With her soul-stirring vocals and impressive command of jazz music, local musician and business owner Courtney Cutchins is celebrating the release of her long-awaited debut album at 7:30 p.m. October 5 at Soundwaves, 7 Lagoon Road, headquarters of the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra.
Event attendees will get a preview of the full album before its official release October 18 on all streaming platforms. The album, Grunge to Grace (more than a decade in the making), successfully showcases Cutchins as a rising star.
Not only does her luminous, haunting voice capture your ear, but her unique way of turning phrases and weaving melodies together will capture your imagination, too, as it might be unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. In fact, Cutchins’ style is so unusual that the release of the album pivots her to the forefront of the industry where she now sits primed to launch a new musical genre altogether: jazzgrunge.
Courtney Cutchins is celebrating the release of her long-awaited debut album at 7:30 p.m. October 5 at Soundwaves.
Her impact is unsurprising once you become aware of her background. The Seattle native-turned-local Hilton Head islander is a jazz-educated singer who earned a bachelor of music degree in jazz vocal performance from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle and a master of music degree in jazz vocal performance from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Cutchins still spends part of her time learning from and collaborating with some of the best in the business, a few of whom lend their talents to her album.
While Grunge to Grace offers six moving originals by Cutchins, she also dramatically re-invents three ’90s grunge anthems from her younger days in Seattle by grunge rock stars Soundgarden and Nirvana. When sifted through her roots and heart for jazz, the songs are resurrected to a new life and a whole new audience who will no doubt feel the lingering angst, anarchy, and alienation that punctuated the original versions.
“These profound, brooding grunge rock songs resonate with me,” Cutchins said. “The theme of this album is about living in your authentic truth … the journey of finding freedom to become who you want to be. My reimagining the grunge songs underscores that idea and serves as another vehicle for me to pass that message along to others.”
While she connected with grunge during her teen years, her earliest memories of jazz go back even further. When she was 11 years old, she got her first Ella Fitzgerald album and has been completely in love with jazz ever since.
Courtney Hutchins and Trevor Harden on the set of her latest music video.
“In middle school, I was the weird kid playing saxophone and listening to jazz all the time,” Cutchins said. “I studied jazz very intensely, to the point where I developed this purist attitude about it and fell into compartmentalizing it, like, ‘This is jazz and this is not jazz, and this is what jazz should sound like and how jazz doesn’t sound.’”
Cutchins’ attitude obviously evolved to a point where she recognized that she was really limiting herself. Eventually she realized that she could indeed combine sounds and textures and genres of music. She credits Jeff Buckley, an alternative rock folk/rock blues musician, as a major inspiration to begin experimenting with fusing genres.
“I discovered Buckley’s music in college,” Cutchins said. “It gave me an idea that I could be vocally influenced by both jazz and rock because although he was known more as an alt rock singer, he had this whole background of listening to Nina Simone and Ella. In fact, Grunge to Grace ended up being just a little bit of an homage to him as his only studio album, released in 1994, was titled Grace. As both a beautifully skilled vocalist and songwriter, he was one of my biggest influences.”
Stills from Courtney’s latest music video shoot with Harden Creative for the song Grunge to Grace.
Creating her jazzgrunge album represents her coming full circle. Her vision to fuse the two came nine years ago as an epiphany:
“In 2015, while navigating difficult times, I found my way to a supportive music therapy exercise that encouraged people to rediscover songs from early childhood that bring you joy. After combing through dozens of Disney soundtracks, folk songs, and Muppets movies, an unexpected memory hit me from when I was growing up in the Seattle area – hearing Soundgarden’s mystical, soaring ‘Black Hole Sun’ on the radio. With this song as my muse, I created a variety of reinventions of grunge tunes from my youth and had some of the most fun ever performing them in New York City.”
From that experience, Cutchins started blending the genres during gigs she played in New York City at venues like Cornelia Street Cafe, the 55 Bar, Rockwood Music Hall, and Silvana. The end result of her memories, the therapy exercises, the success she had playing live, is magically merged on Grunge to Grace.
That magic is only made more potent by the crew backing Cutchins – each a star in their own right. Consider jazz pianist-producer David Cook (Taylor Swift, Mark Guiliana, Lizz Wright), guitarist Nir Felder (Keyon Harrold, Terri Lyne Carrington), bassist Matt Clohesy (Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Maria Schneider Orchestra) and drummer Obed Calvaire (Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Dave Holland, Cécile McLorin Salvant).
Cutchins has broken new ground with this illuminating and illustrious debut album. “My entire perspective is captured in Grunge to Grace,” she said. “There’s no better title for this album. We can find beauty in the most unexpected places. Even in the midst of suffering and darkness, we can find daring, honest freedom in the little things that light us up.”
Along with her re-imagining of Nirvana’s “All Apologies” and Soundgarden’s “Boot Camp” and “The Day I Tried to Live,” Cutchins presents six pensive, reflective, and poetic originals in both intimate, hymn-like numbers and edgier, more hard-hitting numbers, each representing a superb performer/songwriter who is unafraid to take risks in order to deliver messages of light and living authentically.
Cutchins also is the founder of Hilton Head Island-based, award-winning voice studio Seadragon Songhouse, which has sparked vocal and creative freedom for her clients since 2018.
“I’ve taught voice for over 15 years,” she said, “but through my work with Seadragon, I’ve really had the chance to coach others in a very unique and profound way. It’s through seeing what a treasure each person is – and that every voice matters – that I was inspired to put this latest musical work into the world.”
At her album debut concert, Cutchins will be joined by Grammy-winning musician David Cook from New York City, along with Charleston jazz heavyweights Lee Barbour on guitar, Brett Belanger on bass, and Ron Wiltrout on drums. An afterparty will feature hors d’oeuvres and dessert. Beer and wine will be available for purchase, the sale of which will benefit the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra (HHSO) and Soundwaves. Guests of all ages are welcome.
For debut party tickets visit grungetogracereleasehhi.eventbrite.com. To learn more about Cutchins, visit CourtneyCutchins.com. For more information about Cutchins’ vocal studio and coaching, visit SeadragonSonghouse.com.
