Rising country star part of Performance Series

Rosemarie Howard | University Advancement | 29 October 2007

Rising country music star Cindy Standage will take the stage Saturday, 10 November at 9:15 p.m. in the BYU-Hawaii McKay Auditorium. Several BYU-Hawaii vocalists have been invited to join Standage in performing her rendition of “Did You Think to Pray?”  They include: Janette Manzano, Joseph Moore, Matthew Brox, Esther Langi, Janelle Cramer and Denzil Kumar.
Although the Atlanta, Georgia, native has been performing as a vocalist and guitarist since she was 14, she only recently released her first album, “Same Red Hair.”

“Sit back, relax and enjoy fresh new country songs and sound.  This is a must listen,” said a CD Baby review of “Same Red Hair.”  “These musicians are straight from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.”

Standage is no stranger to Nashville. Serendipity connected Standage and Shelby Singleton, a Nashville music producer and record label owner, when thirteen-year-old Standage and her father went to Nashville with a song he had written for his daughter.  “We saw the name Shelby Singleton on the side of a publishing house,” said Standage, “and thought, 'Why not?'”  Singleton is Cindy’s maiden name.

Mr. Singleton asked her to sing a song, liked it, bought it, and then booked her on the Morning Show for the next day.  She also had the opportunity to cut a few songs in a studio to take home with her.  Back in Atlanta, Standage continued to perform extensively, eventually connecting with two other performers, Marc Stowe and Mary Sue Taylor.  They performed together at corporate events and festivals, and did some demo work with Studio One in Doraville, Georgia.  After high school each went his/her separate way.

During the intervening 20 years, she met and married Arizona native, Ed Standage.  They have four children, and the whole family is in on mom’s act.  Her businessman husband initiated her return to live performance, and acts as her agent, while the children do everything from bringing in food during rehearsal or recording sessions to singing as back-up for the recently released album.

Since reconnecting with the country music scene, Standage has been invited to perform twice at the prestigious “Country Thunder USA” in Arizona, and has opened for well-known country stars such as Randy Travis, Faith Hill, Merle Haggard, and Neal McCoy.  She has also reconnected with high school friend Marc Stowe (a performer in his own right) who helped her get the album produced and recorded through the Sony label.

In the U.S., her current recording has made the top ten on the Roots Music Report, a chart compiled out of Texas with reporting stations all around the globe.  Her music is being recognized internationally as well, in places such as Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

The Standages will donate twenty percent of their proceeds to the Fisher House foundation, which has two houses located at the Tripler Army Medical Center, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. 

Functioning on the same premise as the Ronald McDonald houses, Fisher House provides “a home away from home,” that enables family members of veterans to be close to a loved one who is hospitalized at a major military or VA medical center during an unexpected illness, disease, or injury.  Since the establishment of the first Fisher Houses in 1990, the foundation has aided 60,000 families and saved them more then $70 milliion in expenses.

For ticket information please call the Aloha Center information desk, 675-3545.