Call Redialed: NEW Dawn Derow Interview: Gypsy In My Soul: Dawn Derow Sings Eydie Gormé
Call Redialed: NEW Dawn Derow Interview: Gypsy In My Soul: Dawn Derow Sings Eydie Gormé
It’s so great catching up with singer/songwriter Dawn Derow. We first chatted in 2018 when Dawn was premiering her show My Ship: The Songs of 1941 at the Laurie Beechman Theatre (There is some very exciting news about this show in our interview below).
Now, Dawn is getting ready to premiere her latest show, which was originally scheduled for 2020, but due to COVID-19, was cancelled. After a year of no live performances, Dawn is finally debuting Gypsy In My Soul: Dawn Derow Sings Eydie Gormé. The great thing about this show is that there are many opportunities this summer to see it, both live in person and virtually!
May 23: Birdland, NYC - In Person Tickets (or message Dawn directly to purchase)
May 24: Streaming Presentation - Click here for tickets
July 30 & 31: The Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA - Click here for tickets
August 22: The Cultural Center, Yarmouth, MA - Click here for tickets
Connect with Dawn: Website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Spotify
1. This May and summer, you are premiering your new show, Gypsy In My Soul: Dawn Derow Sings Eydie Gormé, which originally slated to debut in March 2020, but because of the pandemic could not happen at that time. What does it feel like to finally be presenting this show? It’s a little like starting all over again. I went back to the script we had from last March and looked at it with fresh eyes (no more 2020 vision), and completely rearranged everything. As any cabaret artist should do when they take a “forced hiatus” from a show...You gotta stay present even when sharing stories that happened in the ‘50s & ‘60s.
The best feeling was on April 28th - Jeff Harnar & Ian Herman and I were able to meet to rehearse for the first time in-person since we were all vaccinated in March. That was a good feeling. Ian and I used JamKazam leading up to it, and that was fine, but in person is SO MUCH BETTER!
I know there’s a lot of fans and friends out there that were really excited to see a “tribute to Eydie Gormé” last year, so I hope that excitement still exists to see it this month.
2. This show will be offering both in-person tickets and a virtual experience. What are you looking forward to most about presenting this hybrid concert? I’m just excited to sing into human eyes again. I’ve missed that face-to-face connection and transference of energy. As for the streaming, this is a whole new virtual reality world. The great part of it is, you don’t have to be in the metropolitan area to see live music. You can purchase a ticket for the streaming and watch it from wherever you are.
3. What do you think your first thought or emotion will be when you step back on stage, after not performing live for a full year? Probably a little nervous, and overcome with emotions from my first breath on stage again with a microphone in hand.
4. What is it about Eydie's music that made you want to dedicate a whole show to it? It’s an idea I’ve had in the back of my head since 2015, when the late Barry Levitt was coaching me and he told me to start listening to Eydie Gormé and study her “phrasing and control.”
So from there, - I took a deep dive into her extensive library of recordings throughout her five-decade career. I’d listen to her in between working on other projects over the last five years, (for example, my upcoming album for My Ship: Songs from 1941 also released this summer). Eydie was a vocal virtuoso; why shouldn’t she have a cabaret performance in her honor.
5. What do you relate to most about Eydie's life? That she loved to sing. Also, I feel like we have similar personalities and pose.
6. What was the first song you knew had to be in this concert? Well that’s easy, her recording of “After You’ve Gone” from Eydie Swings the Blues in 1957. Although I’m not doing the verse, the song is in the show. I also wanted the challenge to learn how to sing in Spanish so I could add in “Sabor A Mí '' that I knew had to be in there.
7. What was the most challenging song to learn and why did it give you so much trouble? Well, naturally the answer is “If He Walked Into My Life” - excuse me, but it’s fucking damn hard. The melody is chromatically challenging and has all these ½ notes, plus, vocally those are some BIG BIG shoes to fill. But I love this song, and the story, and that I’m fully loaded with a backstory and intention. And, of course, the Spanish songs were definitely challenging. Even though it wasn’t that long ago I was singing in Italian, German and some French, I’ve never sung in Spanish in a show before.
This summer, when we expand the show into a Two Act concert (July 30 & 31 at the Cotuit Center for the Arts - Cape Cod, MA) - I will add “Amor” and maybe “Besame Mucho.” This is also why doing an Eydie show is a lot of fun; the woman had RANGE & STYLE!! Eydie liked a good vocal challenge and so do I.
8. If Eydie were still alive today, what song would you want to sing as a duet with her? Oh, that’s a great question, Adam. I love all the old TV show clips where she sings with Carol Burnett. The trouble is I don’t think I’d be able to pick which part to do. But if Eydie could somehow travel back in time, perhaps we’d make our own arrangement of “People” or maybe “Forget Your Troubles Come on Get Happy.”
Or while we are indulging in this fantasy, how about a song by a current pop artist like, “P!nk” or “Sia”? I bet Eydie could bring down the “ceiling” with a little “Chandelier”...or something nuts like that!
Anyway, whatever song it would be, we’d have my awesome Music Director, Ian Herman write the arrangement. Speaking of which, I’m thrilled to be reunited with Ian. He and I have been wanting to do this show for so long. It’s going to be pretty incredible for us to take the stage again together. Not to mention performing with me for the first time, my special guests; Danny Bacher and Jeff Harnar.
9. What is one question you would have liked to ask Eydie? Maybe not so much a question but an audit -- I’d love to sit and watch her in the studio, especially when she recorded her self-titled album. With the orchestrations by Don Costa, including; “I’ll Take Roman” and “Day by Day”and of course “Gypsy In My Soul,” I’d just want to watch and listen to her entire process.
10. What is something you'd like my readers to know about you that we didn't get to cover in this interview? Since last February I have been working on my album My Ship: Songs from 1941. It’s been a ginormous labor of love! My Ship was a show I debuted back in 2017, won the Mac Award for in 2018 and my director, Jeff Harnar was honored with a Bistro and won a MAC for this show as well.
We started recording on Feb 20, 2020 and then Covid put the breaks on things until September. We continued recording and then overdubbed horns and strings about a month ago. Now we are about to shop it out to labels along with a pretty sexy music video.
My partner John and I will be hosting a “soft release” of the album on June 19 in our backyard - on Dingle Ridge Rd. North Salem NY.
I’ve hired my trio to come play, a technical team for sound and we’ll be steaming the event virtually. After the show there will be a VIP release party for those who buy the VIP package. What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon in the middle of June?
We currently live on 17 acres of farm land with a horse farm behind us, so horses have been our neighbors during this past year. We are also getting ready to move out in July so it will be the last big hurrah before that happens.
Go to my website to learn more about the album release and June 19.
This summer, I also have several performances planned for Cape Cod (where I grew up). We will be doing the Eydie show, My Ship, and another new show whose concept we tested out in our backyard last October, The BACKYARD TROUBADOURS, with Peter Calo & Lauren Fox.
On top of all of this I’m still training and stretching clients online. I travel into Manhattan to see a couple in person as well. Every Sunday and Wednesday I do a one-hour stretch/mobility class which is only $12 per person if anyone wants to join in, just send me an email. If you aren’t following me yet, please do so on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
More on Dawn:
A New Yorker by way of Cape Cod, Dawn Derow grew up in Eastham, MA and graduated from the Boston Conservatory with a Bachelor's Degree in Music: Vocal Performance & Opera Emphasis. She has performed around the world, and performed in prestigious venues such as Rose Hall at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
Dawn Derow is known in the cabaret and performance community as being a versatile singer who can move smoothly from one vocal genre to the next. Dawn’s 2014 album MUSIC 4 TWO with guitarist Sean Harkness earned her a “Best CD” nomination from the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC), which is available online. In 2015, Dawn won her first MAC Award for her work in the duo show REVOLUTION with Kathleen France. Dawn employed her formidable opera singing in her solo show LEGIT: A CLASSICAL CABARET in 2016 and captured a Bistro Award for “Outstanding Vocalist.” In 2018, Dawn won the MAC Award for “Best Female Vocalist” for her critically acclaimed solo show, MY SHIP: SONGS FROM 1941. She will be releasing the corresponding album in summer 2021.