Music composes Cherie Call's life

Music came early to Cherie Call's life.

When she was 3, her older sister taught her to sing favorite pop songs from the radio. "Then she'd trot me out to sing for her friends.

"I didn't know the meaning of anything I was singing. I think my big one was 'You Light Up My Life.' They thought it was pretty funny."

Awhile later, Call began climbing up on the family's piano and "inventing" songs. "I didn't think they were really new songs. I thought everything that could be written had been written, and I just didn't know who wrote them."

When she found out she could, in fact, write new songs, Call was very excited. "I had a piano teacher that encouraged it. She'd send home a blank piece of paper and tell me to come back with a song."

For her first few songs, she started putting her favorite poems to music. But by age 12 or 13, she was writing her own lyrics, too. "Of course, I got more into it in college (majoring in music at Brigham Young University). I learned proper ways to do it."

With that background, it's not surprising to hear her say, "Music is who I am. I could not describe myself without talking about music. It's the way I express myself. It's a huge part of my life, a huge part of my personality."

Nor is it surprising that she is finding fans for her music in a wide variety of venues in and out of Utah — including Nashville, where she has been a regular performer at the famed Bluebird Cafe.

Call has recently released her fifth CD: "Beneath These Stars," which is her third on the Deseret Book/Shadow Mountain label. She'll also be conducting a songwriting workshop for the Institute of American Music on Thursday in the Provo Library.

Songwriting is an interesting thing, she said. Some things can be taught, but others must come from within. "I can tell people how to improve their lyrics and ways to make a melody better, but I can't tell them how to come up with ideas for lyrics and melodies. I can't even tell you how I do it for my own songs."

Call does carry a notebook around with her and writes down ideas that hit her. "I overhear conversations on an airplane or in a supermarket line." Sometimes she looks at what is going on around her or thinks about challenges in her life or the lives of the people she knows. "Then, when I get a few minutes, I'll sit down with my guitar and see if I can make them into good songs."

Some work, she said, and some don't.