We recently connected with Meghan Causey and have shared our conversation below.

Meghan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

The short version….From age 16-24 I worked regular jobs, starting off at 16 helping out at a local donut shop, as I got older answering phones as a 9-5 receptionist at a gas company, and then 5 years as bank teller. Yes, these paid the bills but were also quite unrewarding and left me feeing empty. My love of singing has always been with me. My family tells me how I would gather everyone around the Christmas tree at a young age and put on a show of all the carols my 4 to 5 year old brain could hold. My parents enrolled me in piano lessons at age 11 and I enjoyed a long stint in playing piano. My entire family is musical, we grew up singing in church and as a family we were always singing around the house. My dad would point out different harmonies and give me and my brothers different parts to sing. It was a childhood full of song! After meeting the love of my life at age 21 we got married, bought a home, bills added up, and life kept coming. I felt stuck in my 9-5 jobs regretting my living was not being made from my first passion, singing. I felt I was meant to do more! In 2013 at age 25 I made the big decision to go back to school. This was big because we still had bills and a mortgage but I decided to do online classes as much as possible and work nights to make it happen. Still not knowing what kind of career I wanted, but knowing it had to have something to do with music, I enrolled at Sandhills Community College where I earned my Associates in Music Education. This is also where I learned about jazz music and fell in love with singing songs from The Great American Songbook. I’ve always felt I have an old soul and the alluring melodic lines, freedom of vocal expression, and enchanting lyrics of this old music spoke to this old soul. I started sitting in with a close friend who was a jazz pianist and singing a song or two in a few jazz clubs. Through this pianist I also met the bassist Rick Wolff, who I now work with in the Triangle area and who also founded our trio City Light Jazz. Around the same time I found my love for teaching voice and piano. In 2016 I enrolled in a Campbell University where I chose to purse my Bachelors in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy. A small new music and art studio that had just opened up in the college town I was living in took a chance and hired me to be their first and only piano and voice teacher (at the time they only had violin and art classes) This was a huge opportunity for me and I was stoked to be a part of something new. Teaching voice felt so natural. I was able to help students find their own unique voices and it thrilled me to be able to do this! I was making it on my own earning a full-time living from teaching voice and piano. Since graduating in 2019 I have built up my own private studio in my home in Sanford NC were I now have 45 students. Also after graduating my jazz singing career started taking off. The trio I perform with started getting more gigs and we now perform regularly in the triangle area. My heart is full on a daily basis as I earn a full-time living doing what I love, singing. I’ve come a long ways since my 9-5 days!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have two parts to my creative works. First, I am a jazz vocalist who performs in Raleigh and the surrounding areas. I perform with a pianist, bassist, and sometimes we add drums and horns to liven a performance when called for. On top of many private gigs such as birthdays and weddings, we have performed at places like Sullivans Steakhouse on Glenwood, The Umstead Hotel, Watts and Ward, City Club in downtown Raleigh. A big moment recently happened for City Lights Jazz when we did our first ticketed show at Bond Brothers Eastside in Cary. It was huge success.

I am inspired by the many great vocalist, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Kurt Elling, Nancy Wilson, Stacy Kent, Elis Regina, Eva Cassidy, and Martina DaSilva to name a few. I adore singing ballads, ones with lyrics and melodies that have the ability to pull out the deepest emotions. They could be buried deep down or maybe they live at the surface. Everyone at some point in their lifetime has had their heart broken or loved so deeply it seems unimaginable. Singing about these times and hearing them sung I believe is cathartic and healing to the soul in a way that thinking or speaking about them can not be. There is something different about putting words to a melody. Where words don’t seem to do the job, there is song.

I am very proud of the bossa nova songs which I perform in Portuguese. I do many covers of songs written by the late Antonio Carlos Jobim. Since being introduced to jazz the bossa nova style has especially captivated me. I never tire of the distinct rhythmic patterns and the beautiful language. While attending Campbell University I chose to take my four required semesters of language in Portuguese just to be able to do these songs the justice they deserve.

My second part of my creative work is teaching voice. The teacher in me wants everyone to know they can sing. Singing does not have to be this forever elusive talent that only the few were blessed to be given. I believe its a psychomotor skill anyone can learn. It’s about leaning how to coordinate muscles in the larynx, and experimenting with all the different sounds you can make. From a low growl to a high hooty sound and all the ones in between. When leaning to sing we get so caught up in judgement of the sounds that are coming from us, negative thought patterns creep in and we end up trying to make sounds that will be pleasing to others. Singing should be a freeing experience.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Seek out small live music venues and go hear live music! If you visit a venue, restaurant, bar, cocktail lounge that doesn’t have live music mention it to the owner. There are fewer and fewer places for artist to show their creative work. Seek out music and art festivals to attend.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

While attending Campbell University I was trained vocally in the classical school of vocal performance and pedagogy. At the same time I was falling in love with the Jazz genre, two very different styles of music. I submerged myself as I listened to and tried to replicate all the greatest Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaugh, Nancy Wilson, Frank Sinatra. Most of the time I felt like a bit of an imposter. A classical performer trying to imitate others and sing jazz music. I took lessons and masterclasses in jazz singing to hone my skills. In one very important masterclass it came my turn to sing and get feedback from the master instructor. I sang my song “Crazy He Calls Me” a 1949 jazz standard by Carl Sigman and Bob Russell. I was proud of my performance and looking forward to feedback on how to grow as a jazz vocalist, but the instructor knowing my background simply told me to stick with singing lyrical mezzo-soprano and that I would never be a jazz singer. This devastated me! I held onto what this instructor told me I couldn’t do and let it ruminate in my head during performances and my daily practice for far to long. I realized after a while that I put to much value on what one person thought. How many performers and artist have been told they couldn’t or shouldn’t? Many! I was just one of many who needed to see others opinions as what they are, simply opinions. I have since learned how to have my own sound. You do this by imitating many artist you enjoy listening to and picking out certain sounds and vocal techniques you like. These can help you create your own unique sound. I have let that experience teach me what not to do, as a performer and a teacher. When performing, get out of your own head, it’s more real and authentic for you and then listener that way. In my teaching I never tell a student they “can’t” do something. Anyone can sing any style they choose, and that includes the classical performer who want to sing her heart out on the Great American Songbook!

Contact Info:

• Website: citylightjazz.com
• Other: My teaching website is meghanpianoandvoice.com