INTERVIEW: LUCILLE CANADAY, A SINGING SERVANT
by Kristen West McGuire
(Lucille Canaday is a graduate of Eastern Washington University. She and her brother Omar wrote and recorded several CDs of music for causes ranging from breast cancer to tsunami relief. This interview was completed in 2007. Their tribute song for 9/11 All I Need is still on YouTube. )
Kristen: Your first song was a response to the September 11 tragedy. How did that come about?
Lucille: One of my classmates lost her brother in a car accident in 2001. I wrote a poem for her and it became the song, All I Need. Very shortly after that the 9/11 tragedy happened. I had had a dream correlated with it, yet, I couldn’t seem to participate. I was too young to give blood or help. I remembered the song and my brother worked on it with me. We played it for some people and doors just opened.
Kristen: Was performing the song difficult for you?
Lucille: Yes! I was so awfully shy back then. I couldn’t even order my own food in a restaurant. I would whisper to my brother what I wanted to order, and he would order for me. He’s so supportive! But this project was simple and heartfelt and grass roots for a good purpose, so I just did it.
Kristen: How did you get the word out about the song?
Lucille: I called up the biggest radio station in Portland. I planned exactly what to say to the DJ, but, when he got on the phone, he was very aloof to me. I just stammered something about “time with you is gold,” and he actually came and listened to us. He canceled the pro musicians he scheduled so my brother and I could play his show.
Kristen: You don’t sell your CDs, correct? You just send them to people who donate money to the charities you serve.
Lucille: Yes. Our message, especially to kids, is that no matter how old you are, you can make a difference by sharing your gifts and your heart with others. We raised more than $9000 for the New York City Firefighters Children Fund. We went to New York and hand delivered CDs to those who lost loved ones. It was a real honor to meet them.
Kristen: Tell me about the other CDs.
Lucille: Shortly after September 11th, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and we were taking care of my grandfather who was dying of pancreatic cancer. My grandmother Lucia also was diagnosed several years ago. I had to be the strong one for my mom and for my dad. Although both my grandparents died of cancer, my mom is a cancer survivor, so we experienced all of the different stages of cancer.
We ended up making five songs, and we called it the Fight for Me cancer campaign. Then we became spokespeople talking about the importance of early detection, and we were able to raise a lot of money for the mammograms and different cancer screenings. We were very blessed to have people come up to us and say that our music helped with the healing process or people who had lost a loved one.
We also did one in 2005 for the Tsunami victims, and in 2006 for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Kristen: Omar is away at medical school now. Do you still work together?
Lucille: Well, the tsunami one was my first solo. He wasn’t too happy to miss that one. (laughs) But we used the internet so he could help with the Katrina one. I wrote the song and sent him the MP3 file, and he recorded it back and forth and then I stuck it together. I had to use the first draft of my singing, because I had lost my voice due to health problems.
Kristen: Tell me about that.
Lucille: I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with ankylosing spondylitis, a type of arthritis. My body is fighting itself and the pain is random and sporadic. Eventually, it leads to the fusion of my spine and ribcage and hips and they don’t have a cure for it. At one point, I was on eighteen different medications a day, but I’ve reduced the medications that I need so I can focus on my studies. I’ve also had endometriosis and ulcers, in addition to acid reflux, which keeps me from singing sometimes.
Kristen: What a huge cross you are carrying! How do you keep your spirits up?
Lucille: I get very frustrated– I am a workaholic. But, in a way, I am grateful for when I get sick, because a lot of my writing is done then. None of my songs would be here; it all came from me being sick all the time. And God has allowed me to do so many things, that I can live with the times when He allows me to be too sick to work.
I was asked to sing the national anthem at my graduation, but two weeks before I got my acid reflux. I couldn’t even rehearse, and they had music department substitutes standing by at the end of the stage, but literally two hours before my time to sing, I got my voice back! God did that!
Kristen: Do you have a musical future?
Lucille: There are times when I feel that I need to move beyond what I have created. Sometimes I write music and it has nothing to do with anything. A while back, people saw me go into the recording studio at school, and they had this really frightening look, “What disaster happened now? Oh, no, Lucille is recording!” (laughs) I have the music that is half prayer and half song— those are the fundraisers— and then there is the music for the girl who falls in love and gets heartbroken. They think I am some sort of saint, when I live and love and get mad and joyful, just like everyone else!
