Mary Krstic grew up in Southern California obsessed with music from a very young age and started playing guitar when she was 5. She started her first band at age 13 with some of her school classmates. They played Kiss cover songs, Aerosmith, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Bachman Turner Overdrive, and some originals. She was determined to make it and at 16 her parents allowed her to use her college savings to make a recording in a local studio. That recording became Break the Chains and besides selling copies to a few friends and relatives it helped her realize her dream of being admitted into the Guitar Institute of Technology in Hollywood. All the players on the album were friends and family between the ages of 14 and 17. Krstic divided the album styles by side, putting all the acoustic songs on the A-side and gathering the heavy rockers on the B-side. The cover, designed by Krstic’s 14 year old sister, shows her two opposing sonic personas, a teen rocker Janus. Lyrically, the album reveals a wisdom that exceeds her years, exploring the difficulties of being a teenage girl in a patriarchal world, navigating love, loss, sexuality, isolation, ecological turmoil, and living a just life. The album is a masterpiece of adolescent experience.

She continues to play music in several projects including an all-female Led Zeppelin cover band called Lady Zep.

RIYL: Lucia Berlin, Carson McCullers, Karen Dalton, Linda Perhacs, The Shaggs

Please see dropdown for condition. There were two small pressings of this album, unfortunately one pressing has flaws which created crackle for the duration of one side while the other side plays clean. We’ve opened and inspected all copies. The less expensive copies may have covers with a small seem split and a slight dishwarp that dnap.