Homegrown Corinna Fugate - Her Music Gives Her Wings
Hearing a local music artist who writes music from her heart is a breath of
fresh air in a business where flash and bare midriffs reign.
Enter singer/songwriter Corinna Fugate.
Hearing a
local music artist who writes music from her heart is a breath of fresh air in
a business where flash and bare midriffs reign. Enter Olathe singer/songwriter
Corinna Fugate. At 21 years old Corinna already has a lot of experience to draw
from for her music. To date she has released four albums on her own and shows
no signs of stopping. Her music takes you on her personal journey of grieving,
alcohol dependency and healing.
Corinna’s
current album “The Other Side of the Sky” features 18 songs, nine of which are
brand new. The latest CD also features some work from her other albums “Chasing
the Ghost,” “The Deeper You Go the Higher you Fly,” and “Bless the Child.”
Each album
has a different mood. “’Chasing the Ghost’ is really stark and serious and ‘The
Deeper You Go’ is about being in love. There’s a lot of diversity there,” she
says.
She writes
all of her own songs, and they all tell her story. Her first CD, “Chasing the
Ghost,” deals with drug addiction and ultimately overcoming the habit.
“Chasing
the ghost is a term that drug addicts use to describe chasing after your first
high. They say you never really attain it again – you never really get that
feeling you got the first time.”
The song
“Christmas” from “The Other Side” is all about love. “I wrote it about someone
I really cared about. "
Musical
talent runs in Corinna’s family. Her late father, Michael Fugate, was a trumpet
player for superstars like Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles. Corinna describes her
dad as a musical genius and says that if she could collaborate with anyone it
would be her father. The lyrics for “Song For Two Ladies” was written by her
father for Corinna and her mother, Virginia. “It’s the one song on the CD that
I didn’t write. He wrote it when I was two years old. I just found the tape
with that song on it while I was cleaning. I went to the studio and added my
own vocal track to it and we’re (singing) together on that song. So it’s really
magical.”
Corinna got
started in music at the age of 17 after her mother gave her two guitars for
Christmas. “Our house was a very musical household. When my dad passed away I
forgot how to tap into that. When I started writing it was magical being able
to tap into things that I had felt before,” she says.
“I was at a
point in my life where I was growing up and I was quitting drugs and alcohol.
Music has really been a cathartic, healing experience for me and I love doing
it. It’s the only thing I want to do. My dad passed away when I was 12 years
old and I didn’t know how to deal with it, I didn’t know how to cope so I
turned to alcohol to numb the pain so I wouldn’t have to feel anything.
But as I began to come out of that, music allowed me to start feeling again and
it was a really amazing thing.”
Corinna
says her favorite aspect of music is that it gives her wings. She recently
returned from a two-week trip to New York. She spent her time there performing.
“New York is a very good music scene, it has a lot going on there and I really
wanted to be a part of that - at least check it out. I called every club and I got
some gigs…which is amazing because it’s really competitive to get any gigs up
there.”
On her last
night in New York City she paid a visit to some firefighters. “I wanted to meet
them. Meeting them meant more to me than meeting any celebrity because they are
the real heroes. I went there to give them my CDs and they were so awesome.
They fed me cheesecake and tea and they listed to my whole CD with me. I never
felt like I belonged more,” Corinna says.
Corinna
says that her ultimate goal is to reach as many people as possible through her
music. Her major influences include Tori Amos, Billie Holiday and Joni
Mitchell. After a concert in New York she met with Amos who was very
supportive. She describes Amos as an artist that has remained true to the craft.
-
Denene Brox , Kansas City Magazine
