my one & only

This summer I went to Baltimore and worked on a movie. I played the part of Tanya, a nightclub singer in the 1953 period flick, “My One & Only” starring Kevin Bacon, Renee Zellwegger and Chris Noth. Kevin’s character, Dan Devereaux is a musician who had a hit with his band “5 years ago” sung by yours truly called, “My One & Only”. I sing the song in a couple of nightclub scenes and have a few more with my boyfriend KB. It was quite an experience acting in a movie for the first time, a bit different than I imagined it would be. Time takes on a different flow than it does in the music world. All in all I’d say I enjoyed the experience but would have to do a few more just to make sure. Mr. KB was very sweet and helpful, picking up that this was my first time on set. I’d say, “What does that mean? What does this mean?” and he patiently clued me in to whatever was going on. The film is scheduled to come out in the fall of ’09.

That’s me as Tanya in the photo above with the musicians who played The Dan Devereaux Band in the film. They are out of Baltimore and are called in real life, THE BLUE MOON BIG BAND. We had a good time messing around with old standard songs between takes, some of which may or may not end up on the extras of the DVD.

This part came my way through my friend Steve Lindsey, the guy in the white shirt next to me in the pic below, who produced my album, “I Confess”. He is the music supervisor on the film and pitched me to the director and producers after I sang the demo of the song for our friend the excellent songwriter, Dillon O’Brien. Thank you Steve!

This is the actual band who recorded the song, “My One & Only” that will be heard in the movie. As I mentioned, Steve Lindsey is to my left in the photo and to my right is Steve’s father, the legendary Mort Lindsey who was for many many years Judy Garland’s arranger. The mischievous looking gent with the white goatee in black tee shirt further to my right with arms folded is Chuck Bergdorfer who played the unforgettable bass line in the Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazlewood classic, “These Boots are Made For Walking.” What a band this is! It was a pleasure to record with them!

Ok, what else….

I sang on a couple film scores this spring, “The Women” and “The Express” for Mark Isham. “The Women” just opened and “The Express” is opening soon. Love those kind of jobs…

Going to New York to do a couple of shows at The Living Room at 11 pm on October 16th and 19th. Gonna play music off of all my albums and do a kind of retrospective, culminating in a live album that I’ll release digitally soon after. Looking forward to these shows. Been working out the songs, some of which I haven’t played in a very long time. My New York band is so good! They all are working all the time and inevitably we can only find time for one rehearsal for my NY shows, but that always adds to the fire.

Back in Los Angeles, on October 25th, I’m doing a set at Genghis Cohen. The new music I’ve been working on is an album of Brenda Lee music. If you’ve never heard her, check her out particularly the songs, “I’m Sorry”, “Break It To Me Gently” and “Jump the Broomstick”. She’s been making records since she was 14 years old and is STILL making music all the time. She came out of the rockabilly world, sang with Elvis, was mentored by Patsy Cline and was said by John Lennon to have the “original rock & roll voice”. So I’ve recorded a few things, and am planning to play ‘em the Genghis Show, maybe solo, or maybe with a band.

Then I’ll be back out with Idina Menzel from October 30th – November 16th doing more US dates. We always have a good time so that should be fun.

Oh here’s a good one: I’ve got a song that’s going to be in the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off, “Private Practice”! The air date is November 5th and the song they are using is the last one on “Songs for Tuesday” called, “Be The Only One.”

And oh yeah, I’M HAVING A BABY!