Just Sing. Sing a Song.

When I was a little girl, my dad used to sing me to sleep with the Carpenters' song, "Sing" and I've always loved it because it just makes me smile. What's better when you're down than to just sing a song. I grew up singing and have always loved it. I used to go to a recording studio in the Houston Galleria and "lay down tracks" because, you know, that's what all the cool kids did then. And let's face it, I wanted to be a cool kid. I was in church choir and then joined HITS Unicorn Theater where I performed in musicals such as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Godspell."

I then moved on to singing in the Glee Club in high school and was part of a 12-person ensemble called Spirit. This opened up a whole new world to me. I got to travel up and down the east coast, touring with my ensemble, singing at churches, schools and universities. My biggest and proudest moment was when we sang for the Queen's Jubilee Celebration in London. My choir director, the BEST choir director I've ever had the privilege of knowing and being conducted by, Carol Burnett, got a group of Spirit members - past and present - to join together in England. We performed at churches and music halls where the acoustics were beyond belief.

Once I got to college, things changed. My priorities shifted from singing to studying and, well, having fun in college. It wasn't until my last semester when I had electives to choose from and I decided to do dance and voice. While I rediscovered my love, I didn't have a venue for it outside of my voice lessons - and I didn't really try to find one. One thing led to another and I graduated and got into the working world and completely lost sight of the joy music and my singing brought to me.

So, thinking about the words of the Carpenters, I decided to get back into the world of singing back in April. I had a recital just about three weeks after I started singing again and sang an Italian aria that I had sung in high school. This past Sunday, I had another recital and decided to sing a song by one of my favorite composers, Cole Porter. His music is so lyrical and is composed so brilliantly. I joked with my voice coach that I feel like I truly found my Sondheim in Cole Porter.

The first time I sang "I've Got You Under My Skin" I knew I had to sing it for my recital piece. It just fit. I'd heard Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble sing it, but I just felt like the song meant something different to me. It's such a beautifully written song and from a woman's perspective, I felt like it needed to a little more romance and less of the upbeat jazziness that Sinatra and Buble brought to it. I love their versions, don't get me wrong, it just resonated with me a little differently. My voice teacher and I wanted to really bring that sultry romantic element to the recital, so we asked her husband to play the tenor trombone as well. It's so fun for me to get to hear it back with the trombone. I loved every minute of my performance and hope you enjoy it as well. One note: the memory card on my camera was full about halfway through the performance, so I had to work some iMovie voodoo magic in order to piece together the missing chunk of music, but hope you enjoy it nonetheless.