SAN DIEGO -- Her heart is set on music, but San Diego's Lindsey Yung (appearing at the Saturday Backyard concert series in Escondido on Aug. 11) has a backup plan or two -- just in case.

While she already has two bachelor's degrees, in philosophy and religious studies, she's also working on a master's degree in nursing.

"I have a very pragmatic side," the San Diego native said. "I find nursing and medicine in general very interesting, and I like it. I'm not passionate about it like I am music, but now that I'm a nurse I'll forever and forever have a job.

"I will always in my mind be doing music in some way. Whether I can make a living at it isn't really up to us musicians."

Yung has been a popular draw on the local acoustic music scene for the past decade or so, playing numerous gigs at venues such as Twiggs and Lestat's. Given that she's only in her 20s now, that longevity takes some explanation.

"I've been performing in public since I was 5," she said. While that first public performance, a small role in "South Pacific" at the Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park, was also her first paying gig, it was at 13 that she began playing out as a musician around town.

It was when taking guitar lessons that she began her career as a singer-songwriter, Yung said, playing acoustic shows with her guitar teacher.

"He would book everything, so I never saw the behind-the-wheels process," Yung said of performing in her early teens. "I mainly played at Twiggs. I did it for a few years, then I took a little break from performing."

It was also during this period that she began writing her own songs, first in partnership with her guitar teacher, then with another guitarist. Those efforts led to two CDs so far, "The Return" and 2005's "Fusion." She's working on her third CD now, aiming for a release later this year or early next.

And of late, she's been writing music on her own, with no partner.

"Most people start out as solo artists -- I started backward, I started with a band. I used to only sing. I would use instruments for writing purposes, but in my mind I was never good enough to play by myself. It wasn't until a year and a half ago that my guitar player decided to part ways with me, which basically forced me to become independent.

"I've written a lot of songs collaboratively. But by myself? Not many -- maybe 15. But it's been amazingly liberating -- I don't have to rely on anyone.

"The way I write now is different than the way I wrote before; I refine things more than I ever used to. It takes me longer to write, for that reason."

If composing solo is new, as is playing solo, music in general seems almost preordained for Yung, as she tells it.

"My mom used to tell people a story -- I don't know how much truth there is to it -- but she says when I was in the nursery as a baby, you could hear me all the way at the other end of the hospital. At that time, she decided she was going to do something with my voice. I actually started singing lessons really young -- I think I was 4.

"I never played sports, never was in Girl Scouts -- everything was music-oriented."

Yung said she feels lucky to have grown up in San Diego, in a region that's really turning into a musical hub in a national sense.

"I think we can rival just about anyone -- there are some amazing musicians here. I'll go out and see a show and I'll think anyone I saw is ready to make it."

Lindsey Yung

When: 7:30 p.m. Aug. 11

Where: Community Reformed Church amphitheater, 777 W. Felicita Ave., Escondido

Admission: Free

Web: lindseyyung.com