Come Saturday Morning

We’re at it again this Saturday. Miss Laurel, Miss Wendy Lane, and the unflappable Tex Arnold are heading out to the Wilds of Jersey (Edison to be exact) to spend an afternoon working with singers. If you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to beef up your performance chops, there may be a space left in the workshop with your name on it. If you’ve ever wondered what these classes were all, about you can take advantage of a new option we’re trying with this one: auditing. For $20 you can come, sit in a comfy theatre seat and observe the goings on. It’s a great opportunity to check it out. If you’d like more info on participating or auditing drop a line or call (646-831-0359) Park Road Management. We’re waiting to hear from you!

Ease on Down the Road

Braving blizzards, transit trains and the New Jersey Turnpike we set off last weekend for my appointed gigs. First up was the Metropolitan Room in New York City. After spending the first half of the week in blissful rehearsal with Michele Brourman, I lay awake all Thursday night listening to the wind howl and the snow fall (yes, if you’re really listening you can actually hear it fall) and wondering who in their right mind would venture out in the worst storm of the year just to hear me sing. Ah, but New Yorkers are a hardy lot and we ended up with two lovely and enthusiastic audiences. We had a fine time delving deeper into the material that Michele and I had begun to develop in LA over the summer. The addition of Miss Laurel for two numbers was the icing on the cake. For me, there is nothing better than making music with people who are not just great musicians but also dear friends. The relationship the three of us have off-stage has only served to make the music that much better.

Miss Laurel, Me & Michele after the 10:00 Show at Blues Alley. Thanks Michael M. for the snap!

By Sunday morning the weather had cleared and we hopped into the car, pointed it south, and set off for DC. My friends Alex Tang and Bob Bagnall allowed us to invade their gorgeous historic house in the Kalorama section of the city. We were provided with comfy beds, vegetable frittatas for breakfast and all the Girl Scout cookies we could eat. I wondered if they’d notice if we took up permanent residence on their third floor. Michael Miyazaki and Ron Squeri provided us with a wonderful evening-before-the-show supper that included several of my longtime DC pals. Michael and another DC friend Matt Howe provided me with the only pictures from this run of gigs, for which I will be eternally grateful. It was wonderful to be back on the stage at Blues Alley. The audience was filled with many old friends, and some of my very first mentors. The whole experience was like coming home. It was difficult to leave, but we’ll be back soon!

Me on-stage at Blues Alley...Photo courtesy of Matt Howe

On Tuesday we staggered to the car and up the Jersey turnpike to home, slightly the worse for wear but thrilled at the work we did. Many many many thanks to the top notch staffs of the Metropolitan Room and Blues Alley, especially Ted Stafford (Met Room) and Robby Cooper (Blues Alley) who gave us great lights and sound. I am grateful to everyone who came out to cheer us one. Thank you! It was a delight to sing for you. We are making plans to do this again in the near future, so keep watching this space for dates. Some nice people even wrote a bit about the shows, you can check out their thoughts HERE, & HERE, & HERE.


And before I forget, I’ve gotten some requests for the song list so here it is:

I feel Lucky Mary Chapin Carpenter / Don Schlitz

Walking after Midnight Donald Hecht

I Got Lucky in the Hall Marshall Barer / Dean Fuller

Breathing /So In Love Amanda Mcbroom / Michele Brourman
Cole Porter

Round Amanda McBroom / Joel Silberman

Lucky Break Melissa Manchester / Beth Nielsen Chapman

Once in a Blue Moon /Night Ride Home Anne Caldwell / Jerome Kern
Joni Mitchell

It’s Never Perfect Shelia Rae / Michele Brourman

Monotonous June Carroll / Arthur Siegel

Silver Heart/ Shut Up and Drive Michele Brourman
Melvern Rivers Rutherford III / Annie Tate / Sam M. Tate

Sometimes More is More Michele Brourman

Ring of Fire June Carter / Merle Kilgore

Independence Day Gretchen Peters

A Mother’s Prayer Melissa Manchester

The Pleasure Principle

They, who are omniscient, say that to get people to read your blog you must titillate them, pepper them with details of your scandalous deeds, your darkest secrets, and throw in those of your friends while you’re at it. Ooops. Your Redheads left their attempts at scandal behind them once we realized that Versace doesn’t make sheer garments we like, and trying to become Paris Hilton’s BFF was just too large an assault on our collective dignity. We do have some guilty pleasures though, things that are so embarrassing that if they were known far and wide our faces would match our follicles. BUT in the name of internet popularity we’ve decided to share with you just a few of the things in which, when no one is looking, we indulge. Please don’t judge us too harshly…

Wendy Lane:

Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies DVD’s: I know, it’s not cool, it’s not hip, but I just can’t help myself. When it’s cold outside and I can’t get out for my daily three mile constitutional there’s something really great about exercising with this sadistic little elf. He’s funny, he’s supportive, he picks great tunes, and you never get the feeling that he’s judging your décor. Besides, the people in his videos look like real people, not gym toned androids who’ve never tasted a baked good. Can twenty million people really be wrong?



Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups: This is the wound which keeps me from being a true foodie. I love European chocolate, and will happily spend hours and hundreds of dollars at Murray’s Artisanal Cheeses, but sometimes only the salty waxy taste of the original Reese’s will do. I’ve tried the upscale versions and keep coming back to the original.


Project Runway: American Idol makes me nervous, and the rest of the Reality TV makes me queasy. But Project Runway is special. Potato sacks, spare car parts, or items from D’Agostino’s produce department are turned into fashion for fun and prizes. The next day when I should be spinning around in my chair composing pithy prose or rehearsing for upcoming gigs I’m second- guessing the judges and comparing opinions on my favorite Runway-related blog Tom & Lorenzo. If only they’d do an "Outfit the Redheaded Singer" challenge I’d be set!

 Laurel:

 Spelling mistakes in public places, which can lead to hilarious unintended meanings. For example, I was just in a small take-out coffee place in the theater district where a handwritten sign said "Restrooms for costumers only". I guess the props folks are out of luck. Down the block, there is a sandwich board outside a faux-French restaurant, advertising the "pre-fixed" dinner. I sure hope that meal is dated...

Hulu and YouTube. "I don't watch television," I murmur. "I read a lot." The second half is true. I do read quite a lot. But the first half is only literally true. I do not own a TV, and haven't owned one for over a decade, so I cannot watch one. But I knew ten years ago that I would someday be able to watch shows directly on my home computer. That someday is now today, and that is how I have come to be addicted to Bones, House, Grey's Anatomy and Doc Martin on Hulu.com, and to any number of British shows and old movies chopped up into 9-minute segments on YouTube.

Rereading English murder mysteries, though I already know "whodunit". And, very specifically, Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, because Lord Peter is so much smarter and more articulate than everyone else around him (except that dratted Harriet Vane who finally snagged him). Which makes him quite romantic to me, especially when I have bronchitis or the flu, which is when I tend to read these things. I love it it when Lord Peter erupts into French, which he only does in the throes of passion. And of course nothing inspires a man to sweep into the flat and make mad, passionate French love to a woman more than that woman having a runny nose and a cough that sounds like a seal barking. Mais oui!


We know we’re not alone, you’ve got a skeleton or two rattling around and we want to hear about it. What are your guilty pleasures; we’ve shown you ours, now it’s your turn.

Girls’ Night(s) Out

Melissa Manchester, Michele Brourman, Me, and Amanda McBroom Post show at the Gardenia

The Gardenia gig was delightful! Michele Brourman and I put together a terrific set of songs from some of our favorite composers including Gretchen Peters, June Carter Cash, Joni Mitchell, Amanda McBroom, Michele herself and Melissa Manchester. Ms. Manchester even showed up at the club with her mother to hear me sing her delicious songs Lucky Break (written with Beth Nielsen Chapman) and Mother’s Prayer. If you think it’s daunting having one composer in the room try having THREE, but I couldn’t have asked for a more supportive cheering section. Amanda McB joined me for a duet on Michele and Sheila Rae’s tune It’s Never Perfect and a trio with Michele and me on Monotonous. Many friends old and new dropped by including composers Shelly Markham and Ray Jessel, singer Anne Kerry Ford, my very best friend from high school Cindy Banescu, and my newlywed cousin Elizabeth Mucci, who brought her new hubby along for my approval. Many many many debts of gratitude are owed to Tom Rolla and the Gardenia staff, my friends Jason Graae and Glen Fretwell who provided me with a lovely temporary home in the Hollywood hills, Miss Laurel back on the East Coast who is a never-ending fount of wisdom and sanity, Amanda McBroom who sang my praises and worked the phones getting people to come out to see us, and last but never least my partner in song Michele Brourman, whose awe-inspiring talent and support make me feel I can do anything! We’re eagerly anticipating our return.

Someday Soon

My people are not a portable people. A trip to the corner store requires an oversize tote bag containing at least two books, a spare pair of shoes, three shades of lipstick and two and a half pounds of loose change. I’ve come to accept this about myself, and I appreciate the lovely shoulder muscles that have developed from schlepping my paraphernalia all over town. My portability powers will be sorely tried this summer as I get ready to make a couple of trips out to the West Coast. I understand that Continental Airlines only lets you have one fifty pound bag and then they ask for a kidney and your first born child. Ah, but lest you think I protest too much…All this schlepage is for a good cause. I’ll be spending time on the Other Coast working on a brand new set of tunes to be debuted at the Gardenia in West Hollywood on September 4th and 5th.

I’ll also be working with a brand new set of collaborators. I have wanted to work with Michele Brourman for a very long time, and I’m thrilled that we’ve finally found the time and a venue to do it. Michele is an arranger, composer, pianist and vocalist with exquisite taste. We have been having a grand time pitching ideas back and forth. Right now we’re working whittling the song list down from the forty or so songs we absolutely love to an hour’s worth of material. Obviously packing light isn’t my only issue, although in my defense we started out with eighty.

Two of my other favorite Angelinos will be making guest appearances. Singer/Songwriter Amanda McBroom will pop in for a song or two, as will the insanely talented Jason Graae. I am a lucky girl to have such gifted and generous friends!

And now…back to packing and song whittling!

Once Upon a Summertime

Being languid creatures by nature, we redheads often dream of spending summer poolside, sipping exotic drinks and reading high-minded tomes whilst being waited upon by handsome (yet learned) pool boys. Alas, we burn at the slightest touch of sunlight, and have some serious habits to support like eating and paying the rent. Exit one fantasy, enter more fulfilling pursuits. We’re quite looking forward to spending much of the next two months teaching and coaching performers. Together we’ll be doing master classes for singers of all stripes in Delaware on July 11th and in the Philadelphia area on July 18th. Even better still Rick Jensen, composer, pianist, arranger, and mensch (that’s Yiddish for one hip cat) will be joining us in these excursions. We promise luculent and coruscating pedagogy for all. (That’s intellectual speak for we’ll be easy to understand and really funny. We just discovered Eric’s Lexicon of Obscure and Cool Words, and are dying to try out a few).

In addition to our joint pursuits we’ve got a few other things going on. For Miss Laurel that means her annual teaching stints at Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camp and The Cabaret Conference at Yale University. While at Yale she’ll be sharing the bill with Amanda McBroom for an evening of great tunes on Saturday, August 1st. Miss Wendy Lane will be heading off in the opposite direction to spend some time in L.A. working on a new project, the details of which will be spilled in abundance very soon.

Along the way, we’ll be filing reports, posting photos, and sharing it all with you. You can always keep track of our whereabouts by checking out the “Where in the World are the Redheads” section of the blog, in its usual spot to the right of this column. Have a salubrious summer! (there we go again…)

XO

Your Redheads

PS The fabu photo came from another one of our favorite sites My Vintage Vogue. A great inspiration for stylish daydreams.

A Most Unusual Gig

Miss Wendy Lane Welcomes you to her fabulous dressing house

My friend Michelle O, when not trying to kill me through physical fitness, is often the source of inspired lunacy. So when she asked me to be the featured performer at a benefit for her foundation, I said yes at once. After all, there were no golf clubs or tennis rackets involved. This is how my intrepid pianist Rick Jensen and I found ourselves performing in the middle of a furniture store and sharing a bill with former New York Giants (I am told this is a football team) Ottis Anderson, Jim Burt, Harry Carson, and Bart Oates.

Wendy Lane auditions new back-up singers. Super Bowl XXV MVP Ottis Anderson is on the right.

Lest you think this is a bad thing let me say that, first of all, it was a VERY NICE furniture store, and second we were all pitching in to support the Colleen Giblin Foundation and their mission of pediatric neurological research. A variety of folks donated their time and talents to make this evening a success, starting with Joe, Marcia and Mark Bograd and Mark Thomas, who opened the doors of Bograd's Fine Furniture, for this event, and provided for Rick and me not just a dressing room, but a dressing HOUSE. Our very own two story Victorian with pressed tin ceilings, and lovely antiques.

Rick gets ready for his close-up in the dressing house

We were having such a great time staging an impromptu photo session in our digs we almost missed our entrance. A big Redhead smooch to event co-sponsors New Jersey Monthly Magazine, and Fiore Associates, as well as, Meg Minasian, and Michelle Oates of the Gilblin Foundation, and our wonderful tech guys Kaipo Bridges and Jason Small. It was a marvelous party, and we were honored to be part of it.

Wendy Lane & Rick on-stage

Wendy Lane, Ottis Anderson, and Michelle Oates having way too much fun

Thursday Morning Motivation

It wasn’t the beautiful spring weather, or the weekend overdose of chocolate bunnies I could feel gathering around my waist that got me out of the house this morning. Nope. It was the chance to exercise with RuPaul. Alas, not the real RuPaul, but RuRu’s new album Champion. An atypical recommendation from one of your Redheads? Perhaps. But any album that makes you feel like you’re stalking down a catwalk rather than pounding the pavement in tres unattractive shoes on an endless quest to fit into the series of little black dresses you must wear to upcoming events is worth its weight in mascara.

By the way, two of those little black dress worthy events coming up would be Miss. Laurel’s gig at the Land of the Bird on April 27th, and my warbling in NJ to benefit pediatric neurology on May 7th. For those details look to the right of this column, we’re looking forward to seeing you. In the meantime…anyone for a catwalk?

How I Spent My Summer Vacation… PLUS… October's Reader Challenge…..

It would seem a bit odd that only now when most normal people are deciding which presidential candidate to impersonate for Halloween am I getting around to this post. However, with all of our running here and there over the past few weeks I kept getting delayed and here we are. So without any further delay on my part… my summer story….

After six years of administrating a summer conference for singers I announced my intention of taking the summer off. This was met with varied reactions from skepticism to confusion and in the case of my friend Michelle, a plot to kill me. Michelle is my “sporty” friend, gorgeous, all of five feet tall, and one hundred pounds soaking wet, but I’d never be fool enough to bet against her in a fight. She’s fierce, and burns near as many calories as Michael Phelps on a typical day. I’ve seen her eat her six foot six former pro football playing husband under the table when dessert was involved and still fit perfectly into a size four. Life is not fair. Upon hearing that I would be taking time off she announced that idle hands were the devil’s (or maybe Jenny Craig’s) workshop and that she was going to take charge of ensuring that I spend the summer attempting to do all the things I’ve never done before. Namely, golf, tennis, mountain biking, and horse back riding, with a bit of yoga thrown in for good measure. A few trips to the local ER and one near death experience quickly convinced me that I was not cut out for the sporting life and that the better part of valor would be for me to return to the world where I belonged. In this case the recording studio where all I would have to hit would be the correct notes and chances of accidental dismemberment were far less likely. So I ensconced myself in the small recording studio at Rick Jensen’s and worked on putting some of my favorite tunes and arrangements on the record. With Rick acting as arranger, and producer, Miss. Laurel advising, doing some of the co-producing and a back up vocal here and there, and my friend Lisa Poulos providing a few additional harmonies we had a grand old time. I have worked on other people’s recordings and that has always been great, but it’s nothing like doing your own thing.With Rick and Laurel I couldn't ask for better creative partners and that makes it all the more fun. I love being in the studio, and I am looking to do some more recording over the next year. In the meantime, we have been working on getting things mixed and up onto my website( http://www.wendylanebailey.com/) a tune at a time. I’ll keep you posted as things develop, and I hope you enjoy what we’ve done so far. Remember it keeps me safe and off the golf course. Alas, Michelle has not yet given up on her plan. She keeps trying to lure me back to sports with the promise that this gives me the perfect excuse to get a whole new shoe wardrobe. Any shoe that involves a rubber sole is not worth dying for. There are pictures of my sporting odyssey but I fear the world is not ready for snaps of me wielding a gold club.

All of this brings me to our October giveaway…..

First the prize: This month we’re giving away a CD devised especially for our winner with two tracks by yours truly and two by Miss. Laurel. To win you won’t even have to perform any feats of athletic prowess you just have to participate in something we Redheads are calling The 0-10 Challenge. We’re looking for cultural stuff to do that costs less than $10. All you have to do is write in with your suggestions for great entertainment that fall within that price range. Over the course of the month we’ll check them out and write about some of our favorites. The very best one (or maybe even two) will be declared our winner and gets a CD with us warbling away. Not in the NYC area? Not a problem, share some of the fun things going on in your neck of the woods that meet our criteria and you’ll be eligible too. You have till Halloween to get your entries in, so get out there and find some cheap thrills!

Sunday in the Theatre with Jason

I spent this past weekend with two of my favorite men on the planet, the amazingly talented, and awfully darn nice Jason Graae and Rick Jensen. Jason, one of the funniest humans I have ever met, flew in from LA to do a gig in the wilds of New Jersey, and he invited me to come along as a special guest artist. Knowing a good time is always to be had when one is with Mr. Graae I leaped at the chance. My pal Rick, composer, arranger, accompanist and all round good egg was at the keyboard for this one. It was a great gig! Jason never fails to make me laugh uproariously even after having seen and worked with him many times over the past few years. He is a master of making every moment feel fresh and spontaneous. There are always a few delightful surprises when he's on the stage. With Rick keeping up with him on the ivories much beautiful music was made. I got to sing and be silly, and it was all bliss!!!!!

Here are some snaps of my wonderful weekend...

Jason and Me: Putting our heads together

Rick & Jason: If you see these two on a stage you know you're in for a good time!