That voice--it’s sultry, smoky, and sexy. It’s part Billie Holiday, part Tina Turner and part Marge Simpson on helium. It’s unmistakably Macy Gray.  It’s that voice I hear on the phone when I talked to the Canton native about her latest CD and concert tour with David Bowie which comes to the CSU Convocation Center this month. I recognize her voice, but at the same time, there’s something unfamiliar about it.

I had seen Gray on various TV shows and read past interviews.  She had always seemed exuberant, if not unpredictable.  Foremost in my memory was her 2001 appearance at the Pro Football Hall of Fame exhibition game.  Donned in a Browns jersey, she delivered an offbeat, tentative version of the National Anthem.  Her voice grew more wobbly as she stumbled over the words.  The crowd began laughing and booing.  Mercifully, a low-flying formation of planes drowned out the end.  Gray later referred to the incident as “life’s most embarrassing moment.” 

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appeared in January 2004 issue of Akron Life and Leisure