There's Music in the air
By Sally Goldenberg
The Daily Targum, September 11, 2000

Elizabeth Chauncey is familiar with range - from her vocals to the genres she explores, she is comfortable with broadening her horizons and facing new challenges. "I'm getting better by not doing one style," Chauncey said. "It's kind of fun…It expands your horizons."

Somerset native Chauncey, 33, has spent the past year working toward a childhood dream by singing in local coffee shops with different musicians. Though she works full-time in the human resources department at Johnson & Johnson in New Brunswick, she said she hopes to eventually work as a professional singer.

"I thought, what am I waiting for?" she said on why she began doing local gigs a year ago. "It's been really time consuming, but fun." Chauncey preformed for about a dozen people in Borders on Route 18 in East Brunswick with Gordon Wells, a professional musician and Rick Hozza, a sales representative for a music company. Both Hozza, 46, and Wells, who would not reveal his age, are newcomers to the coffee shop scene, they said.

"I enjoy it because it's usually pretty intimate," Hozza said. "People are drinking coffee instead of drinking alcohol." The trio sang cover songs ranging from Trisha Yearwood's "Too Bad your No Good" to "Mr. Spaceman" by the Byrds. And while their songs cover a wide range of music styles, the singers are of different musical backgrounds.

Wells, who hosts Drivetime Country friday mornings on WRSU, works with a band called Country Allstars, playing predominantly at country fairs. His primary instrument is the pedal steel, which he described as a Hawaiian guitar. And when he is not playing music, he gives music lessons, he said. "You've got to kind of do a lot of things, and it all kind of comes together," he said. "Rent gets paid every month." Wells said his full-time career in the music field holds his interest because of the diverse opportunities it offers on a daily basis. "I call it a job: it's a quest," he said.

Hozza is primarily a jazz musician, working with a group called Perception. "I play as often as possible," he said. But he said it is unlikely that he will ever work as a professional musician.

While Chauncey's roots lie in gospel, she said she hopes to become more seasoned in jazz and begin singing in restaurants with accompanying pianists. "I just really enjoy singing the old standard jazz tunes," she said.

And to add more spice to her career, her voice coach, Steve Schnurman, is an opera singer. "It really stretches you," she said, referring to the different styles she encounters. I was worried that I was getting stuck in the country thing and I didn't want to be labeled."

Chauncey said her time spent as an undergraduate in Mesiah, located in Granthem, PA, singing gospel with a traveling group, helped her focus on music as a future goal. "Everybody else thought it sucked," she said, relating stories to constant road trips. "I was like - I love this."

And though the college years of performing on the road and wondering where to crash for the night are behind her, Chauncey said she has yet to find musicians she would like to settle down with. In the meantime, she splits her singing time between different musicians and looks forward to eventually having a CD on the market and singing professionally.

One of her upcoming ventures will place her at Café 52 on Easton Avenue next Friday night, where she performed once a month last summer. "People used to come and sit and relax," she said. "As long as it doesn't rain, I think we'll be golden."