A Rocky road
to success
Singer from the
By John Berger
Philippines finds a
home in Waikiki
Special to the Star-BulletinIt sounds simple, but maybe it isn't.
"There's a difference between saying, 'I'll sing anything' and actually doing it," Rocky Brown explains.
"I want to feel the music I'm singing, whatever kind of music it is. I don't want to be just singing the words, and I don't like to use lyric sheets on stage. If you don't know the song or don't understand the music, it'll sound like you're just trying to get by."
Brown practices what she preaches. From her earliest days as a professional singer she's been open to different types of music, but when an opportunity comes along, she studies the genre -- not just the songs she'll be singing.
"I grew up liking songs by Michael Jackson and Carole King. I was always into pop tunes, but when I got cast on Broadway I researched that style. When I got into the Motor City Angels I wanted to learn the background of Motown music, and when I began singing with John Cruz I felt I had to learn more about where his music was coming from."
So it is that Rocky Brown sings Broadway standards with Brian Robertshaw at the Hanohano Room at the Sheraton Waikiki, and is one of several singers who alternates as Robertshaw's vocalist in a pop-standards format other weeknights. On Sundays she sings modern rock at Whiskey Beach.
Brown arrived in Hawaii several years ago. Born and raised in the Philippines, she'd spent a year on Broadway in "Miss Saigon." Back problems aggravated by the physical demands of dancing on the sharply slanted stage forced her to leave the show. She ended up here, distinguished herself in a couple of small concerts marketed mainly to the Filipino community, and then dropped out of sight.
"People think you're a 'star' and making lots of money. When I got divorced I had $100. I was determined to stay here instead of going back to New York or the Philippines, but it seemed that all the people who wanted to me sing after seeing those concerts wanted me to sing for free. 'We don't have a budget' -- then I'd learn that they were paying the others.
Mike Ramsey, the guy who showcased live contemporary music at Sharks Cafe and Hot Lava on Coyne Street, quietly opened a new club several weeks ago, Whiskey Beach. New nightspot is
just beachin'He's billing it as "the new beach on the block." The tropical beachfront atmosphere is similar to Sharks/Hot Lava but includes an open-air lanai as well as a dimly lit back room-with-pool-table.
The menu also evokes memories of Coyne Street with economically priced heavy pupu-type food such as fish tacos, whiskey wings, baked brie, fries, poke, sashimi and salads.
Weekly entertainers featured include Rocky Brown, Mackey Feary, BB Shawn & Barry Flanagan, Surf Psycho Sexy and Sunburn.
Or, she said she was told, " 'Nobody knows you here,' or they'd say it was a benefit and it wasn't. There was a part of me that wanted to sing very much, but I couldn't let people do that to me. So I stopped singing."
Brown updated her resume, pounded the pavement, and got a day job in the visitor industry. She'd done office work in New York before getting cast in "Miss Saigon."
"I don't think of it as a low point -- maybe it was as far as singing -- but thank God for my education. I wasn't afraid to work and I could get a job. Some people here couldn't believe that a 'star' would look for a job. They may have felt sorry for me, but I never felt sorry for myself. The one thing was that I had to work 20 hours because I had to have health insurance."
Brown gradually resumed singing and eventually had so many paying gigs that she had to choose between singing and her promising new visitor-industry career. Singing won out, but she remains a humble self-starter -- not too proud to hit the streets handing out fliers announcing her new Whiskey Beach gig.
"I feel that if I don't do that and nobody shows up it's my fault. If I do it and nobody shows up it's OK. At least I know that I did my part."
And people do show up!
Rocky Brown
On stage: 8 p.m. Sundays
