Arnie Davidson, Songwriter: Press

Singing for My City
CD release by Kianna Jensen
Music by Arnie Davidson

Meet Kianna Jensen, a 17-year-old East Hampton High School grad, whose sultry voice can be heard on the newly released CD "My City." Kianna has been singing all her young life starting, as far as she can remember, around age 4 and continuing throughout her school years in every play, concert and talent show there was. She was also a member of the high school choir, which took her to choral events and performances all over Connecticut.

Kianna even sings in the shower she said, which makes getting clean much more enjoyable.

"There was never a point when I decided I was going to start singing," said Kianna. "It's just something I always did."

In the music world, connections are everything, which is how "My City" came about. East Hampton songwriter Arnie Davidson had been writing prayer-based melodies, which he incorporated into worship services at a synagogue in Glastonbury where he serves as an accompanist, and was looking for a soulful voice that was powerful enough to deliver the message in his lyrics. That voice turned out to be Kianna's.

"I'm in my early 50s and just started songwriting about seven or eight years ago and since I'm not 16, nobody is interested in hearing my 50-year-old voice. The industry wants young, 18-year-old beautiful people with beautiful voices, so I was looking to hook up with an artists that was a performer looking for songwriting material," said Davidson, who recently had one of his songs used by a country artist in Nashville. "One of the things I found in trying to write music is that Kianna gets it really quickly. She can just listen to a song and understand what needs to be done. She has a great interpretive skill that is far beyond a lot of the 30 and 40-year-old professionals that I have worked with - just being able to understand the music and when to belt it out and make it pretty."

Kianna's sense of self really came through when the two worked on a song titled "Pray if You Believe," which Davidson admits was a bit cynical because it implied that one should pray even if you don't have faith at that particular moment. Kianna recorded it and did a beautiful job, he said, but it turned out that the song didn't work for her.

"She came back after she had thought about it for some time and said 'I can't sing that because it's a little too cynical and that's not what I believe,'" he said. "That hurt...but then I made some changes and changed the title to "Pray and You Will Believe" and it really steered the whole meaning in a different direction. I really applauded her because for that...being just 16 (at the time), she was able to say 'that doesn't really go with my belief system.' She called me on it and it ended up being a great outcome."

For Kianna, the collaboration has been a great learning experience.

"Arnie's daughter is a year ahead of me and Arnie had featured a couple of girls from the high school choir in his recordings," said Kianna. "So when he asked me to sing with him, it was great because I had always just used a tape deck to record during voice lessons. When we started working together, we just kept recording - bringing me back for more songs."

The collaboration helped Kianna to develop her own individual style, which differed from her participation in school productions and choral groups, where she was generally directed to sing a certain way or play a particular role. It also introduced her to the lyric writing and production side of the music industry. "I like to use sheet music where Arnie does everything by ear, so I had to take his recordings and listen to them to pick it up which makes it really auditory," she said. "I'm so glad it worked out that way."

Eclectic in musical style, "My City" features about nine tracks written by Davidson, with contributions from East Hampton High School alumni Hannah Cotier, who wrote the lyrics for "Going to Boston" - one of Kianna's favorites.

"I really like the lyrics," she said. "That helps a lot when you like the lyrics!"

With the flurry of graduation behind her, Kianna said she will focus on her summer plans which include an eight-week stint as a counselor at Calumet Lutheran Camp and Conference Center in New Hampshire. Then she is off to college at the University of Vermont, where she plans to study nursing and Spanish. Music will definitely play part in her future, she said, through more singing and possibly some songwriting that will help her to create her own style of music.

"I don't know how to accompany myself yet, so that is something I need to learn to do," she said. "If not, maybe just by joining a band and contributing to the music in some way."

To hear or purchase music from "My City" go to www.Kiannaj.com.