Singer Alex Pangman discovered jazz as a teenager, listening to Louis Armstrong, Jack Teagarden, and Mildred Bailey. Enamoured of jazz from the "Dirty Thirties", she worked with producer Jeff Healey on both her debut album They Say (1999) and You Can't Stop Me from Dreaming (2001). That same year, she won the National Jazz Awards' Songwriter of the Year. After branching out into bluegrass, string-band and country, she created a combo called Lickin' Good Fried. Yet throughout this period of prolific music-making, Alex Pangman suffered from cystic fibrosis, and in 2008, received a double lung transplant. She returned to performing, and at age 33, released the disc 33, which includes many tunes that were popular in the year 1933.