Singer, songwriter and pianist Avery*Sunshine believes in gratitude. She radiates a warmth and positivity that makes you feel like she is giving you a hug. The vocalist opens for Gregory Porter this Saturday at the Berklee Performance Center, and spoke with the Banner as she was clothes shopping with her son before heading out on tour.
Known for her hit singles “Call My Name” and “See You When I Get There” (both from her 2014 album “The Sunroom”), the Chester, Pennsylvania native credits part of her success to having a strong support system that keeps her grounded. That support system includes her mother, her children and her musical partner and boyfriend Dana Johnson. “I must say I attribute being able to keep my feet on the ground to having good people around me. I am so grateful for my mother, to my children, to my boyfriend, to my colleague. I’m grateful and I find that a lot of us don’t have that and are not insulated in that way, so we turn to drugs or whatever else, to self-medicate, so we can shut out all that noise.”
If You Go
HT Productions will present An Evening with Gregory Porter plus AVERY*Sunshine in concert on Saturday, at 8 pm at the Berklee Performance Center. Tickets at $55, $45 and $35. Purchase online at www.berklee.edu/BPC; by calling 617.747.3161 or in person at the Berklee Performance Center Box Office.
At one point, she was almost overcome by all that noise after the success of her single “Call My Name.” In December 2014, the song reached number one on Billboard’s Adult R&B songs chart after 28 weeks on the chart. The singer describes the feeling “as a paralysis”. She recounts how all of a sudden she started receiving calls from industry people asking her ‘“So, now what are you going to do?” Months later, she recalls, “All kinds of stuff was coming in, trying to make its way into my space. It almost got me. I’m grateful for my family and for my partner Dana who said ‘No, that’s not why we were created.’”
Fellow singer and good friend Eric Roberson also gave her some advice. He said to Sunshine that “as long as you do you, everything is going to be alright. That’s it. Don’t worry about what people say. Don’t worry about trying to keep up with something.”
Avery*Sunshine has stayed true to her vision of creating music and writing songs that touches one’s heart and soul. Thankfully fate intervened and provided a path for her to showcase her voice and talents. When asked about the one thing that she hopes to pass on to her children, she replies without missing a beat: “To make yourself happy first.”
