Smitty: Very cool. What kind of energy does that generate in you when you hear these great experiences and great comments from your fans?
KC: It’s humbling more than anything. I feel really humbled, it’s so much bigger than me, and I just want to be able to continue to touch people and to be able to make that kind of creative experience.
Smitty: Yes, and you’ve traveled abroad as well. I know you’ve been to Germany and a number of countries outside of the U.S. Talk about what means and what the audiences are like in comparison to the U.S.
KC: Yes, I did a couple shows in Germany a few years back and I will say that the audiences were just really enthusiastic about the music. I mean, they knew the lyrics and I didn’t know their language, you know, I knew a couple phrases but, I mean, here they were, knew the lyrics to my songs and yeah, and then the people stay up late and we didn’t even go on until one in the morning and it was jam packed with people. And the diversity, the whole—there’s a diversity of everything, of people, of lifestyle, of music. I think that was really engaging for me. It’s so different from the United States, where you have pockets and it’s sort of this is this and that’s that in different areas, but Europe is just much more broad to me, from my experience.
Smitty: Yeah. Do you feel a different energy when you’re there?
KC: You know, I think people are people no matter where they are. I think that’s the one thing that we all kinda need to think about, that it doesn’t really matter where you are in this world, we’re all the same, we’re all connected, we can all have the same feelings and everything.
Smitty: Yeah, I love that, Khani!
KC: And that kind of good energy is the same wherever you might be.
Smitty: Yeah, isn’t that amazing? Until you’re actually in a different country and conversing with different people around the world, you find that we’re not really that much different.
KC: No.
Smitty: And that’s the beauty of music. It is so international, so universal.
KC: Mm-hmm.
Smitty: Because we connect in such a similar way regardless of where we are.
KC: You’re right. Or any language barrier, economic or anything, you know, we really need to make that like touchstone, you know?
Smitty: Yeah, absolutely. So, now, speaking of performing.
KC: Mm-hmm?
Smitty: You mentioned leaving the other venue. You have something new working for you now and I must say congratulations as well.
KC: Thank you, thank you so much, thank you so much. Yes, my husband I have opened a supper club. It was an existing restaurant, so we’ve expanded it to have the dining room and the show room, and it’s a cozy, intimate setting. Of course, we have a wonderful stage and a great sound system. The room sounds fabulous. We’ve slightly tiered the seating in the room so there’s not a bad seat in there, and the food, our partners are Michael Lepore and his wife Patty Lepore, so it’s just outstanding Italian cuisine, and so we serve fine dining…The club is called Vocé [Lounge]. It’s spelled V-o-c-é and it means voice, translates to voice in Italian.
Smitty: Ah! Very cool.
KC: We’ve wanted to do this for quite some time. We just needed to find the right location, the right partners, of course we wanted to blend the great food with the music, and we’re also gonna be bringing in lots of different talent—national, international, the best regional—into the supper club. I mean, we wanna do some great, great things over there.
Smitty: Oh wow. I know you will. I’m looking forward to it. I’m gonna visit next month, so I’m looking forward to that.
KC: Oh good. Good, good.
Smitty: Yeah, so it’s Italian cuisine?
KC: It’s Italian cuisine and it is spectacular, and I have to say, you know, I love Italian food, I think a lotta people do, but being that my husband is Italian, he’s kinda picky about his Italian food, and it’s so good I can’t describe it. I mean, it’s just the flavors and the things that he comes up with, just fabulous, and they’re nice people too, really nice people.
Smitty: Yeah, well, tell Mike I like his approach. If you can’t find good Italian food, open your own restaurant. (Laughs.)
KC: There you go. That’s right, that’s right. Yeah, we can’t say we’ll ever go hungry.
Smitty: Exactly. Oh wow. Well, that’s amazing. So, now, your performance there, talk about what that’s like. Is that nightly?
KC: As of now, yeah, for now. We’ve actually only been open since the 26th of December.
Smitty: Right.
KC: So we’ve only been open a few weeks. It’s still kind of surreal because we’ve done a lot of the work ourselves and it’s really truly a labor of love in that respect. I’m there Wednesday through Saturday for now. We’re gonna be bringing in saxophonist Marion Meadows on Wednesdays.
Smitty: Nice!
KC: Yeah, and we’re gonna bring in another group on Tuesdays, I think a Latin group, and we’re just open to bringing in all kinds of, like I said, talent from really everywhere.
Smitty: Solid.
KC: Yeah, so it won’t be just me, and the voice, vocé, I mean, it’s art and the voice of art, the voice of, you know, whoever it might be.
