Lynnie Godfrey sings evening of standards

with Allentown Symphony in ‘Pops Series’

Lynnie Godfrey has lived a blessed life. Ask her yourself and she’ll tell you how fortunate she has been in so many ways. A versatile talent, Godfrey has graced stages both on Broadway and off, stateside and abroad, appeared on television, received awards, directed, produced and been mentored by some of the greatest talents of the past century.

Petite in stature, but tall in charisma, personality and that kind of natural talent that cannot be taught, Godfrey takes to the main stage 7:30 p.m. Jan 23, Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown.

The Allentown Symphony Orchestra, conducted by ASO Associate Conductor Rick Demkee, will provide lush musical accompaniment to Godfrey’s vocals as she performs an evening of standards. The combo appearing with Godfrey and the ASO is Ken Moyer, piano, saxophone; Tom Kozic, guitar; Paul Rostock, bass, and Roger Latzgo, guitar.

Moyer did orchestra arrangements for the “ASO Pops Series” concert, with the theme, “Embrace The Standards,” and expected to include “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing,” “Lush Life,” “Satin Doll,” “Miss Otis Regrets,” “Blues In The Night,” “Accentuate The Positive,” “Someone To Watch Over Me” and “The Best Is Yet To Come,” among others.

Godfrey tears the pages out of the great American Songbook and truly takes ownership of these classic songs. As with any undertaking Godfrey tackles, she infuses it with her own style.

“There are a lot of things that I tried,” says Godfrey during a phone interview, “but I don’t think I do them as well as what I am doing now. But I tried them to make sure. I thought maybe [at one time], you know, I could do rhythm and blues the way Aretha could, and I went, ‘No, you can’t. No, no, no. That’s not your thing,’ But it’s OK because I can sing with her records and I still hit the same notes. I just don’t hit them the same way.”

“When I was in a rhythm and blues band when I was 14 and a half years-old and I was singing like Mavis Staples, I was singing somebody else’s songs and I went, ‘What do I want to sound like?’

“I have this unique sound. It’s a big sound for a little person. It’s always been there ever since I was real young.

“I’m different and I think the people that we admire the most are different. They’re not a clone of anybody else.”

Godfrey, a native New Yorker, since late 2009 has called Schnecksville, North Whitehall Township, her home. She and her husband, Carl E. Lee, delight in their surroundings. “It’s just wonderful to walk around here.

“I’m a northeastern girl, she says. “ I’ve tried the south a couple of times, and my family is from the south so I was down there for a while, but not to live forever.”

Schnecksville and the Lehigh Valley provide Godfrey and Lee with the suburban sanctuary they sought while also offering an abundance of opportunities for recreation and entertainment.

“I don’t want to say too much about it because every time I move someplace that’s really fabulous and I talk about it in an article, we become inundated with theater people and I’m like, ‘Oh no, I don’t want y’all here,’” she laughs.

“Everybody I’ve invited out here just loves it. They want to come for Christmastime and then they want to come summertime. Those two seasons are just absolutely wonderful here.

“I took people down to ArtsQuest and Christkindlmarkt and then I take them to Allentown downtown, because it’s really been building up and everything. It’s wonderful and, of course, some people enjoy the [Sands] casino and they make a weekend of it.

“It’s become this like little resort that people are beginning to discover. I don’t have to drive a lot and I can be in a whole other place and have a lot of things to do.

“New things are coming all the time because it is rebuilding. All the towns [Easton, Bethlehem and Allentown] are rebuilding themselves. There’s such a newness about this.”

Godfrey, as with the Valley’s three cities, is constantly building and adding onto her list of accomplishments. Her new book, “Sharing Lessons Learned While Seeking the Spotlight” (Blue Heron Book Works), is the latest addition to her body of work.

The book is a window into the influences, mentors, circumstances and determination that have guided her throughout her professional career and personal life. Godfrey signed copies of the book Jan. 19 at the Moravian Book Shop, Allentown. She’ll sign copies of her book after the concert.

Godfrey, who had returned from rehearsal at Miller Symphony Hall when this interview took place, is awestruck by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra.

“I have been a participant in the jazz series [‘Jazz Upstairs’] at Symphony Hall and was privileged to sell them out to the point where Sheila Evans, who is the executive director, said, ‘I’m really tired of turning people away so I want you to be in the big hall because you sell out a month in advance.

“I’m doing the standards. That’s the music that I love the most and the sound of the symphony.

“I have gone to Allentown Symphony concerts just to listen to them because they are just wonderful and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to sing with them now.”

Tickets: Miller Symphony Hall Box Office, 23 N. Sixth St., Allentown; allentownsymphony.org; 610-432-6715