From Vegas Showgirl to Soul Singer: Markey Blue's Evolution

Send us a text

Ever wondered what happens when life throws you major curveballs? Markey Blue's remarkable journey from Las Vegas showgirl to acclaimed singer-songwriter proves that creative reinvention isn't just possible—it's transformative.

The moment Markey watched 30-year-old dancers receive pink slips for being "too old," she knew adaptation was essential for survival in the entertainment industry. Her pivot to stand-up comedy led to singing through impressions, eventually landing her in the Radio Hall of Fame where she accepted for Gracie Allen. After moving to Nashville and spending two decades touring the blues circuit, personal tragedy struck when her husband and musical partner suffered a brain injury. Rather than retreat, Markey evolved again—producing her first solo project with a fresh soul/R&B sound that's already catching the attention of television music supervisors.

What makes Markey's story extraordinary is her collaborative spirit and connections with music legends. She shares heartwarming stories about working with Steve Cropper (writer of "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and "Soul Man"), who became a mentor after hearing her perform. Her latest project features iconic musicians Eugene Moles (Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings) and Mark T. Jordan ("Midnight at the Oasis"). Beyond her own music, Markey now produces for artists across genres, from Americana to Christian reggae.

Ready for inspiration to follow your own creative path? Listen to Markey's powerful message: "It's never too late, just keep following that creative doorway because you don't know what's around the next corner." Subscribe to Living the Dream with Curveball wherever you get your podcasts and discover more stories that teach, motivate, and inspire.

Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show

(00:20):
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
Today, we are joined bysinger-songwriter Markie Blue.
She blends blues, jazz andcontemporary pop to create a
sound that's fresh and timely.
So we're going to be talking toMarkie about everything that

(00:42):
she's up to and about that newsong that's out.
So, markie, thank you so muchfor joining me.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Thank you so much for having me Curtis.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Goodness, I have got a crazy background.
Started out as a Las Vegasshowgirl, was a dance major so
was in in Vegas and was tooafraid to sing.
So I started as a showgirl inthe big shows and then I started
doing stand-up comedy and Istarted working with a lot of

(01:18):
the big stars and stuff andstarted doing impressions.
And that's where I startedsinging.
Singing was doing impressionsof other people, but in fact I
think the biggest one, thebiggest notoriety I got there,
is I'm in the Radio Hall of Famein Chicago.
When they inducted George Burnsand Gracie Allen into the Hall

(01:41):
of Fame I got to accept forGracie I didn't even know who
she was, I just had a managerthat gave me a thing and said,
here, learn this voice.
So.
But then that's when I startedto sing and, uh, I wanted to get
out of that.
I wanted to start learning howto song right.
So I got, was on a countrylabel, got bought off, the label

(02:03):
moved here to Nashville and theguy who owned the label he
passed away.
So I was like, well, I'vealways wanted to song write.
So that left me here.
Then got into blues.
I've toured the blues world forthe last gosh 15, 20 years I've

(02:27):
toured in the blues industry.
I've had a lot of luck, quite afew television placements.
You might have heard some of mymusic in some of your favorite
TV shows and then my partner andhusband, who I was co-writing
and playing with, and husbandwho I was co -writing and
playing with, got a brain injury.
And so this is my first song onmy own and I decided to go a

(02:52):
little bit more soul, more soul,more R&B and pop.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
So this is my first endeavor in a long time, from
coming out of blues on into myown.
Okay, so real quick.
What did you do?

Speaker 2 (03:14):
as a Las Vegas show girl, I know the movie show
girls is out there in thenineties.
So what did you do that?
That was absolutely nothing,nothing like what it is for real
.
I got signed to my first show.
I still have braces on my teethso I had to get plastic the

(03:36):
clear braces.
And I was a freshman at UNLVand one of my dance professors
was like you really got to comeaudition.
So I went and auditioned andgot it.
I was just one of the chorus atthe time, but it's two shows a
night, six nights a week, youknow, with the big feathers and
the.
You know you're at heels andstuff and it's, it's hard work,
plus going to school full time,you know, plus taking other

(03:57):
classes and teaching classes atthe time.
So, um, yeah, it's, it's notlike what that movie was.
I mean there's prayer meetingsin between shows, there's
everybody's a family, it'speople have families, it's.
It's a job, you know, and it'sa hard job.
Being a professional dancer isa hard job.

(04:19):
But I I worked a lot of the bigshows, um, there also got moved
to japan for a while and wasdoing a show over in Japan
before coming back and then Istarted starring in the shows,
becoming the featured dancer andthat, before I went in, started
going into stand-up.

(04:39):
I started seeing 30-year-oldsget pink slips because they were
too old.
So I'm like, okay, time for meto learn a new craft.
So I started working onstand-up, learning how to do it
okay.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Well, tell us who are some of your biggest influences
in music.
Who influences you to do whatyou do?

Speaker 2 (05:01):
oh, my goodness, um, I love me some ann pebbles.
I love me some mavis staples.
Um, you know all, all thestacks.
And it's so funny becausestevepper who I don't?
Are you familiar with who thatis?

Speaker 1 (05:22):
No, tell us about him .

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh, my goodness, let's see, he won the Grammy for
writing Sitting on the Dock ofthe Bay.
Yeah, that's Steve.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
Oh, okay, I love that song.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
You know the song Soul man, I'm a soul man.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Soul man.
Yep, I love that song too.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
Play it, steve.
That's Steve.
Steve was one of the originalBlues Brothers but he was one of
the writers.
He's the guitar player for somany hits that you know and love
All the Sam and Dave, all theOtis Redding, all that stuff, so

(06:02):
many of the Staples Singersongs.
There's so much great musicthat came out of Stax um records
and that's Steve both playingon it and writing Um I.
We got a chance to open forSteve.
Never met him before.
We opened for him here inNashville and so we got done and
he came up on stage and bandstarted.

(06:23):
He stopped the band and saidthat band that just left the
stage, he goes.
I don't know who they are, butif I were still writing music
today, that's what I would bewriting and we were like holy
cow, he's talking about us.
So afterwards he came out,found us, was hanging on to us
and he's like I love your musicand so I gave him a CD and I

(06:46):
said we haven't released thisyet but maybe you'd listen to it
and maybe write liner notes.
I get an email in the middle ofthe night saying I cannot get
one of your songs out of my head, but I think we can beat the
vocal.
Come to my studio I'm like, ohmy God, this is a multi-winning,

(07:07):
grammy winning artist.
You know, one of my heroes thatI grew up with you know
listening to all the Stax musicand Blues Brothers music.
So he had us come to his studio.
He's rocking out to our musicand then I redid the vocal there

(07:27):
.
He produced it, he told me whathe wanted to hear and, yeah, it
was just amazing and since thenhe's just been like a dad, he's
like a band dad and since thenhe's just been like a dad, he's
like a band dad.
But he was such a hugeinfluence with me growing up.

(07:48):
And you too, I'm sure you knowall the old Stax hits, midnight
Hour, all that stuff.
That's Steve, you know.
Helping write, helping arrange,helping produce that stuff
that's Steve, you know.
Helping write, helping arrange,helping produce that stuff, you
know.
But it's definitely been athrill getting to work with him
and then getting to interactwith him later and stuff.

(08:11):
So those are some of myinfluences wow, that's pretty
interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
So tell us about you know, your, your, your new
projects or any newer upcomingprojects that you're working on.
You know, kind of talk about it, talk about what, what inspired
it and anything else you wantto say about it well, I this
song.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Um, like I said, and, by the way, this song just got
picked up by our televisionpublisher.
We've got songs in like likegray's anatomy picked up, one
clause picked up.
We've got songs in so many tvshows and, um, this one just got

(08:53):
picked up.
So I'm crossing my fingers thata show will take it because our
publisher is really picky, ourTV publisher, he's so picky
about what he's looking for.
But I always wanted to dosomething with layered, lots of
layered vocals in it, layered,lots of layered vocals in it.

(09:19):
I kind of got to go wildbecause it was me, by myself
producing it.
Usually I would produce with myhusband, but this one was me.
So I kind of went a littlecrazy.
I did a little Ricky Lee Joneskind of thing on it and added
all kinds of vocal layers.
The people on there there's acouple of couple legends on that
.
The guitar player is EugeneMoles.
He uh started playing with BuckOwens and Waylon Jennings when

(09:42):
he was like 16.
He started touring with themand you used to see him on Hee
Haw and that that's when he wasa little a boy and he is just
amazing.
He's toured with so many greats.
It was funny.
He did the solo and he goes hey, it's kind of a midnight at the
oasis solo.
I said, isn't that funny?
That's who's coming in to laythe b3.

(10:03):
Mark t jordan played onmidnight at the oasis.
You know he's you got to lookup the discography for mark t
jordan.
What all hits he played on.
The guy's amazing.
But I brought in a cool eclecticgroup of guys that I thought
would fit together well on this,some known, some unknown.

(10:37):
And then I had a friend of mine.
He used to be the guitar playerfor Rick Springfield.
Um, he was a writer from Motownfor years and, uh, since my
husband's brain injury, he canno longer work our studio.
So I had to go to a friend'sstudio and so he helped me, uh,
put things together.
And that's Jeff Silverman.
Um, yeah, he was great and hewent along with all my crazy
ideas on this song.
So I'm just I'm thrilled withthe way it came out.

(10:59):
You know I'm excited.
I produce songs for otherartists.
I just did a, I just did anAmericana artist, and then today
I'm working with a Christianreggae artist and so I'm
producing a new single out forthem.
So that's literally why I waslike come on computer work.

(11:21):
I just got done working in astudio with those guys, so I'm
crossing my fingers it'll comeout good and they'll like where
I'm taking it for them.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Oh, I'm sure it definitely will.
You're definitely talented Ilook.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
There's nothing more exciting to me than to to create
a song, to go from nothing,absolutely nothing, and then
seeing it all the way throughand creating it.
Well, you know, you know, asyou know, starting with nothing
on your hip hop songs and thencreating something and hearing

(11:58):
the parts in your head and thenactually being able to get them
down and have the end thing, youknow, and I get excited helping
helping other people do theexact same thing.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
Absolutely Well.
Throw out your contact info sopeople can keep up with
everything that you're up to.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Oh, I'm sorry, but you can find me like on Facebook
or Instagram.
I think I've got Marky Blue onFacebook Plus.
I have Marky Blue, rick LatinaProject.
That's the band with my husbandthat we're no longer working
because of his injury.
Band with my husband.

(12:37):
That isn't, we're no longerworking because of his injury.
Um, I think on instagram it'sthe same thing.
I it's under marky blue, ricklatina, but now it's just my
stuff, or?

Speaker 1 (12:53):
okay, we'll close this out with some final
thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about that you
would like to touch on any finalthoughts you have for the
listeners let's see any finalthoughts.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Man, you know my life has changed so many times and
you just got to keep walkingthrough those doors as they open
because you never know whereit's going to lead.
I mean literally started out asa dancer, which, and then I
wound up doing standup comedyand working with so many

(13:28):
celebrities, you know, and gotinto acting.
Same thing, worked with so manydifferent celebrities, but you
know, and got into acting.
Same thing, worked with so manydifferent celebrities, but you
know, it kept going.
And then I discoveredsongwriting and then started
singing and it's, it's never toolate, and just just keep
following it.
You don't know wheresomething's going to lead and

(13:49):
all the knowledge that you getalong the way you're going to
wind up using it later on.
You may not see where it'sgoing to come out and how you're
going to wind up using it lateron.
You may not see where it'sgoing to come out and how it's
going to be used, but just keepfollowing that creative doorway
because you don't know what'saround the next corner.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Absolutely, ladies and gentlemen, the great Markie
Blue.
Please check out her music,check out everything she's up to
, check out the new project.
Follow, rate, review, sharethis episode to as many people
as possible.
Follow us on your favoritepodcast platform.
Visit wwwcurveball337.com formore information on the Living

(14:32):
the Dream with Curveball podcast.
Thank you so much for listeningand supporting the show and,
markie, thank you for all thatyou do and thank you for the
great music and thank you forjoining me.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Thank you so much, curtis, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.