Rebecca Sayre

Hi! I’m Rebecca Sayre
I like to write and sing songs that make people smile.
I write some tunes by myself and some tunes with Eddie.
I like songs that are uplifting and/or have happy endings
My music is sort of jazz-Americana, pop melodies often with jazz swing-feel and changes.
Until about 2006, I always played with a band.
I got a little better on guitar and now I can play solo. But it's alot of fun playing with friends, too.
I love it when folks sing along at my shows.
Fun Facts:
I come from a long line of tree-huggers and English teachers
My grandmother wrote beautiful poetry
I can do a 180 on a skateboard and throw a pretty good spiral
I moved to Nashville when I was 19
I love and talk to animals
I have very lucid dreams
I recycle & compost
Being outside is therapy to me
For exercise, I take aero boxing classes and hike
I require lots of sleep
I have lots of epiphanies
My friends & family are very dear to me
So, here’s the short version of my musical life story… just the highlights shall we say? I originally moved to Nashville to be a country singer/songwriter. I was so young and shy so things moved a little slowly for me. But that was ok, because I got a degree at Belmont College while interning at every label on music row, it seemed, and later, toured around Switzerland with my brother, John for a summer.
When I returned, things started to get interesting back in Nashville. I got into an all original swing hybrid band called BadaBing BadaBoom. We were sort of like The Beatles-meets-the-Andrews Sisters and we eventually recorded four albums including a Christmas EP. There were 7 of us and we were like a big family: equal parts loving and aggravating each other, which translated into a remarkable chemistry on stage. We toured all over the East including a date at Lincoln Center in New York, one summer. That was a thrill! We had a wonderfully original and refreshing sound and with seven personalities on stage, we were just fun to watch! And thanks to the songwriting genius of Eddie Mugavero, we had over 125 songs in our repertoire within 5 years. My role in the band was mostly harmony singing because it came naturally to me, growing up singing with my brother John, but I was featured on a few tunes each night, too.
Then one day, I was driving around Nashville listening to WMOT and I heard Ella scatting her ass off on two or three choruses of “St Louis Blues”. I still remember where I was when I heard it. The record—which turned out to be one of my desert island selections—was “Ella in Rome, The Birthday Concert.” I wanted to learn this music! …to be able to recognize all the great jazz singers and horn players, and to grasp their vocabulary. Singer, Annie Sellick handed me a flyer to the Nashville Jazz Workshop and encouraged me to take some classes there, so I commenced my love affair with and education of, the Great American Songbook. I studied and sang and loved this music, my fingers were always snapping! My ears grew and I started to hear new stuff on records I’d had for years.
Soon I was doing jazz gigs around Nashville and surrounding areas, with a trio. I was discovering my own voice which took a while, actually, having been singing sort of “in character” or harmony blending for BadaBing for almost 7 years. I recorded my debut solo jazz record “This is Always” and it went to 47 on the National JazzWeek charts in 2005. But then a funny thing happened when I began researching material for a follow-up record: I couldn’t fall in love with any tunes, in particular. Long story short, I decided, instead, to write the tunes with Eddie, for my next project. Of course, this took some time since I basically had to learn to play jazz guitar and to learn how I write songs.
All of this evolved over the next couple years. With five polished tunes recorded by Nashville’s finest musicians, I released my all original EP, “New Girl”. It is jazz inspired, but not strictly “jazz”. It’s a culmination of my musical loves, country to jazz, and inspired by my greatest influences James Taylor to Duke Ellington.
Now I’m a solo performing artist for the first time in my career. It’s liberating and frightening and brand new. I’m looking forward to playing my tunes for you in the places this music allows me to play: your living room concerts, your songwriter nights and intimate venues where we can see each other’s faces. I can’t wait to meet you!
Sincerely, Rebecca
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