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MP3 Halle & The Jilt - Lucky You
11 MP3 Songs in this album (41:43) !
Related styles: Pop: Piano, Blues: Blues Vocals, Solo Female Artist
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Details:
I could sing before I could talk. At age two, my parents thought it was cute when I hummed "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," just barely mouthing the words. My father and his father were both musicians. He played the organ and used to sing “Silouettes” by The Rays to me before I went to sleep. He loved the oldies, and would sing everything from The Four Seasons to the Linda Ronstadt songbook while my mom and I danced in the kitchen. I remember being a little girl and sitting in middle of the front seat of my dad’s car, fiddling with the radio knobs. He took us to see James Brown at The Front Row Theater in Cleveland, Ohio. We sat in the last row. Unable to see anything, I hated every second, until my parents told us to stand on the seats and dance. So we did. We just got up and danced.
I was 13 the first time I traveled to New York and saw a Broadway show, and afterwards I spent hours singing along to the soundtrack, acting out the scenes in my room. I never stopped singing. At this point, I''m sure my spontaneous eruption into loud song became less cute to my parents. In any case, I eventually headed off to college, where I majored in musical theater, and finally moved to New York City. I worked as an actor for eight years - appearing in recordings, regional theater, commercials and once on Saturday Night Live. Of course, there were also musical theater productions, most memorably as Annie in the world premiere of a new musical The Burnt Part Boys at Barrington Stage Company, and the 2007 Drama Desk Nominated Off-Broadway production of Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen''s Fugitive Songs.
I wanted to do something more. Something that was purely my own. In 2008 I was teamed with musical director Karen Dryer (25th Annual Putnam Country Spelling Bee), and I put together a show of rock covers with a band, at the time purely for fun. During rehearsals, I mentioned to friend Maddy Wyatt that I''d written a song. She and Karen, both established writers, encouraged me to sing it. It would change things for me, they said. So I followed their advice, even though I was scared to death, and I did. I''m pretty sure I fucked up the words, but that was it: I was hooked. I took more songs to Karen, and we began developing the next show: All original music.
Eventually I said, "I want to make a record."
After that, everything changed. I felt like I had a purpose, I had expression, I had creative authority. It was a process that I was driving and it was exhilarating. In writing the songs, I drew from every artist I loved, including the ones I heard sitting in front seat of my Dad’s station wagon: Otis Redding, Al Green, Stevie Nicks, and later Patty Griffin and Sara Bareilles to name a few. I would literally bang on the bathroom walls (best acoustics!) imitating drum beats and singing in the dark. The resulting sound is blues, soul, folk, rock and jazz pulled together with a pop sensibility, and if I may say so, a fierce vocal presence.
In October 2009, I pulled a bunch of friends together to form a band. Everybody came together for me – I was so grateful and excited, even though I had no idea what I was doing. Doug Mace on guitar, Karen on Piano, Jake Tomsky on drums, and Clay Shaub joined us to make us complete. The band began playing shows and residencies. Karen and I started writing more songs, I gave the band a name, and finally in May of 2010 we went into the studio with Producer Damon Whittemore.
Damon was fantastic as not only is he a technical mastermind, he is amazingly patient and supportive. He held my hand but was never overbearing, and really allowed me to flourish. You go from one extreme to another, where you are learning to overcome your self-doubt, trust your instincts, develop your style and find the authority to champion the sound you want. It was that focus that helped me understand what I was hearing and what I wanted. There was one day, my first day in the studio alone after the band had tracked, and I was working on vocals and harmonies. "What do you want?" Damon would say, when I looked to him again and again for his opinion, until finally it clicked for me: This was my record. I did know exactly what I wanted! It was the ultimate process, but in the end I learned to trust my own ears, and I can safely say every instrument, every noise, every vocal track, mixing, mastering, every millisecond of sound on this album came through me.
Which is important. All my life, all I ever wanted to do was sing, and as many people as there are supporting me, there were plenty of those who said I couldn’t do it. This record is ultimately about no one having to give me permission to do anything. This record is my voice. As corny as it sounds, I don’t know how to sing without pouring out my soul. These songs are my heart, my hands, my mind, my love, my insecurities, and my rage. A lot of them are about boys, and I called the album Lucky You in homage to the ones who ever had the chance to break my heart.
People have told me my songs feel like familiar memories, so maybe you''ll identify with my words. Or maybe you''ll enjoy the melodies. In either case, thank you for listening, and if your eyes made it all the way down here, thank you for reading. I hope that you, too, will do what you love, follow your dreams, pour out your soul, and find every way possible. If you get to do all of that – Lucky You.
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