September 15, 2009

Monterey Herald columnist and singer-song writer
Erin Gray

Amazing Grace! Jazz influenced singer and writer, Erin Gray, brought her unique lyrical and prose stylings to us in a wonderfully fresh and insightful evening at our October program meeting. Erin explored the similarities between crafting a piece of writing and styling the delivery and pace of a song to convey the proper emotion and feeling. Her theme for the evening, "The Musicality of Writing" aligned these two art forms and explored their interwoven common threads. Using songs and examples from her own writings, Erin demonstrated clearly the role of voice in each and how subtle changes can alter your work's reception drastically. Her comparisons illuminated several little idea bulbs over this listener's head during the evening. Erin gave us quite a lot to consider and entertained us with her fabulous voice and vocal renditions. A truly memorable evening. Thank you, Erin!

Erin Gray greets fellow Herald columnist Jerry Gervase at our October meeting.

Erin Gray has been writing a weekly column ("Gray Matter") for the Monterey Herald for the last three years. She is a singer-songwriter whose original songs are part of the Teaching Tolerance Library at the Southern Poverty Law Center. She also wrote and performed a one woman show about the life and teachings of Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Her non-profit, The Circle of Love Foundation, helps homeless children on the Monterey Peninsula. Ms. Gray is a recovering lawyer with a J.D. and a B.A in Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin. She is, as they say, currently working on her first novel.