My Latest Update

I've almost finished my ebook and book Singing Live: The Performing Skills Guidebook for Contemporary Singers. I tried to cram everything I could think of about performing into it. Since I coach everyone from country stars to full-on punkers to American Idol hopefuls to whatever, I tried hard to make it useful for singers in every popular style.

Once I've finished Singing Live I'm working on a follow-up to Harmony Singing by Ear. If you are one of the singers working with that and want to make requests or give feedback, now's the time to write me. This one will be a little harder than the first one so singers can keep progressing with their harmonizing skills.

My song Finally Love was cut by an amazing new artist named Emma Mae Jacob. Watch out for her. As I write this the song is on her myspace page if you want to hear her version. The one on my page was sung by my former student Hillary Scott, who is doing great things with her band Lady Antebellum--their Capital Records debut album was released in April and they had the number one song on the country charts in May.

Tom is happily producing away. When he gets a breather he hopes to do some more solo gigs, and when I get a breather I hope to do a new solo album.

One less thing to whine about: Trader Joe's is coming to Nashville this fall! No more schlepping a cooler when I fly west to visit my father. Maybe the online petition (see my older update below) actually worked. If so, then today's message is to be a squeaky wheel. Use your voice. Sing a song, make a difference, and vote this fall!

I don't have time just now to add to my book and music list so please see below for my older recommendations. So far this year my favorite book has been The Brambles by Eliza Minot, my favorite album is Salvation in Lights by Mike Farris--if you can see the latter live do so, you will not believe this guy's voice.

The Update Before That

Yes, that picture of me in the corner has finally been updated. As much as I loved how good I looked in the last one (which was taken by my LA photographer friends Tracy Talbert and Michael Larsen), it was ten years old. This newer one was taken when I played the Bluebird Cafe in November 2007. My photographer buddy Trin Blakely, who also took the photos for my solo CD and for Singing With Style, came through once again.

We're still wearing several hats around here. I've been writing and recording lots of songs, teaching away, running Zanna Discs and occasionally playing out. I'm also working on a book of tips about performing, and very slowly working on a sequel to 'Harmony Singing by Ear'. Both should appear sometime in 2008.

Tom finished his new instrumental album and it's fantastic. You can hear sound clips here. He's mostly using it as a promotional tool, but if you want a copy let us know.

My former student Hillary Scott is in the studio with her band Lady Antebellum, recording their first CD for Capitol Records, Victoria Shaw and Paul Worley producing. Go Hillary!

We now have a page with all of our more pitchable songs here, as opposed to our songs we wrote for ourselves to sing that you'll find spread throughout this site. Since that's a lot of songs to wade through I put a few of my recent favorites here.

There is still no Trader Joe's here in Nashville, darn. Whole Foods just does not do it for me. Some brilliant soul created an online petition begging TJ's to come here, if you live here too please sign it. Everyone deserves to eat cheap organic food and TJ's has it.

Danced the cha-cha with my friend Cathy in a Bethesda parking lot.
Went to a baptist revival meeting.
Bicycled to all of the monuments in Washington DC.
Threw my father a combo 80th birthday/wedding reception--he married his new love Joyce after meeting her via Craigslist!
Went swing dancing in Centennial Park at the end of the Nashville summer and didn't pass out from the heat.
Answered phones for a Nashville Public Television fundraiser--I was one of those people in the background during the dreaded pledge-break.
Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.
Went to a gallery opening and stood next to Al Gore.
Threw a "sing thing" vocals-only jam session.
Taught my dog how to swim. Actually I just threw a ball in the lake and she figured it out.

Books, Music, Films

Favorite books of the last twelve months:

Some older book recommendations:

Here are some films we liked last year that you might have missed:

Talk To Me

The Lives of Others

Away From Her

Older News: Feb 2007 Update

2006 was a busy, full and sometimes sad year. My mother finally lost her 2 1/2 year fight with breast cancer in the spring of 2006. She stayed brave, funny and philosophical throughout, but she was tired and very ready to go when it was time. That made it easier to let her go. But I miss her, though she was a crotchety atheist who scoffed at the afterlife, I still think she's hanging around my house wishing I'd comb my hair more.

Several months later Tom and I flew to California to pick up a car and all of Mom's sewing stuff I'd inherited--years ago I used to sew for living, though now I need to be drugged or bribed to even sew on a button. Then we schlepped back across the country, stopping to visit friends along the way. There's nothing like a cross-country drive to help say goodbye to a departed mother and to get some perspective on one's life. We found a great cow skull in Santa Fe, named him Slim. Discovered La Posada in Winslow, AZ (no, we didn't stand on the corner) -- it's a beautifully restored hotel full of history and really great art courtesy of Tina Mion, artist-in-residence. We saw a lot of restlessness -- many of our friends are changing their lives, fleeing their cities for smaller towns, or just asking the big questions about what they are doing. After seeing so much of the country our feeling that Nashville is a great place to live was reaffirmed, despite it's lack of a Trader Joe's. Just as well that we decided this because we discovered in LA that our beloved funky old home where we'd lived for ten years had been sold again and then demolished to make way for a mansion. You really can't go home again.

After we returned we finally completed and released Singing with Style , my latest instructional project. On this one I got to sing a bunch of great jazz standards, talk about voice technique and yack about a whole bunch of ways to stylize a vocal. I've been using it every day to warm up since Artie the dog still howls in agony if I sing scales. Meanwhile, Harmony Singing By Ear has become the big seller of late, acing out You Can Close Your Eyes .

Tom's studio business went nuts last year so he's been working like crazy on nashville recording projects and projects for his Demos By Mail clients. He managed to squeeze in a few shows to promote his CD Tom Manche and the Meanderthals , and he licensed some of his instrumentals to LucasFilms and the Chatanooga wing of NPR. He's now working on a CD of instrumentals.

One of my Susan's Room songs, No Guarantee, made it's way onto "Days of Our Lives" last year. Meanwhile I continue to write as much as possible, play around town and do the Nashville songwriting ramble.

I'm on Myspace now--there might be some more recent updates and photos there.

As some of you know, in the fall of 2002 Tom and I up and moved from Los Angeles to Nashville, Tennessee. We bought a house on the west side on an acre of woods, set up Studio X on this side of the country and dove head-first into our new life here. Here's what we have found:

• Really nice people.
• More songwriters than you can shake a stick at.
• Manic-depressive weather.
• World-class live music--country, jazz, R&B, alternative, the works. Too bad most of the clubs are not smoke-free, but there's always the Bluebird Cafe.

Here's what we have learned:

• Always keep an umbrella in the car. Remember, we spent years in Los Angeles before this.
• When you say "insurance" the inflection is on the "in-".
• All children, cats and dogs are taught to say "ma'am" by age three. Still makes me feel like an old lady, but there it is.
• Stop worrying about earthquakes. Worry about tornados instead.
• Insects the size of your fist really do exist, and they want to come inside your house.

• Our west coast friends. Could you all move here, please?
• The ocean.
• Trader Joe's. Why oh why can't they open one here?
• Warmer winters. Tom is from Ohio and doesn't care, but I'm still a wimpy California girl.

Susan's Room is now spread across America: Albe is in LA (and has welcomed his adorable mini-albe son Dante), Ritt is in NY, and we are here in Nashville. So no Susan's Room gigs to announce, I'm afraid. Tom and I are both writing loads of songs and play out pretty frequently in Nashville--email either of us if you want to be on our local gig email list.