Jody Watley, The Make Over – Tim Gaskin

Grammy award-winning Jody Watley got noticed as the foxy dancer on TV’s Soul Train and got hot as the girl who sang songs like "Dead Giveaway," "Second Time Around" and "Make This a Night to Remember" with the R&B group Shalamar. Her career caught fire as a solo artist when she wrote and performed such independent-minded songs such as "Real Love" and the No. 1 pop hit "Looking For A New Love." Now she working on a new album “The Makeover” and tells Gloss magazine that even though she’s had great success in her career, she says, “I still feel like a new artist and I don’t think I’ve had my ultimate moment yet!”

This month Watley is performing “Songs in the Key of My Life” at the Empire Plush Room which include songs from her catalog and from other artists that have inspired her along the way, like Streisand and the Supremes to Motown and Grace Jones. The effortless performer promises to respect the intimate cabaret style of the Plush Room, but guarantees it’s going to be fun!

Watley says her first big break, as a teenage dancer on Soul Train wasn’t destiny, it was determination. “ I started sneaking on the show, and getting asked to leave when they found out I was a stole away on the cast. I kept coming back until I got noticed.”

Soon after, Soul Train Records assembled a musical group, which included the visually talented dancer. When they began a search for a female vocalist, Watley put a stop to that telling owners, “Hey wait a minute I can sing, I’ve wanted to sing all my life!’”

Watley got an audition and sang Barbara Striesand’s “Everygreen”. “That nixed the idea of them needing another girl in the group,” She says. “There can be as many guys as you want,” she told producers, “but there is only going to be one girl in the group. And that is going to be me!”

Watley left Shalamar in 1984, after the sudden death of her father, and amid some controversy. “Before video,” she says, “the only money we made was from touring. We worked like slaves in a way. So we toured 365 days a year with no days off.”

“Everybody thought I was crazy to walk away from such a successful group, but when my Dad died I thought to myself, ‘Life is too short for this crap.’ But I didn’t say crap. [Laughs] It has four letters though!”

It’s exactly that edge that Watley infuses in her music. “Everyone can relate to breaking up,” says Wately. “That’s why ‘Looking For a New Love’ resonates with people. I write songs from the point of view of strength and ‘Hasta la Vista Baby.’ My point of view is ‘You’re gonna miss me when I am gone.’”

Empire Plush Room, January 19 through 21, 2006, Tickets & Info 415-885-2800