As a girl growing up in Winnipeg, I was always keenly aware of who the Jewish entertainers were. This was because my grandparents loved to point them out to me every time one popped up on their T.V. screen. “He’s Jewish, you know… and so is she!” So it seems, since I was choosing to pursue a career in entertainment, I was now going to fall into that very category that was taken quite seriously by my grandparents. I was going to be a Jewish entertainer… or more aptly, a “Jewish woman in song!”

Jewish women have contributed greatly to music in all settings and genres. Whether as composers, lyricists, singers, or any combination of those, I have been and continue to be inspired and moved by these women, whose shoulders I stand upon. As a teen, it was the influence of Carole King and Janis Ian that affected my compositions. “Yale’s Song,” a song that I composed for my son at the time of his Bar Mitzvah, represents their influences. How fortunate for me that both my children, Yale (age 14) and Serena (age 11), appear on this album as guitarist and vocalist respectively. This is a Jewish mother’s dream come true!!!

As a singer, it was the perfection of sound in Barbra Streisand’s voice that I strived for, the richness and joyfulness of Eydie Gorme’s performances, and the humor and tenderness of Bette Midler that shaped me as a singer and performer.

Having lived in Israel, Naomi Shemer’s “Yerushalayim Shel Zahav”, a song that I performed as a 15 year-old, now inhabits a richer and more significant place in my heart and soul. While researching this album, I was thrilled to discover a wonderful Israeli songstress, Miri Mesika, whose music and voice capture the essence of modern day Israel.

The plethora of songs which Dorothy Fields composed, which are now a staple of the Great American Songbook, are well represented on this album as a medley. How clever were the Barry Sisters, whose melodious voices and harmonies swung the Yiddish language like never before. Our rendition of “Eishes Chayil” is a tribute to them.

There was never a doubt that Fanny Brice, Sophie Tucker and Molly Picon would be celebrated on this album, as their contributions to music, theatre and performance are significant and groundbreaking for all of us who followed them. Contemporary American composers like Debbie Friedman and Andrea Clearfield give deeper meaning to the stories of the Bible as represented on the cuts “Miriam’s Song” and “Jocheved.”

This album has profoundly reconnected me with these First Ladies of Song in a humbling and heartfelt way, just as it has reaffirmed my Jewish identity. I thank all of them for guiding my voice during the making of this album. I am thrilled and honored to celebrate them in this way, and hope that you, the listener, will be touched by their music as much as I have been touched by them. Perhaps somewhere out there is another little Jewish girl who is being enlightened to all the Jewish entertainers of the world… just as I was.