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SUNNY HAWKINS
Life can be confusing, even at its best. For most of us, it's a long sojourn of ups and downs, stops and starts, and lessons learned—often the hard way—that one day, hopefully adds up to something of value. But here and there, now and then a rare soul arrives whose life appears almost perfectly ordered from the first breath they take, by divine design and guided by a hand much bigger than that of any mere mortal.

Still Waters Records takes great pleasure in introducing Sunny Hawkins, a lifetime resident of that very select second category, whose debut release, More of You, is a calling card to the world, announcing the arrival of a truly amazing talent.

With a year as a lead character in the smash, Tony Award-winning, Broadway musical Rent, original songs recently recorded by superstars Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle, a long list of famous names for whom she has sung background vocals; and now her debut, center-stage, as a solo artist in her own right, Sunny Hawkins has accomplished quite a bit indeed for a young woman still in her twenties.

Clearly fluent in a wide range of genres, Sunny delivers a rivetingly original amalgam of jazzy R&B and pop, with flashes of everything from edgy hip-hop to power-chording rock guitars finding a perfect place in the final mix. Delightfully defying easy categorization, Sunny Hawkins paints on a canvass that can truly be called her own, from a palette of musical colors as wide and arresting as her seemingly boundless imagination.

Co-written and produced by Sunny and her hit-making husband, Jamie Hawkins—the vanguard of the next generation of gospel's legendary, decade-spanning Hawkins Family—More of You is the result not just of two young lifetimes immersed in great music, but deep bloodlines as well, running to and from that music's very heart.

Sunny calls her sound "urban inspirational," and that comes as close as any label would, if you need a label. Better still to just call it Sunny Hawkins, and More of You, then slip it in the player and let the music explain itself.

The album's infectiously hooky title song is an irresistible slice of high-energy, funk/rock, that finds both Sunny and her stunning vocal ensemble hitting the ground already in overdrive. Just as readily, with seemingly effortless ease and finesse, Sunny flows with the smooth, jazzy pop of "It's Like Air," adding a contrast that only heightens the album's intrigue.

"What A Man" begins gently, with only acoustic guitars and piano accompanying Sunny's poignant vocal. As a lone cello and sparse percussion drop into place, the song builds in power and intensity, finally crescendoing into a full-blown power ballad, driven by with a wall of electric guitars, explosive drums and orchestra, and Sunny's dramatic voice, rising from a whisper to a roar, and back.

"Alright" is steady rolling R&B/pop that exudes warmth and goodness as Sunny expresses her wonderment at God's unfailing love; while a bed of acoustic rhythm guitars and percussion carry Sunny's soaring, angelic vocal on "Crazy," a musical love letter written to her husband.

Sunny was born in a strong, church-going family where music both ran in the genes and rang throughout the house. With musically gifted parents and a God-given gift for song all her own, Sunny made her public vocal debut in church when she was only two. At age five, she moved from her birthplace, Berkeley, California, to Washington D.C., where she spent the most formative years of her young life, and stills relates to as home. Before that move however, Sunny's mother had attended college in the Bay Area of California, where she also was a regular at weekly Bible Studies given by a young, charismatic pastor—himself both a great singer and bearer of one of the great names in gospel music—Walter Hawkins. She struck a close friendship with Walter and his wife Tramaine, both of whom were well on their way to becoming major figures in gospel music, and asked the Hawkins, upon Sunny's birth, to be the baby's god-parents.