Robin Huston


The Voice, the Ear, the Looks

By Gary Powell

How does one know when meeting a person for the first time that they will become a career-long musical colleague and life-long friend? Freshman Robin Huston showed up for an audition at the University of Texas for Ensemble 109 the very first semester I started directing the vocal group in January, 1985. Singer Robin Huston

Robin was eighteen years old, bright, a bit sassy, mostly naive and sang with a huge belting voice. In fact, the belt was so loud that I had to avert my ears in order to avoid my own inevitable hearing damage! Robin was the only singer who won this audition as a freshman. She soon became the most effective solo voice to belt out “Together We Are Texas”, a raucous theme song I had written for the group’s mostly Texas-born audiences. She flourished in the following four years of solid ear training, vocal experimentation, learning group skills all the while performing and improving beyond measure. The end product; a sweetness of vocal tone with a rock solid ear for hearing parts and a best friend for me.

I always hold Robin up as my example in countering the argument of choir directors or vocal producers who think all singers must be able to read music. If you dictate a difficult inside vocal line to Robin one time, she’ll hold on to it forever no matter what happens in the adjacent vocal parts. Here’s the cool thing: Change one note of her part in that same passage and now she’ll remember that until the same time next year. Change it again? She says, “Okay, I got it.” This is why Robin has worked with me across all vocal genres in recording sessions since 1985.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in advertising at U.T., Robin soon became the darling of the Austin musical theatre scene performing in many shows at Zachary Scott Theatre Center and many other Austin theatres.

Robin now lives in Norman, Oklahoma with her husband Tom Orr and two children Henry and Harper. Upon moving to Oklahoma and before the birth of her daughter Harper, Robin served as Vice-President of Programs at the Oklahoma Arts Institute. Husband Tom Orr, who holds the James Garner Chair as the Director of the University of Oklahoma’s School of Drama also has performance credits in my studio on Walt Disney Records’ hip-hop record “Party Beats” on the Gary Powell song “Genetic Experiment”.

These Robin Huston performances below can be found on various Walt Disney Records recordings and other recordings listed below. Please note that I do not sell these recordings. For more information please go directly to Walt Disney Records or follow the links below for specific titles for Shadow Play Records and other record companies.

Various Solo Performances for Walt Disney Records

The Right Move for Me, A Gift for You, Dear Santa, Hey Santa, Minnie Had a Little Lamb, God Help the Outcasts, Candle on the Water, I Just Wanna Fly, Santa Please Take Me Flying, Bare Necessities, I Want to Be Like You (Mowgli), Up On the Housetop, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Hide and Seek

Solo Performances from Various “Winnie the Pooh” Products (Walt Disney Records)

The Alphabet Day, Pooh’s Colorful Present, Number Hunt

Solo Performances from Various “Little Mermaid” Products (Walt Disney Records)

Part of Your World, Poor Unfortunate Souls

Choral Performances for Various “Lion King” Products (Walt Disney Records)

Warthog Rhapsody

Various Choral or Group Work for (Walt Disney Records)

Baby Mine, I Hear Thunder, The Claw (Toy Story Sing Along), Oh Dear, What Can the Matter Be?, Mickey Mouse Club March, Battle Hymn of the Republic (Bluegrass Version), Wanna Grow Up, Morning’s Here, Humpty Dumpty, Genetic Experiment, And I Eat Pigs for Breakfast, The Parade, Pat-a-Cake, Twistin’ the Night Away, Let’s All Roar Tonight

Joe Scruggs from “Not Afraid of the Dark”

Popcorn

Joe Scruggs from “Bahamas Pajamas”

Star Sun, Busy Box Band, Sweet Low, Saint Mountain (Bahamas Pajamas), Peas Porridge Hot, Whole Bed, Almost Home

Joe Scruggs from “Ants”

The Parade, Not Fair, Can’t Rock the Baby, Come on Down, Night-Light

Joe Scruggs from “Merry Christmas – Joe Scruggs”

Up on the Housetop, Frosty the Snowman, Jingle Bell Rock, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Jingle Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Imaginaria (Miramar Productions)

Styro the Dog, Shapes and Sizes

Various Performance for Gary Powell

Gary Powell Presents… (“In the Studio” Video performance of “I Just Wanna Fly”), Battle Hymn of the Republic (Choral Version), Psalm 42 (Phillip Sandifer), The Good News Is (Hall Chiropractic Jingle), Hark the Herald Angels Sing (University of Texas, Ensemble 109)

Kurt Van Sickle

“Blessed Father”, “Father, Father”, “Mother Devine”

The Great 9-1-1 Adventure (9-1-1 for Kids)

It’s Time to Go Play

Make the Life You Want

by Gary Powell

We commonly understand that illegal drug use, alcohol abuse and driving on the wrong side of the road are bad for humans. However, there is no more efficient way to forestall a perfectly talented artistic career than to be unequally yoked in either a professional or personal relationship. oxen photoBeing unequally yoked is a Biblical reference, but nonetheless, I like the descriptive metaphor of two oxen of different strengths joined by a big block of wood ostensibly joining forces to pull a creative load of art. Just make sure that the oxen coupled to you is an equal in all regards: four legs, two eyes, nice haunches, health insurance and an IRA account. If that ox on your immediate right is half your weight in these areas, then it’s not only your monetary success that will soon be forestalled. You may find that the passion for what was previously your “inspired work” will quickly minify to “busy work”. The up side is that you may soon enjoy a new and flourishing resentment of nearly everything in life, always entertaining chatter at parties.

Make the life you want to live rather than living a life which only solves the problems of others unless it is your conscious choice to do so.

Having partners that either restrain us or push us where we don’t want to go will put a check in the box of your life’s spreadsheet in the column labeled “Failure Due to Bad Decisions”! This spreadsheet field’s formula is a simple “yes” or “no”. Too many metaphors? Probably not. Our culture, family, jobs and government are all willing to burden us with the yoke of hidden responsibilities until we finally rebel and simply say ‘No more’! – Gary Powell

Here are a few signs that your life may soon have a check in the box labeled “Failure Due to Bad Decisions”:

  1. Look for your inability to make a decision without consulting at least one powerful person or your posse.
  2. Look to see if you have a posse. Unless yours is consciously and legally locked to your mission, then the members of your posse will each absolutely serve their own purposes. Sadly, at first your posse won’t feel like self-serving sycophants. They will feel like friends. There is nothing better than trusted friends, however, the real ones will have their own lives and goals and won’t have the time or the interest to suck off yours. This is why so many arts programs are best organized under the Internal Revenue 501(c)(3) Tax Code.
  3. Look for writer’s block, depression or rage in yourself even if you are able to hide it from others.
  4. Look for friends who are always tempting you to quit working for the night and go out on the town.
  5. Look at your unsecured credit card debt.
  6. Look for a pattern of buyer’s remorse.
  7. Look at the size of your “regrets” file versus the size of your “aspirations” file.
  8. Look at your health.
  9. Look to see how many times a day you say, “If I had only…”
  10. Look to see how many times a day you say, “I feel great for no reason” or “I have hope in my heart”. If this never happens, you may have found the first destination pin in the map you should be using to retrace your previous bad decisions that are affecting you now. Our repetitive bad decisions can indeed be the map for learning about ourselves. Figure this out as early as possible, so you can quit making the wrong stops with the wrong people at the wrong time.

If all this is too confusing, then do this: Make the life you most want to live rather than either living the life or solving the problems of others, unless it is your conscious choice to do so. Your creative life is not any person’s or institution’s responsibility but your own.

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