The daughter of concert violinist Judy Beaver, Julie Beaver began classical training on the violin at the age of four.  At 13 she switched to fiddling and also took up guitar, mandolin, and vocals.  By 15 she was playing honky-tonks as the fiddler for Monte Mills & the Lucky Horseshoe Band.  After graduating from Morro Bay High School in 1998, she left her small California beach town and moved to Levelland, Texas to study Commercial Music Performance at South Plains College, one of just two schools in the country to offer this type of program.  She graduated first in her calss in 2000, and transferred to Texas Tech University on a Livestock Judging Scholarship.  A passionate competitor and livestock enthusiast, Julie's Livestock Judging career culminated with several National and International titles.  Her greatest strength was and still is beef cattle, particularly breeding stock selection.

     Julie returned to California in 2002, bringing with her a bad case of the Texas blues.  By day she was finishing her Animal Science/Pre-Veterinary degree at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and by night playing wicked blues violin and singing in the local clubs.  Nationally acclaimed blues guitarist Dorian Michael mentored Julie to help her turn emotion into music, and they worked together in the local blues/rock band Bad Sushi.  In-between midterms and final exams, Julie toured internationally with singer/songwriter Darryl Purpose and collaborated with Grammy Award Winner Louie Orterga.  After graduating from Cal Poly in 2003 as the Outstanding Senior in Animal Science, Julie finally had some time to dedicate exclusively to music.  It wasn't long before her own group, Julie & the BadDogs was booked up months in advance.  January 2006 brought the release of Julie's self-produced debut album Don't Wait Too Long, as well as a live CD and DVD in collaboaration with Purpose. 

    Today, Julie is balancing her two great passions in life: music and animals.  In addition to performing nearly every weekend, she works for the SLO County 4-H Youth Development Program and teaches violin/fiddle lesssons out of Matt's Music in Templeton.  In spite of her busy schedule, Julie always finds time to ride her self-trained Gypsy Horse filly "Csardas", and frequently teaches fiddle lessons in spurs and dusty jeans.  She has just released a live DVD of Julie & the BadDogs with Dorian Michael at the the 2011 California Mid-State Fair, and plans to record an acoustic album "Campfire" this coming fall.  Campfire is inspired by Julie's horse camping adventures, and the joy of sharing music and friendship around the campfire at night.

Julie with Martin Simpson, NAMM 2005