Toby Lightman

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Origin Cherry Hill, New Jersey, United States
Genre(s) Pop / Rock / Acoustic
Years active 1996 – Present
Label(s) Atlantic Records
Website Official site

Toby Lightman is a critically-acclaimed American singer/songwriter. Her first album, Little Things, was released in 2004 on Lava/Atlantic, featuring the hit single Devils and Angels, which enjoyed considerable airplay in the summer of 2004. Her second album, Bird on a Wire was released in 2006. During her career, she has toured and performed with bands such as OAR, Rob Thomas, Jewel, Gavin DeGraw, Train, Prince, and Carbon Leaf. Toby is represented by On Campus Booking, a college booking agency that also books Ari Hest.8


Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Childhood

Toby Lightman was born in Cherry Hill Township, New Jersey in 1978 and grew up in that community just outside Philadelphia, where she lived with her parents. Lightman attended Cherry Hill High School East.[1] Lightman’s interest in popular music and vocal performance were limited during her childhood. However, inspired by violinist Itzhak Perlman, she began playing the violin when she was six years old and eventually joined the Young Stars music school where she studied using the Suzuki method [2]. Although Lightman continued to play the violin throughout her childhood into high school, her musical endeavors did not reach much further during her youth. She also spent a good amount of her summers at Pinemere Camp located in the Poconos.

[edit] High school

In high school, Lightman was a member of the lacrosse team and the orchestra. She started singing when a friend urged her to join a vocal workshop class. Lightman began taking her vocal abilities seriously when she found herself accepted to more advanced choral groups. High school graduation proved to be the major turning point in Lightman’s life as a singer and performer. (She has referred to it as her “coming out” as a singer [2].) In a solo performance at her graduation, Lightman sang a gospel version of Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. Because of the audience’s emotional response to her performance, Lightman decided to pursue her talents as a singer.

[edit] College

After her graduation performance, Lightman purchased a guitar and began teaching herself how to play. (The first two songs she learned to play on the guitar were the Indigo Girls’ Closer to Fine and Over the Hills and Far Away by Led Zeppelin.) She then attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study broadcasting where she joined the band Footsteps, which she has described as acting “as the social gathering for everyone home on break from college."[2] During this time, Lightman remained a member of her college orchestra, made guest appearances in Madison-based funk bands, began writing her own songs, and performed at “open mic” nights.

During her junior year of college, Lightman traveled to Thailand where she performed for five months as one of the lead vocalists of the rock band Bliss. She performed six nights a week and experienced her first time on “the road” as an artist. She has claimed that this time greatly changed her as a person and performer [2].

[edit] After college

Upon her return to the United States, Lightman finished her degree in broadcasting and started to take songwriting more seriously. She then moved to New York City where she worked as a bartender. She recorded her one-track demo tape in rapper Wyclef Jean’s Booga Basement and began searching for a recording contract.

Upon hearing her demo, Ari Martin of Netwerk Management became Lightman’s manager. Martin introduced Toby to Peter Zizzo, who then became her producer. Martin and Zizzo organized a solo showcase for Lightman to perform for record executives and representatives. One such executive was Andy Karp (who is now the head of A&R at Atlantic Records). He signed Lightman to Lava Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, shortly after hearing her performance. [3]

Toby was then featured as a VH1 You Oughta Know artist and as an MTV You Hear It First artist.

Lightman performs the opening theme to Fox Sports' coverage of the 2008 NASCAR racing season with a song titled "NASCAR Love (Let's Go Racing)"

[edit] Music

[edit] Little Things

Main article: Little Things (album)
Little Things album cover.
Little Things album cover.

Lightman’s first full-length studio album, Little Things, was released on March 30th, 2004. The twelve-track album was promoted with the single Devils and Angels, for which Lightman filmed her first music video. The album received mixed reviews, many of which suggested that its conventional, rock/pop synthesized production restricted Toby from establishing a distinctive voice and sound as an artist. The album was often compared musically to Dido, Nelly Furtado, Lauryn Hill, and Mary J. Blige. [4]

A second version of Little Things was released on July 20, 2004 that included a bonus cover track of Mary J. Blige’s 1992 hit single Real Love. The song was released as the album’s second single and a music video was filmed to promote the track.

[edit] Songs

Lightman’s favorite song on Little Things is "Everyday", which took four years to complete.

The lyrics to Frightened were written in twenty minutes.

[edit] Bird on a Wire

Main article: Bird on a Wire (album)

Lightman's second full-length studio album, Bird On A Wire, was released on July 25th, 2006. The thirteen-track album's first single and music video were for the track Holding Me Down. The album has garnished positive reviews, many of which celebrate Lightman's shift in production sound (from synthesized to live instrumentation) and because of this shift, suggest that Lightman has more firmly established her voice as a recording artist [5].

The album is named after the front cover artwork of a one-off 1969 album recorded by Lightman's late uncle, Aaron Lightman, who encouraged her and offered her advice after she decided to make music her career. [3] Aaron Lightman's album was re-issued in February 2008 under the Fallout label. The words "bird on a wire" also appear as lyrics on the album.

Two different bonus tracks appear with online versions of Bird On a Wire. The bonus track Front Row (Live) is available with the album at the iTunes music store while Alone (Slow Mix) is available with the album at Napster, Rhapsody, and Ruckus.

Lightman wrote the song Better for her sister when she was pregnant with Lightman's nephew.

[edit] Discography

 Please help improve this section by expanding it.
Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

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[edit] Studio albums

Year Album Label US Sales Chart Peak Position
2004 Little Things Lava/Atlantic ? Top Heatseekers 14
The Billboard 200 200
2004 Little Things (Bonus Track) Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2004 Little Things (Australia Bonus Track) Lava/Big Much Productions ? ? ?
2006 Bird On A Wire Lava/Atlantic ? Top Heatseekers 30

[edit] EPs

Year EP Label US Sales Chart Peak Position
2003 Toby Lightman EP ? ? ? ?
2005 Connect Sets Sony Connect ? ? ?

[edit] Singles

Year Single Label US Sales Chart Peak Position
2004 Operator Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2004 Devils And Angels Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2004 Everyday Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2005 Real Love Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2006 Holding Me Down Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2006 Sleigh Ride Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?
2007 My Sweet Song Lava/Atlantic ? ? ?

[edit] Soundtrack appearances

Year Soundtrack Format Featured Song
2003 Project Gotham Racing Xbox Video Game Devils and Angels
2003 Uptown Girls Feature Film Frightened
2004 Everwood Television Show Operator
2007 P.S. I Love You Feature Film My Sweet Song
2008 2008 NASCAR on FOX TV FOX TV NASCAR Love

[edit] Pop culture

  • My Sweet Song from Bird On A Wire was featured near the end of the Boston Legal episode, "Desperately Seeking Shirley".

[edit] References

  1. ^ Strauss, Robert. "IN PERSON; More Than Getting By With Help of Friends", The New York Times, December 26, 2004. Accessed October 25, 2007. "The 26-year-old singer-songwriter from Cherry Hill is home for a visit... And her big coup was singing a gospel chorus of Bridge Over Troubled Water at Cherry Hill High School East, where she graduated from in 1996."
  2. ^ a b c d Netwerk Management. Toby Lightman - Eariler Biography. 2002.
  3. ^ a b All Media Guide, LLC. VH1.com: Toby Lightman: Biography. 2005.
  4. ^ Album Review by All Music Guide, LLC. 2006.
  5. ^ Editorial Review. Amazon.com. 2006.

[edit] External links

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