I remember when my first CD dropped in May of 2002. (It was also the day my dear Auntee Lillian died.)
I was busy in my classroom when two of my coworkers came to the entrance and asked, “Why are you here? Isn’t your CD coming out today?”
I laughed and said, “Uh…because it’s my job, and I like to eat!”
Betty Range and Deloris Brown were on a mission. There was a record store on South Capitol Street, across the street from the school. “Go home and change, and meet us at Willie’s!”
To my surprise, they’d already arranged for someone to cover my classes, enlisted Donald, one of the custodians, to take a table to the store, decorated it, and then waited for me.
When I walked inside Willie’s, the music was playing. It was a little creepy hearing my own voice. The three copies of the CD, that were in the store, had already been sold, but were on the table along with a bouquet of flowers. My coworkers were determined to have a party, regardless.
“Wait a minute”, the manager said, “I’ve seen you! You right here in the neighborhood? This is you? I wish I had known! We would have been ready!”
He made a call, and placed a bulk order of CDs to be delivered overnight. “Oh, we gotta do this right for our own! And you’re a school teacher, too?”
He kept his promise. It seemed as if every day for the rest of the school year, a coworker, parent, or student dropped by my classroom to get their CD signed. The students, whose names I included in the liner notes, were beside themselves.
I don’t know if it all really registered. I’d recorded before with others, but this time, I was on the cover— (hair not exactly neat, face not exactly beat, and wearing my favorite Dress Barn leather jacket), but I’d never had any aspirations to be a recording artist. I just liked to sing, liked and admired the people I’d worked with, and appreciated the opportunity. I figured I’d had fun in Detroit, checked another thing off of my bucket list, and it was back to my real job— the one that was consistent and paid the bills.
I tried to forget what Steve Ford said after the studio work was over: “Oh, you’re not done! Now you have to sing these songs.” All I could think was how impossible it would be to replicate the band.
It had been so safe just being in the booth. To this day, I could spend all day in a studio, and actually prefer that to live performances.
The project debuted at number 10 that day in May, and the AOL instant messages trickled in. Someone who had a subscription to Billboard, bought me a magazine. More than one, more knowledgeable music industry friend, congratulated me on charting. “Is that good?”, I asked. They all laughed at me. It just wasn’t the kind of thing I kept up with.
On June, 29, 2002, the CD peaked at number 7 on Billboard. I had no idea what any of that meant…lol… I told myself that maybe people bought it sight unseen, thinking it was the music of my famous, wealthy namesake, the former Miss America.
I was an art teacher, and my knowledge of the business of music was slim. I got quite the crash course, however. There are aspects that still aren’t my cup of tea, and so many supposedly "necessary" requirements, and "normal" parts of the territory that I wish I’d known about, but I look back, smile, and realize it’s been 19 years. I can still sing if I want to. There’s still something tangible out there that's a testament to the creative and collaborative work that was done. There’s a small body of work for consumers to buy, stream, or for YouTube users to preview, that proves I got over my anxiety, apprehension, and fear. I tried my hand at something new; I put myself into the hands of others, and it allowed me to use skills I didn’t know I’d been prepared to execute. It taught me that, perhaps, I really did have something to offer, I wasn’t too old, and it wasn’t too late. I hadn’t missed my opportunity, and could emerge, for a little while, from the very, very safe, comfortable comfort zone that was my Art classroom, and do the other thing I love so much--sing.
If you’d like to take a listen, click on the link below.🙂
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