The Next Stage
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Billings managed to cut a demo tape, and earlier this week at Gentry on Halsted she celebrated the release of her debut CD, Being Alive, on the local jazz label Southport Records. The collection of ballads and up-tempo tunes includes the Gershwins’ “I Got Rhythm,” Carly Simon’s “Let the River Run,” and the title song by Stephen Sondheim. Billings covers Jule Styne, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green’s “Just in Time,” and the CD closes with a rousing interpretation of Dennis DeYoung’s “Come Sail Away.” Most of the songs were plucked from Billings’s live act, but the set is also meant to reflect her take on life. “Every song is a part of the journey, and not every song is neat and tidy,” she writes in the liner notes. “My life has been anything but neat and tidy.”
Here and Gone
