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HUNTINGTON -- When Chapmanville, W.Va., native Stacee Lawson first came to Marshall, she learned two important things.

One was she really didn't want to be a teacher. The second was a few guitar chords from fellow Chapmanville native Jeff Ellis.

Lawson, who's been banging away, folk-rocking acoustically in Huntington clubs for the past four years or so, kicks the music up a notch starting now.

Her debut CD, "Deranged," featuring members of the locally based and internationally traveling melodic metal act Hydrogyn, hit record stores nationwide on Tuesday, on DA (Destroy All) Records and is being distributed by BCD Music Group.

And the album's first blistering single, "Walk Away," is being played on college radio stations around the country.

Lawson and the boisterous band celebrate the CD release in style at 10 p.m. Saturday at The V Club.

Ellis, a long-time friend who's a finalist in the Mountain Stage NewSong contest finals next week, opens the show.

A sophomore at Marshall University studying Criminal Justice, Lawson said that when she inherited some money after her grandfather passed away, she wanted to pay for school and then make a CD she could sell locally.

"It was now or never, and it was well worth it," Lawson said.

Julie and Jeff Westlake, long-time friends who have known Lawson since she moved to Huntington, saw more than an open trunk of CD sales for Lawson, whose voice is getting compared to everyone from Avril Lavigne to Jewel and Edie Brickell.

Jeff Westlake, guitarist and band-leader for Hydrogyn, said when the band got back from a European tour and found out on MySpace that Lawson wanted to make a CD, they wanted to help and got together with Lawson at their home studio to see if they would want to collaborate on the project.

"I just had to get her calmed down, but I could tell from the very beginning that she was serious and that she could do it," Westlake said with a laugh. "It's not that people don't want to do it, but there has to be that something in you that allows you to do music on a certain level."

From those songwriting sessions, Lawson, who writes all the lyrics, was able to create the bones of the CD's eight original songs. Westlake, who played guitars and bass on the CD, was then back creating at Smash Hits Studio in Lavalette, with co-producer Steve Riley, who also contributed keyboards, loops and some backing vocals.

Gathered at Smash Hits a week ago to talk about the couple of months they were holed up in studio, Westlake, who produced Hydrogyn's last CD (also recorded at Smash Hits), said it was a lot of full immersion into the music with brief timeouts for grabbing those $5 Subway foot-long subs.

Westlake said that Riley, who played a little piano and cello on the Hydrogyn CD, really opened up on Lawson's CD, adding just the right touch to songs such as "Walk Away" and "Only Dreaming."

"He's a great keyboardist and he's able to hear what I hear," Westlake said. "I would say we want something like this, and I would leave and come back and would be like 'Oh, yeah, this is exactly what we talked about'."

Lawson, who had never recorded, said at first it was intimidating.

"It's like going to the doctor's office up in here," Lawson said laughing. "I was so nervous."

Thanks to some coaching by Julie Westlake, Lawson came roaring out of her shell. Lawson said Julie helped her strengthen her voice, which she described as straight out of L.A. -- Logan area -- and stretch her range.

"There are no words for how great Julie has been," Lawson said. "She brought my voice out to a place I don't think it has ever been. I've been in the music room practicing, and I'm belting now. I can hit the notes."

When putting together a CD release party, Lawson said it had to be at The V Club, where she would often play early happy hour shifts from 6 to 9 p.m. with only "me and my little guitar."

"If it couldn't have been at the V Club, it wouldn't have been anywhere else," Lawson said. "When you go in there, it's a good vibe, a good sound system, the owners are good people, and there's no drama. Some nights, hardly no one would be there to hear me, but Pat (Guthrie) would always pay me."

Saturday, there will be a video shoot for Lawson and the band, and Westlake is in the process of shopping the CD to Europe for distribution, looking to see what will happen next with the CD.

"I'm pretty sure now there's going to be another album," Westlake said. "We kind of set a high bar for her, and we expect the next album to be that much better."

Courtesy of Stacee Lawson

Stacee Lawson, a Chapmanville, W.Va., native and Marshall student, has just completed her debut CD "Deranged." She'll have a release party at 10 p.m. Oct. 4, at the V Club in Huntington.

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Courtesy of Stacee Lawson

Stacee Lawson, a Chapmanville, W.Va., native and Marshall student, has just completed her debut CD "Deranged." She'll have a release party at 10 p.m. Oct. 4, at the V Club in Huntington.

Purchase this photo