‘Since You’ve Asked’ Stacy Sullivan Tells All

By: Sandi Durell

The familiar whispery, smoky, sultry voice that thrilled us with her Marian McPartland and Peggy Lee shows has made a 180 degree departure in this very personal new offering at the Metropolitan Room. The sensitive, ethereal beauty from Tornado Alley sheds her layers (and that means her pants too – yes, she has lovely legs) with her young crop of musicians and songs in a mixture of joy, pain and sadness, a musical catharsis if you will.

With tales about her loving, close family from Oklahoma, she is funny and poignant giving insight into the lives of grandparents, great grandparents, mom and dad, siblings, her divorce, re-marriage, kids, sorrows and happy times, as she is caught in a different kind of tornado that musically sweeps our emotions along the corridor of life’s realities.

From the opening show titled song by Judy Collins, through the sadness of Randy Newman’s “I Think It’s Gonna Rain Today” book-ended with Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” the roller coaster of lyrical pain “Who Do You Belong To” (Rene Rosnes/David Hajdu) – “In My Arms” (Plumb) – “Landslide (Stevie Nicks) / “I Get Along Without You Very Well” (Carmichael/Johnson) is pervasive as the many misty, teary–eyed audience attest.

There is some breathing room in offering up Cole Porter’s “Too Darn Hot” and hopefulness in “You Must Believe in Spring” (Bergmans/Demy/Legrand) and “Here Comes the Sun” (George Harrison).

Many of the arrangements are original and contemporary in the hands of Music Director, Arranger, Guitarist Troy Fannin. Matthew Watanabe is on Piano with Jaime Mohamdein on Bass. Daughter Savannah Brown directs.

Stacy Sullivan has laid her emotions bare, temporarily leaving behind the usual old standards for a deeper look into a soul filled with great complexity.