Starlet Charlotte

"It's striking to see such a sweet-looking girl pump out such soulful music," senior Sean Cooney says of his good friend, junior Charlotte Littlehales. "She has the potential to sing among the greats."

Besides performing with Cooney in InToneNation, Blair's a cappella group, Littlehales is involved in music in many other ways. She's been singing, her father says, "since she could talk." She's taught herself to play guitar and piano; she's written at least twenty original songs, and she's fronting a new Blair-based band and a local band, Profusion, which performs at the Inwood Coffee House. She also sings regularly for Big Boy Little, her father's blues band, and has had roles in Blair's presentations of She Loves Me and Guys And Dolls.

As Littlehales explains, her attraction to music was unexplainable and inevitable. "I grew up in music," she says. "I don't really know why I like it so much. It just makes me feel good."

Littlehales says that all her friends encourage her and advise her, but her friend junior Cory Choy sticks out as a musical influence and inspiration. "The only person I feel comfortable playing my stuff with is Cory. He's the first person I go to because he tells me if it really sucks," she says.

Choy plays guitar and harmonica with Littlehales in a yet-to-be-named Blair band, and he has seen her develop into the confident and talented artist she is today. "At first, she was really shy, even scared almost," Choy explains. "Now, she has command of her voice. She has command of the stage."
Thanks to Choy's parents, Littlehales has grown as a performer and musician. Choy's parents have provided her with an opportunity to perform in their local opera company and to sing in Profusion, the house band for the Inwood Coffee House, which the Choy family organizes. The University Blvd coffee house is set in an apartment complex for the disabled, Littlehales' primary audience.

Littlehales also sings with her father, Breton, in his blues band, Big Boy Little. She attributes her musical interest in blues and jazz to her father, who has helped her with songwriting and playing guitar.

But Breton says he's taken a casual approach to encouraging his daughter to play, allowing her to develop on her own. "She's a real self-starter," he says. "It would be really difficult to keep her away from music."

Littlehales, who describes the music she writes as "girl music—mostly sad little love stories," shows an eclectic range of musical influences. Besides listening to blues and jazz, she also enjoys folk and Latin music, and she performs everything from swing to Irish rock with Profusion.

Littlehales plans to put her musical versatility to good use after high school, hopefully progressing to a college with "a good music scene, kind of like New Orleans."