Sarah Vonderhaar is going to be appearing at the Clearwater Theater in West Dundee at the end of the month.  While she's not quite a local artist, she is based out of Lake Zurich - so, she's not far from it.

You have to give a lot of kudos to a person for having the finger in a lot of artistic pots. Sarah Vonderhaar certainly gets points for that – and for doing it all at the age of 21. She’s a model (and has been featured on Top Model), actress, photographer and now musician. While a lot of modern artists seem to be thrown into the multi-mold to make more cash for the media entity to which they are signed, this feels more real than that. It’s more like she’s exploring these various forms of expression because she’s driven to do so.

Such drive and passion would lead one to expect exceptional things from Vonderhaar. Therein is the one real weakness of this CD. It really isn’t all the exceptional – or different. Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely strong pop music that should do quite well on the radio. It should also get her a lot of fans. It’s well written and performed. It’s just not exceptional. It doesn’t seem to have an identity of its own, but rather feels like it could have been released by any number of artists out there.

The truth of the matter, is, though, since this is her debut release, individuality and a sense of uniqueness may well be on their way with future albums. If so, this is a great start. What it lacks in building its own character it more than makes up for with talent and class. If it didn’t leave room for growth, where would she have to go next?  Get the CD and check out a rising star and make your way to West Dundee for the show.