DEBBIE CUNNINGHAM
On the final track of her critically acclaimed solo debut The Rest Of Your Life, Nashville based singer-songwriter Debbie Cunningham creates a hauntingly intimate piano and vocal arrangement to once again pose the timeless question originated nearly 40 years ago by Michel Legrand and Marilyn & Alan Bergman: “What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life?” For the multi-talented, classically trained artist and performer, the answer, looking ahead through 2009 and beyond, is simple: continue to captivate audiences everywhere with her cool and sultry yet heartfelt and emotionally powerful blend of jazz, blues and swing.
Caught up in a joyfully crazy whirlwind of writing, recording and performing since the release of the album in 2007, Cunningham is, after too many years of putting her truest heart on the back burner, at last taking charge of her musical destiny and realizing a lifelong dream. After eight years as a traveling and studio vocalist, she took a ten year hiatus from the industry music to raise her young son and daughter before enrolling in the Nashville Jazz Workshop in 2005-06—a truly life changing experience where she honed her formidable chops as a charismatic live performer and studied with acclaimed jazz artists Lori Mechem, Beegie Adair, Jeff Hall, producer/arranger Jeff Steinberg and vocal coach Ron Browning (whose clients include Wynonna Judd).
Hitting the ground running on her career, the Massachusetts born, Central Pennsylvania raised singer had barely graduated from the program when she recorded and released an album that Cunningham’s growing legion of fans called “soulful, sultry and smooth…delicate, delicious…elegant and sophisticated…lyrical and intimate…engaging” and, even more to the emotional-spiritual point, like musical “Botox for the soul.”
A wonderfully eclectic jazz trio, swing and bossa styled mix of Great American Songbook covers (“My Funny Valentine,” “What’s New,” “Our Love Is Here To Stay”), pop standards (“The Way He Makes Me Feel,” “Overjoyed”) and one original (the Diana Krall styled bossa nova “How Much I Love You”), The Rest Of Your Life reunited her in Philadelphia with longtime friend and fellow Temple University alum, jazz pianist Barry Sames, who played on and produced the album. Knowing of Cunningham’s great love for jazz standards and the music of Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett and Herb Alpert when she was growing up, Sames began encouraging her jazz aspirations many years earlier, when she was studying for her B.A. in Vocal Performance.
The industry buzz around The Rest of Your Life has been equally compelling. Critic Mut Asheru from Unsigned: The Magazine recently wrote: “What a glorious sound Debbie makes on this album…What I love about this album is her vocal fearlessness…There are hundreds of ‘My Funny Valentine’ renditions floating around and her sassy version is rather refreshing…each of the 11 tracks are on absolute elegant treat. Greg Lee, Program/Music Director for WMOT-FM, Jazz-89 Nashville adds, “Some singers’ entire careers are spent searching for that delicate, delicious connection with their listeners when a song becomes an intimate statement one is
compelled to hear. Debbie Cunningham grabbed it right from the start.” Cunningham also scored major write ups in the international women’s magazine More and in Jazz Magazine Italy, which included “The Way He Makes Me Feel” on one of its compilations.
In addition to the amazing press, Cunningham has won over countless jazz fans in and around her adopted hometown of Nashville and beyond with the passionate live performances she plays with her trio. In 2008, she was chosen to perform at the Nashville run of the international female artist showcase Chick Singer Night. In addition to that show at the French Quarter Café, she has entertained audiences of up to 300 at Nashville’s Schermerhorn Symphony Center, regional hotspots like F. Scott’s jazz restaurant in Green Hills, Criallo’s in Franklin, the Palace Theatre in Crossville and Wine Down Main Street, a fundraiser for Boys & Girls Clubs of America, also in Franklin.
Currently focused on expanding her gig schedule beyond her current “local hero” status—she has thus far done one private concert in the Washington, D.C. area—Cunningham is also eager to play more shows and use her music to benefit her favorite charities, including Shared Hope International (which helps rescue and rehabilitate domestic and international victims of sex trafficking) and Samaritan’s Purse Heart Project (which offers financial medical assistance to children in need).
“I’ve always believed that finding that intimate connection with the audience is the key part of being a successful artist and performer,” says Cunningham. “When I perform these standards and the new songs I am working on for my upcoming second album, they know I’ve lived a lot of the lyrics. I’m not 15 singing about a lifetime love…I’ve been married over twenty years, am raising a wonderful family and have a colorful personal history that includes a great reverence for those artists who are part of jazz history. I love bringing happiness into people’s lives through music. We are living in stressful times and the songs I perform give them a chance to relax and decompress. I offer a place where they can enjoy themselves and unplug from the world for an evening. It’s a joy and an honor sharing that experience with them.”