Vocal powerhouse Ann Nesby is not herself these days. The singer, who helped bring notoriety to the group Sounds of Blackness in the mid ‘90s and went on to launch a solid solo career, has become a new person.
Nesby, after being diagnosed with congestive heart failure, lost almost 130 pounds through gastric bypass surgery. And now armed with a new look, Nesby has taken on an alter ego to share her new attitude on her new disc “The Lula Lee Project,” which hits stores March 31.
“I was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and of course it was brought on – over the years – from working in the industry,” Nesby told EUR’s Lee Bailey.
She described that as a recording and touring artist she was keeping late hours, and that played to her eating habits. The singer explained that she rarely ate before performing so when she got off stage, she would eat and sometimes be so tired she’d immediately go to bed.
Nesby’s doctor had actually suggested gastric bypass surgery to her even before she was diagnosed, but she said it was that congestive heart failure diagnosis that gave her a wake up call.
Nesby lost 129 pounds due to the surgery and a change in lifestyle, activity, and eating habits. While she encourages people to consider the procedure, she explained what you really have to commit to are the changes in your life and your diet.
Encouraged and very happy with the decision she’d made, Nesby said that she wanted to bring that blessing and feeling of newness to her new project.
“We wanted to do something that was inspiring and something that would match the life change and the new change that my body had undergone. This is me, Ann Nesby, but now, with the life change, I can say I’m a different person inside and outside.”
So Nesby claimed her first name “Lula” and used her married name “Lee” to give a moniker to the new person she is and “show people the change has taken place.”
The album was produced by young gospel hitmaker Tonex (pronounced Tone-nay), in addition to other young writers, and artists. Nesby also wrote and co-wrote on the project as well.
Tonex worked on the album’s first single, “I Found A Place.”
“It is a song that I believe is biblically structured. It’s about finding that place in the fortress and the shelter that God has given us; a place where nobody can hurt us, and our past can’t find us. When God forgives, he forgives and forgets and he allows us to be the people that he has set us up to be.”
For more information on the new disc, and tour dates, check out Ann Nesby’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/annnesby or www.annnesby.com.
