Now mum Karen, 52 records debut album (From Southend Standard)

Hockley singer’s hobby takes off

6:00pm Thursday 2nd August 2012 in Sound Check

My time – Karen Lee Burnette has released an album

SINGING had always been a passion for Karen Lee Burnette, but after a lifetime of pursuing it as a hobby, last year the 52-year-old mum-of-two decided to throw caution to the wind and record an album. She’s had great feedback and is due to release a second record any time now.

Although Karen, from Hockley, still runs her own successful driving school, Crossroad School of Motoring, she’s devoted to her new second career and feels it was the best time possible to make the leap. She says: “I’ve always played with local bands. I was known in the Essex area, but when I had my two boys, I put them first.”

With the boys now older, Karen says she is also at an age where she can do the kind of music – from the Seventies and Eighties era – she wants to do. She impressed Terry Lodge, who produces artist Joe Longthorne, and he took her to his recording studio to create her debut album, With All My Heart. The album is a mix of classic and favourite standards and is out now.

To get a copy of the album, send a £2.95 cheque or postal order along with your name, address, e-mail and telephone number to KLB Promotions, PO Box 2137, Hockley, Essex.