Donna Ulisse (pronounced "you-liss-ee") was born in Hampton Virginia and surrounded by a musical family. She made her first appearance singing at the tender age of three when she wandered onto the stage with a bluegrass band and broke out into "Take This Hammer". From that moment until now, there has never been any doubt that she would be creating music. She worked in a local western swing band where she met and married Rick Stanley, being fully indoctrinated into a bluegrass family when Rick's cousin Ralph Stanley, along with the Clinch Mountain Boys performed at their wedding reception.

In the 1980's Donna moved to Nashville and stayed busy singing demos for publishers and writers. She has had a busy life as a respected vocalist behind the scenes with her first session as a young background singer being for a Jerry Reed album and finding out at the last minute that Reed preferred to sing around the mic with the singers. It was a wonderfully unnerving experience for the young Ulisse. When renowned country songwriter Glenn Sutton was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter's Hall of Fame, it was Ulisse who was called upon to sing some of his hits recorded by Tammy Wynette and Lynn Anderson for the who's who of the music industry crowd and she brought the house down. Country Music fans still remember her as an artist on Atlantic Records where she was signed and released the album Trouble at the Door in 1991. The album had three singles and two videos. During this time she appeared on the network TV show "Hot Country Nights", was a guest on "Hee Haw", "Nashville Now" and "Crook and Chase".

After Donna's deal on Atlantic Records ended, she turned her attention to songwriting. In time her publisher noticed that when she wrote alone, the songs generally took on a bluegrass feel that was vocally authentic when she sang the demos. These days bluegrass fans are getting to know Ulisse through her bluegrass CD When I Look Back released in 2007 and her current 2009 release Walk This Mountain Down. Both albums are collections of self-penned tunes and are produced by guitar virtuoso Keith Sewell. In June of 2009 she was the #1 artist on Sirius XM’s Bluegrass Junction Channel 65 with I Lied being the #1 song and nine other songs in the Top 40. Her song I’m Calling Heaven Down won Best Bluegrass Song in the Just Plain Folks 2009 Awards while Walk This Mountain Down was a Top 30 record in the Americana Music Chart and continues to climb the Bluegrass Unlimited charts. Ulisse has formed her own band, The Poor Mountain Boys, and is getting ready to take her music on the road in between recording her third bluegrass project in 2010.