Community Corner

Chevy Chase Doctor Debuts CD Album

For Shari Hall, a doctor at Walter Reed, debuting her first CD album—"Perfect Love"—will be a dream come true.

When Chevy Chase resident Dr. Shari Hall releases her first CD album Saturday, she’ll be fulfilling a dream she’s held almost her entire life.

Hall has been writing songs since she was 8 years old. She sang in choirs all throughout childhood and adolescence, but decided to go into medicine.

Still, she never gave up on the idea of recording an album one day: It’s been No. 1 on her bucket list for years.

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And so, for the past six months, she’s lived a double life. By day, she's an anesthesiologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, working with wounded warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan. On weekends, she recorded her songs in a Nashville studio.

Hall—a native of Buffalo, NY, and a graduate of Columbia University Medical Center—will debut Perfect Love at a CD release party on Saturday at 4935 Bar and Kitchen in Bethesda.

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The album tells Hall’s personal story of love found and lost. Hall—who’s in her 40s—is not shy about telling her story through song, but she did “[think] about it for a long time before making the songs public—they’re all of a very personal nature,” she told Patch.

“I think it’s going to touch a lot of people,” she said. The songs form a storyline and cover a range of moods and beats.

Hall is an inspirational songwriter. She comes up with songs—words and music together—at odd times of the day or night—particularly in the middle of the night.

Hall had put aside her music dreams for many years, but when long-time music buddy and professional musician Paul Gordon heard her songs recorded at home on GarageBand software and told her that they were good, she listened. Gordon said Hall was ready for an album, and he helped her produce it.

Hall hopes her story of finally fulfilling a long-held dream might inspire others to go after one or two dreams of their own.

“I have been the happiest I’ve ever been in a while” recording the album, she said. “When you’re doing something that you love, you’re happier in general … and want to help others achieve what they want to do.”

“The theme through all of this is [to] never let anyone tell you [that] you can’t do something."

“I hope that when people listen to the music, they enjoy it and connect it to their own dreams and passions,” she said.

While Perfect Love cost Hall several thousand dollars to produce, making a CD can be done for a lot less money, she said. Her profession allowed her to make a high-quality album.

Now that she’s on a roll, Hall is looking ahead to keep the momentum going. She’s already started work on her second album, and is hoping to be back in the studio recording more songs in the fall.

Perfect Love, by Shari Hall, debuts Saturday, July 20, at 4935 Bar and Kitchen (4935 Cordell Ave., Bethesda). Hall will perform a set starting around 7:45 p.m. Admission is free, but the free tickets must be reserved ahead of time via Eventbrite.

Purchase Hall’s CD through iTunes.


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