decor flambeed: Relationships, love at heart of singer's new creation

Posted by The Hand on February 17, 2012 in Relationships |

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Leah Tysse didn?t have any formal musical training.

Whitney Houston was her ?teacher.?

?Whitney is the reason I wanted to sing,? said Tysse, a dynamic, Berkeley-based soul-pop vocalist. ?I was a huge fan. Her voice was just impeccable.?

When: Tonight, following the Stockton Thunder game

Where: King?s Room, Stockton Arena

Admission: $10

Information: (209) 373-1400

Tysse was weaned on Houston?s self-titled 1985 debut album ? and its three No. 1 singles ? while growing up in Maine and New Jersey.

?That really is what made me wanna sing,? said Tysse, who, like Houston, developed her powerful voice in church choirs. ?I never had any vocal training. Just Whitney.?

Tysse, a member of San Francisco?s Glide Memorial Church Choir, will perform in more secular surroundings tonight ? the King?s Room at Stockton Arena following the Thunder?s ice-hockey game.

Stockton bassist AJ Joyce plays part-time in Tysse?s band, but he?ll be there tonight.

Tysse, 36, introduces songs from ?Love Again,? her less-bluesy second album released on Nov. 29. Houston, who died on Feb. 11 at age 48, will be on her mind.

?Well, I have mixed emotions,? Tysse said of Houston, whose funeral is being held Saturday in Newark, N.J. ?Given what we know, nobody was that surprised. But it was so tragic the way her life went. Her talent was unparalleled. She could have continued so much further.?

Tysse?s taking a sightly different angle with her music, edging away from straight-up blues into a more pop-oriented mode.

She?s been working on the 13-track ?Love Again? since 2009, using lyrics written ?years and years ago.?

Tysse ?really belts out? some songs. Others are more subdued ballads: ?Some of them had been written five, six, 10 years ago and shelved. I just pulled ?em out. When we started, I didn?t expect it to come out like it has. The songwriting hadn?t fully developed.?

Those songs are mostly about ?one particularly bad time,? she said. ?A bad ending to a relationship. I got a lot of songs out of it. The whole album really kind of focuses on that. It?s about love and the heart, though. It?s not all ?woe is me.?

?My first album (?Real Good Fire,? 2007) was a little more blues-focused. This one?s a little less genre-specific. More funky. RB. Really, no blues.

?I?ve created something new that?s my own. Maybe not what the blues world expected it to be. What I created is something altogether new.?

Mike Blankenship, her band?s keyboard player, helped with that. A lot.

?We have a good working relationship,? she said of the Concord-based Blankenship. ?There are elements of RB. Also elements of, I?d call it pop, for lack of a better genre.?

While it?s not quite at the level of Adele?s Grammy Award-winning ?Someone Like You,? Tysse?s ?I Do,? a ballad, ?seems to get the most reaction,? she said. ?It was the most challenging to write, but it came out best. Everyone sort of has a song they like best. Like when they come up to me and start singing my songs to me.

?I?m not engaged or married. People ask, ?Who is it about?? It happens to not be about anyone. I didn?t really force the lyrics. It just came at one time. I don?t know why.?

She grew up singing in the United Methodist Church and has increased her vocal power and flexibility at Glide Memorial for 14 years.

?I love all types of music,? she said. ?From Joni Mitchell to Tupac. I just love good songs. I don?t wanna be stuck in any box. Ever. I?ll always love the blues.?

Born into a ?modest background? in Madison, Wis., she took piano lessons and taught herself to play trumpet at 7. An only child, she added vocals after she and her mom, Dorothy Breen, moved to Orono, Maine, following her parents? divorce.

Tysse also was a competitive swimmer, 100- and 300-meter hurdler and soccer player.

Her father, Paul, a grant writer at the University of Wisconsin, accompanied her on acoustic guitar ? folk and jazz tunes ? and further developed her skills with her grandmother in Ocean Grove, N.J.

She spent a year in Grenoble, France, where she sang in clubs. She attended the University of Vermont and lived in Boston for nine months before arriving in San Francisco.

?Love Again? is more than an album title. It?s also a form of ?giving back.?

Through the Love Again Project, Tysse donates income from some shows to charitable organizations ? ranging from the Humane Society of the Sierra Foothills to Glide Memorial Church, which benefits when Tysse formally releases ?Love Again? on Feb. 26 at Yoshi?s in San Francisco.

?I always wanted to somehow connect with giving back,? said Tysse, whose mother, a psychologist at the University of Maine, has been a do-good inspiration. ?I?m not able to contribute that much. I?m not Bonnie Raitt.

?I just hope by connecting I can at least give some exposure to these causes. It helps give meaning personally to what I?m doing. It?s so fulfilling. It?s such a blessing. Sometimes I just feel spoiled. Not that it?s easy, but it?s not like other people making a bazillion dollars will do something.?

Houston?s contribution was inspiration: ?She was the one.?

Contact Tony Sauro at (209) 546-8267 or tsauro@recordnet.com.

Article source: http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120217/A_LIFE/202170301/-1/A_LIFE