Sung with gusto, those Stevie Wonder lyrics take on an extra meaning coming from Sarah Burgess, the "American Idol" contestant from Beaver Falls who hopes to someday be signed and sealed to a major label that can deliver her to the pop-music promised land. Sony Music already has shown interest, which is why Burgess is standing in a Rochester recording studio on a frigid Monday morning, her face pressed close to a stationary microphone as she belts out hit songs. Under the watchful eye of vocal coach Randy Shoup, the 19-year-old Burgess rips into Gladys Knight's "Midnight Train to Georgia.
" "Get off the 'gia' part of 'Georgia' quicker - there's not enough time," Shoup instructs her before a retake. In a corner of the room, facing a window that looks out at Kmart, studio owner/engineer Sam Pasco carefully monitors Burgess' vocal levels, ensuring everything is perfect for her demo CD. The disc will be shipped to Sony as Burgess tries to strike while the "Idol" is hot.
Beginning Tuesday, the Fox talent show's 32 million weekly viewers will watch taped performances from Burgess and many of the other 169 "American Idol" semifinalists who outlasted thousands of others at nationwide auditions to reach the Hollywood portion of America's most-watched program. Burgess attended the New York tryouts, winning the hearts of viewers, and the notoriously tough judges. She fought back tears to explain how she had snuck away from home, fearing her father wouldn't allow her to audition.
Since then, life has been a blur for the East Palestine High School graduate, who moved with a friend to Beaver Falls to be closer to her job and the Kaplan Career Institute in Pittsburgh, where she plans to study fashion merchandising in July. On Feb. 3, she returned to East Palestine to entertain a few hundred people packed into the Shamrock Inn.
For her first bar gig, she thought she'd sing six songs, but the crowd demanded a dozen. "Sarah's performance was spectacular," bar owner Jim Mahon says. "You could tell that she had a star quality.
Our patrons were taken aback. I had not witnessed this kind of ecstatic response from any crowd for any entertainment that we have had at the Shamrock Inn. So much so that the large empty pretzel barrel we passed around to help with her future singing lessons and career was filled to capacity and then some.
" Taking a break from her demo recording in Rochester, Burgess reflected on that night at the bar. "I loved it, especially when they put the camera right in my face," she says, referring to a Youngstown Fox affiliate that filmed the action. "That was when I was most comfortable.
" Wherever she goes, people stop her to talk about "Idol." "I love when people recognize me. It makes me feel so good," Burgess said.
Though sometimes that attention causes problems, like when Burgess was a waitress at the Applebee's in Chippewa Township. Customers would pepper her with "Idol" questions - "What's Simon like?" "What's Paula like?
" - staying in their booths longer than customers normally do. That caused resentment among some co-workers, said Burgess, who left to take another waitress job in Center Township. Shoup, her Center vocal coach, thinks Burgess has a shot at pop stardom because her voice stands out from other would-be divas.
"She has a nice bluesy style that's mixed with old soul, like a lot of rockers," Shoup says. Burgess says she prefers classic rock, R B and soul to today's music. "When I first listened to one of my dad's Fleetwood Mac albums that's when I got into old music," she says.
Skill can take a singer far, but in today's pop climate, the right look is essential also. Burgess lists her heritage as French-Canadian and Welsh, though she's blessed with an exotic, olive-colored skin tone that suggests a third nationality. That would make sense, Burgess agrees, since her mother was adopted and had never met her birth mother.
Back in the Rochester recording studio looks don't matter, as Burgess stands in front of the microphone, her black hair spilling into the hood of her sweatshirt, tapping out the beat with her left sneaker as she does another take of "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours" followed by the Prince-Sinead O'Connor hit "Nothing Compares 2 U." Then comes Christina Aguilera's "Walk Away," with the Beaver Falls teen mimicking the spastic hand gestures of the world's supreme pop star who had learned to sing while living in a Rochester duplex a block away from where Burgess now stood. Nailing the song on her first try, Burgess takes a break to swig from a water bottle.
Surrounded by a reporter, photographer, vocal coach and studio engineer, Burgess flashes a sweet smile and says, "I could definitely do this forever." Scott Tady can be reached online at stady@timesonline.com.
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