“Singing, honey, that is like breathing to me.”
All that I’ve asked Summer Joy to do is say her name into the microphone, so that I can make sure that I’ve properly set the recording levels. But she’s primed to plumb the depths of her approach to music-making.
Joy spent much of her youth in Columbia, Tenn., where she transitioned from playing French horn in the school band to singing with a local jazz combo before moving just an hour north to attend Belmont University. The school’s appeal was that the singer Yebba — whose viral live performance captivated Joy with its elliptical and eruptive expression — had briefly studied there…