
‘for the LOVE of Music” with Sara Troy and her guest DEEANN, on air from July 23rd
It’s My Time. In 2015, years after setting aside her larger musical dreams to dedicate herself to raising a family, multi-talented singer/songwriter, DeeAnn is back to create her legacy. Her latest album It’s My Time, currently receiving National airplay with Neal Sapper, New World n Jazz and featuring three original songs amidst a mix of folk, pop and jazz classics, is the latest manifestation of the Niagara Falls, NY native’s renewed vision of her life.
The singer laid the foundation for her newly burgeoning career with her cleverly titled 2017 collection Desperately Seeking DeeAnn, which was produced by contemporary jazz bassist, RiShon Odel (Brian Culbertson, Najee). When her father, popular Buffalo area jazz performer Frank DiMeo, learned she was finally embracing what he felt was her destiny as a jazz singer, he was thrilled. Though she had previously sung pop and country professionally, he was the one who introduced her as a little girl to the music of Ella Fitzgerald and his favorite, Sarah Vaughan.
To pay tribute to her dad’s influence, DeeAnn invited him to sing two duets with her (“Unforgettable” and “Fly Me to the Moon”). The collection also featured the blues and jazz influenced original tune, “Everybody’s Got a Story”, whose chorus served as her life’s new mission statement: “Everybody’s Got a Story/Everybody’s got a cross to bear/Everybody’s got something to say/So shine the light and spread your love.” The following year, DeeAnn was honored to be inducted into the Niagara Falls Music Hall of Fame.
The singer soon had a painful story to tell. The tragedy of losing her 23-year-old son William Michael Tompkins to a motorcycle accident, after she and Odel had completed most of the tracks of “It’s My Time’ threw DeeAnn’s life into a tailspin and delayed the project indefinitely. Her original concept was to record an album of old standards, and the two had 90 percent of them.
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When DeeAnn came back to the project she added a few new, very personal songs, starting with a heartrending, gospel-influenced version of “You Are My Sunshine”, a song she sang to William to put him to sleep when he was a child. Odel’s sensitive yet rousing and inspirational production features members of the Buffalo Philharmonic String Quartet (Roman Mekhulnov).
Another original tune she added, the soulful ballad, “A Little Romance,” is a homage to the “angels” who helped her during her lowest points: “You help me pray, when my faith is shaken/You give me hope, help my soul awaken.” The other originals are the passionate love ballad “Here to Stay” and “Writing on the Wall,” a whimsical, hard hitting, brassy blues-rock breakup song, a duet with Mick Hayes that balances the poignancy of the album.
The other tracks on It’s My Time reveal DeeAnn as a masterful song interpreter and storyteller who turns words and melodies of legendary writers and artists into her own emotional narratives. Drawing from a wide range of styles and eras, these include “Blue Skies,” “Summertime,” “Killing Me Softly,” “My Funny Valentine,” “Nearness of You” and “Fine and Mellow.”
Hailing from a small steel town outside of Buffalo, DeeAnn was raised in a musical family, learning standards that would eventually become part of her repertoire. In addition to the smooth vocal stylings of her father Frank, she was inspired early on by Buffalo Blue Note legend, DoDo Green and attended multiple jazz jams. During her early days as a pop/rock singer, she won Best Female Vocalist at the Buffalo Music Awards two years in a row. Her later success as a country artist earned her placements on numerous radio CD compilations, resulting in airplay throughout the U.S and Europe. When she returned to music as a jazz-blues singer in the mid-2010’s, she won Best Female Blues Vocalist at the Buffalo Night Life Music Awards and her 2019 EP Stay Here won Best Jazz CD from JazzBuffalo.org.
Tony Zambito, Executive Director of JazzBuffalo, says, “DeeAnn is not only a soulful powerhouse, but also a superb storyteller who’s emotionally charged performances create a deeply personal and wonderful listening experience for audiences. Whether interpreting timeless classics or presenting her own originals, DeeAnn captivates listeners with her heartfelt delivery and genuine connection, making each concert and listen truly memorable.”
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Kim’s bliss is to bring forth images that move someone on the deepest level, as much as a poem can. One of her greatest joys has been hearing from those who have had a visceral, uplifting or cathartic experience just by gazing at one of her photographs. She marries her photographs to her poetry and sometimes one of her photographs will inspire one of her poems.
Prologue to The Taste of Freedom, A Poetic Prosaic Photographic Journey © by Kim Karrington Cartwright Having had many mystical experiences since I was a child I was able to experience in this one life, seeming lifetimes of experiences, which all related in one way or another to learning to save and value me as much as I saved and valued others. I have encountered and been exposed to a plethora of human emotions, trauma, heartache, injury, and loss. So that is why I brought forth the books, to help people live in this world and face the challenges from a standpoint of Practical Spirituality which is based in authenticity, compassion, integrity, intuition, catharsis, release and understanding. It is a realistic, feasible, and doable process to address day to day issues from a soul-filled and spiritual standpoint while still living the human experience with all its majesty, sensations, and challenges. It is bridging and balancing the seen and the unseen, the local (microcosm) and non-local (macrocosm), time and space and timeless and space-less, the mundane and the divine and making peace with the paradox of existence and ostensible duality. This Book Trilogy is all about helping people find and live in a state of freedom, contentment, and value and treating the individual with respect and dignity throughout the journey, honoring his or her emotions and processes in a kind, deep, expansive, insightful and supportive way. Sometimes people make other people feel bad, telling them that if they were only more “grateful for” and “positive about” what they were going through, it wouldn’t be happening. Or they should “Just Forgive, Forget” even while in the midst and fury of the trauma as they are “holding on to being mistreated” and “responsible for keeping it going”. This sometimes initiates resistance in the person being told this as the words can be used or implied in a way that makes them feel more separated versus whole and utterly unsupported. They start hiding and burying their feelings and emotions to seem more “spiritual” and fit in. Conflict ensues as they are not being true to themselves and mini volcanoes start to erupt within which eventually pour out as energy into their lives. That energy brings in events, people, and circumstances on the outside, in their daily life, that then forces them to address the emotions, feelings, and issues that they were trying to deny and suppress to be accepted by others. In reality, the process of forgiving helps free the injured person more than the individual who needs forgiving. The “victim” no longer has to emotionally carry the full weight of the deeds or crimes because of the unprocessed grief and unresolved injustice of the experience. Forgiveness is a process of letting go to be free, and it blesses both sides when that energy is released. The blessing of gratitude, acknowledging all that there is to be thankful for, is something wonderful and life-affirming but it needs to come more from within than without. You cannot pressure someone to be “more grateful.” I have found that if people are approached more from a standpoint of bringing them back to LOVE, self-worth, self-love, and their inherent value as connected to a divine source, a beneficent universe, there is less resistance and more flow and healing. Their energy can shift because their minds are not creating a defense mechanism making them feel like they are “less” and “unworthy” because they were feeling sad or angry about a circumstance that was taking place in their life that was often happening through no apparent fault of their own. Their feelings were valid. Through processing their emotions in a safe and meaningful way, people are able to understand where and why the feelings are coming up and honor the process and release them. In this way, they can open their hearts and minds to dwelling more on positive thoughts and affirmations. And gratitude for the abundant gifts that are all around them, in them, and through them becomes a natural process and blossoms and blooms more easily and visibly each day. I have found that in honoring my value, my heart, I am able to better evaluate and understand the core of another.
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