Oklahoma Lottery picker has second career as songstress

Singer-songwriter Cara Black resumed performing a year ago after a nearly five-year break.
 
Black is one of the most visible musicians in the metro: Her regular gig is drawing numbers and smiling on television for the Oklahoma Lottery.
 
"I'm one of the original three hired to just do the voice-overs, but once they saw me, they just had to put me in front of the camera. "¦ No, seriously. "¦ Their words, not mine," Black said.
 
STEADY GIGS
While Black is a natural for television, she's pretty comfortable on the stage, too, having honed her skills in Chicago before coming back home to Oklahoma City.
 
Whether playing jazz, funk, R&B, rock or soul, Black keeps busy with steady weekly gigs. Catnapping between jobs keeps her adrenaline at the ready for quick release at showtime.
 
"It's like a light switch that comes on when I'm onstage," she said. "It gives you a boost of energy."
 
MULTIMEDIA WORK
Although Black works around people with TV experience, she's the only one in the music business.
 
"Everyone seems to get a kick out of the fact that I'm a working musician, and once they hear me perform, they seem to like what they hear," she said.
 
As if television, music and radio work weren't enough, Black is a member of the Kiowa Nation and appears in American Indian film director Sterlin Harjo's "Four Sheets to the Wind" as a featured extra. "Tory Troutman

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