Jayne Sachs

Charlotte Jacobson

Special To The Dayton Jewish Observer

On any given weekday, when 6-year-old Sydney isn’t at kindergarten and 4-year-old Gavin isn’t at Hillel Academy’s preschool, Jayne Sachs finds it virtually impossible to get anything work related accomplished.

“My kids are at ages where they don’t understand that mommy is working at home,” she says.

They want her attention, and being the doting mom that she is, she wants to be there for them.

Yet, somehow, in the late hours of the evening, Jayne manages to slip into her small but suitable walk-in closet for some desperately needed quiet time to think and compose songs.

So, it’s stolen moments that have generated her now impressive collection of songs.

“I find myself singing in the car on the way to school and lessons,” she says. “My kids are used to hearing me sing out loud and Sydney has even composed a line in one of my songs.”

Jayne’s biggest inspiration was her mother, Faye Sachs, nee Guttman, from Cincinnati, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the early age of 30, on Jayne’s first day of kindergarten.

Seven years later, Faye passed away, but her lessons to her daughter lived on.

“Mom was a performer in college and loved to sing and dance,” she says. “She played guitar and taught me songs too.

“She noticed a spark in me and wanted to pull it out. We sang in the car all the time.”

Now, Jayne does the same thing with her children. “Gavin loves rhythm. We beat our hands on the shower wall to hear the sounds reverberate. He loves to mock my rhythmic beats.”

As a child, Jayne’s family belonged to Temple Israel. She learned to play guitar at Camp Livingston in Indiana and started writing songs when she was 18.

Jayne met her husband-to-be, George Caras, when she was in fifth grade at Shiloh Elementary School. She and George reconnected a few years after college.

There was a time when he attended all of her shows. Now, Jayne says, he is supportive in a different way: he stays home to watch the kids.

She credits George with her success in modern rock. He urged her to listen to Oxford radio station WOXY-FM in 1990, and that spurred her interest in this genre of music.

With a career in marketing and promotions at WHIO-TV, Jayne recorded her first demo song in 1993 just for fun. It ended up at WOXY and the station put it into rotation. Her first band show was at the Canal Street Tavern that year.

After the release of Velveteen Girl in 2000, Jayne decided to take time away from recording to start a family. When Gavin turned 2, it was time to head back to the studio to record her fourth CD.

This year, she won the grand prize in the pop category of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, an international competition that receives more than 20,000 entries. There are 12 categories and 12 winners.

So many entries were submitted this year, the contest added a second session. Jayne won in Session 1. The grand prize winners of Session 1 will compete against Session 2 winners in an online voting battle. The winners from this competition then go on to have their songs heard by the contest’s executive committee, including Elton John, Carlos Santana other key people in the music industry. One song out of the 12 will be named Maxell’s Song of the Year.

While at the National Association of Music Manufacturers’ conference in Los Angeles, Jayne played in front of the executive director of the Lennon Songwriting Contest and staff. Her backdrop was the Lennon bus, a mobile studio traveling the country.

While in LA, Jayne secured an appointment with an independent publishing company to discuss her goal of getting a writer’s deal or having individual songs published.

“Once they heard I had two young children, the interview seemed to be over.”

Jayne won’t stop there; she’ll continue entering songwriting contests. What is unique about Jayne’s win this time is the song she entered.

Twisted Ballerina isn’t your typical pop song. It deals with child abuse. Since her win, other opportunities have come up.

“Since April is National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month, I’ll play this song to Children Services gatherings in Montgomery and perhaps Hamilton County in honor of this national recognition.”

She is currently producing a video of Twisted Ballerina that will be shown prior to all movies screened at the Neon April 21-23.

Jayne says that even with all this exposure and her concert schedule, her family comes first.

The children are raised in an interfaith environment, celebrating both sides’ traditions and holidays. Jayne says her children tell people they are “half Jewish and half Greek.”

Whatever the family is celebrating, you can bet that music will always be part of their heritage.

© 2006 The Dayton Jewish Observer