"Lucky To Be Me" Review
by ROGER CRANE
All About Jazz Magazine - May 2006

The number 13 is not unlucky for vocalist Dewey Erney.Lucky To Be Me is his thirteenth recording and may be his best. Erney considers himself lucky in many non-musical ways. For instance, the talented Erney expresses much joy for his children, his faithful fans and, most of all, his lovely wife, Sandra, to whom he dedicated this CD which features the 17-piece Tom Kubis Orchestra.

It has been my pleasure to watch Erney grow as a singer. His confidence and skills seem to grow almost CD by CD. His repertoire is impeccable; no singer has better taste in tunes. And he chooses not only the same two hundred or so gems from the Great American songbook that many singers select. You find such lesser-known and inexplicably neglected songs as Berlin's "It Only Happens When I Dance With You" from the '48 film Easter Parade or the overlooked Arthur Schwartz/Yip Harburg '34 song "Then I'll Be Tired of You." Speaking of neglected songs, it is nice to see a warm reading of "I'll Never Stop Loving You," introduced by Doris Day in the '55 movie Love Me or Leave Me. It is one of many songs that didn't make it to standard status but should have. Erney always knows where the pulse is and can also swing. For example, check out his driving up-beat version of Cole Porter's "Everything I Love" or the opening medley of "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" paired with "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street." He will put a smile on your face.

The marvelous Tom Kubis band consists of the cream of the crop, including such local stalwarts as Andy Martin, Wayne Bergeron, Ron Stout, Kate Prestia-Schaub (Ernie's great-niece) and a rhythm section of Gerry Schroeder, Luther Hughes and Kendall Kay, just to cite a few names. People talk about the Riddle/Sinatra relationship; maybe we have another musical partnership in the making: Kubis/Erney.