22 | SMOOTH JAZZ NEWS Lindsey Webster’s journey back to light FINDING THE MUSICAGAIN Lindsey Webster performing at the 2019 Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City Beach, Florida (Photo: Jim Clark) By Ken Capobianco Sometimes, people have to deal with great pain to remind themselves who they are and what matters in their lives. Jazz-R&B vocalist Lindsey Webster understands this too well. Webster recently released her seventh album, Music in Me, after a long period of loss, grief and self-doubt that caused intense writer’s block and creative inertia. The vocalist, who has become a smooth jazz star thanks to her graceful vocals, lost her child six months into her pregnancy and got mired in the darkness, causing her to doubt her purpose as an artist. She has come out on the other side with Music in Me, which is graced with life-affirming songs that find Webster at her most confident and soulful. The 13-track set leans hard toward R&B and shows that she has emerged from the emotional shadows and found her light again. “This album came after a long time of not being able to write,” said Webster via phone while on an extended stay in Los Angeles after her flight home to Woodstock, New York, was canceled by a blizzard in the Northeast. “I was having a writer’s block situation, and I wrote the song ‘Music in Me,’ and that was a reminder of why I started creating music—it really wasn’t a choice. I just love to do it, and it is fun.” It was a struggle for her to get her songwriting mojo back. She found herself in a deep funk that dried up her creative juices. Doubt crept in, causing her to wonder if her musical career was over.
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