"My skin's too tight for my soul."

With original lyrics like this from the song "Dorothy" combined with her powerful, soulful voice, Carolyn Hudson offers mature ears a colorful sanctuary within her debut album Living in My Skin. This album is for fans of KD Lang, Sarah McLaughlin, Annie Lennox, Seal, Sting, Suzanne Vega, Beth Orton, Laura Nyro or Dido.

Carolyn's voice is a mood ring of emotion that carries weight, soul and experience. Her intelligent lyrics are at the forefront of her abilities. Her style is brave but it's her vulnerability that gives her music meaning. This 21st century woman has gifted all "complex goddesses" with a defining collection of songs.

"To live in your skin means to truly own your past, present and future," Carolyn explains, "I'm at a place where I know who I am so I gave myself permission to hit the target with what I wanted to convey in this first record instead of safely circling emotions. When it comes to expression, I've learned that minding your manners is less essential than telling the truth."

Carolyn discovered her singing voice later in life. It's a gift she attributes to an "interference of light" where her life changed overnight when she found her passion. After encouragement gleaned from a vocal workshop and a series of serendipitous events, she ultimately landed as the lead singer of a local cover band. After trial by fire in the world of live performance, she quickly broke out on her own as a solo artist and began writing her own songs.

When Carolyn met songwriting collaborator Tony DeAngelis, she found her musical soul mate. Every weekend, for three years, she and Tony worked in his cramped Upper East Side studio apartment birthing the songs that now comprise "Living in My Skin." All the while, this renaissance woman successfully held a full time job as a marketing executive at a global consulting company. After finding talented producer Doug Maxwell (Joan Osborne, Judy Collins, Ronnie Specter), she was cloistered in the recording studio for nearly a year. The result is a 10 track beacon that shines brightly amidst the candy coma of teen pop.

Based in New York City, Carolyn is a singer, a songwriter, a performer, an arranger, a producer, a lyricist, a bandleader and an entrepreneur. She began the new music label, Box of Bees Media LLC, and is executive producing Living in My Skin. Why the name Box of Bees? Carolyn laughs, "I get asked that a lot! The name is based on something I read about Cleopatra's wondrous use of a box of buzzing bees. I wanted to celebrate a woman's good vibrations in life."

Carolyn has built a large following in New York City performing with her band for the past four years at renowned venues such as Joe's Pub, Roseland Ballroom, The Cutting Room, The Canal Room and Tribeca Blues. At a slender 5'10", Carolyn's striking onstage presence brings to mind the classic sensuality of Sade mixed with the bravado of Alannis Morissette. Her live performances are an impassioned display of artistry and emotion. A supporter of her community, Carolyn has performed at the inaugural Tribeca Film Festival, produced by Robert De Niro, as well as the "Taste of Tribeca," an event which raises funds for downtown schools.

Living in My Skin is lifted by a stellar circle of musicians fresh off major tours. Players include guitarist Jon Herington, (Bette Midler and Steely Dan), guitarist Larry Saltzman (Simon & Garfunkel), and drummer Frank Pagano who played with Laura Nyro for 15 years. Backing vocalists who appear on the album are Janice Pendarvis who has made a career singing with Sting and Vaneese Thomas, daughter of legendary R&B singer Rufus Thomas.

Rumi philosophy, Anne Sexton poetry, David Sedaris fiction, Charles and Ray Eames minimalism and Ed Ruscha art are cited as Carolyn's current inspirations. A wide swath of music lives in her heart including artists Seal, PJ Harvey, Annie Lennox, Nina Simone, Beth Orton, Laura Nyro, Kate Bush, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, Fleetwood Mac, and Radiohead. "My love for music is depth-less, "Carolyn confesses. "There are songs so delicious to me that I wish I could touch them, roll around in them, and swallow them so they become part of my flesh and I could feel them rather than just hear them."

A love of, and support for, the arts runs throughout her family. While Carolyn was growing up, her mother directed the performance center at a local college and often invited performers - dancers, musicians, and actors - back to the Hudson house. Carolyn remembers surreal moments like laughing with Marcel Marceau in her dining room, watching Jean-Pierre Rampal play his gold flute in their living room and sitting next to Vincent Price for spaghetti dinner at their kitchen table. Ballet, piano, choir, painting, modeling and acting were interests that occupied many years of her youth. She was the editor of her high school yearbook and is a nationally published poet. While one grandfather taught engineering at MIT and wrote about fractals, the other once carried a spear in the chorus of Aida at the Metropolitan Opera and made a living as a painter in Manhattan. Her mother was born above a Greenwich Village club where Pearl Bailey's singing used to float up to the 3rd floor and sing her to sleep. Her cousins grew up performing with their bands in both Nashville and Florida. Her father's love of rock & roll is etched in her genes. "Chicago, Fleetwood Mac, and The Rolling Stones were turned up loud in my home as a child," Carolyn remembers. "My dad has always referred to his age by saying, 'I'm three weeks older than Mick Jagger.'"

"Confusion, noise and discord.attention is a commodity. People talk, talk and talk about one thing when they really mean something else," Carolyn says, "I'm here to reveal the something else."