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WITH A SONG IN HER HEART by Kris Worrell Copyright 2000 Times Union Sitting in her clean, well-appointed contemporary home in a Niskayuna subdivision, Valerie DeLaCruz looks like the mother and homemaker she is. But among the soft, coral-colored chairs and framed family photos are hints of another life: sleek guitars, a tape recorder, leopard-print spiked heel boots. DeLaCruz has had many other lives, in fact, but the one that rings truest is the one that finds her walking across the plush carpet strumming an acoustic guitar or shutting herself up in the bathroom late at night to sing snippets of songs into a recorder or opening a sold-out concert at The Egg. Both a singer and talented songwriter, the "40-ish'' DeLaCruz has been performing regionally for years, winning awards and wowing audiences with her strong, sweet voice and catchy pop/country tunes. Now she's been signed by Relentless Nashville, a new record label under the umbrella of Madacy Entertainment Group, a Canadian-based organization known mainly for releasing movies on video and compilation CDs. Dave Roy, vice president of product development for Madacy, came across one of DeLaCruz's demos and recognized her name. Years earlier, when Roy lived in Albany and worked at Trans World Entertainment, DeLaCruz redesigned the company's new offices . Roy had no idea the former interior designer could sing, though. Curious, he gave her demo a listen. "Quite frankly, I wasn't expecting much,'' said Roy from his Montreal office. "But I was absolutely blown away by her voice and some of her original songs.'' DeLaCruz's songs could best be described as adult contemporary country -- the lyrics are for grownup s, the music is soft rock with a twang. She sings about married passion and temptation, ex-husbands and lovers and friendship between women. "These are songs of commitment. These are things about taking the long haul and reveling in that, thinking that that's a good thing. Not, 'Oh, I had a one-night stand and now I'm never going to see the guy again,' said DeLaCruz, a tall blond who looks as if she'd be just as comfortable cheering at her son's soccer matches as she is belting out the tunes. " I think I'm making music for grown-ups. There are plenty of pop teens out there and I know I'm not going to be that. I have to write about what I've lived.'' In June, DeLaCruz will release her first Relentless Nashville single, "Hey! That's My Kiss,'' a previously self-produced tune that won the 1998 Northeast Country Music Association song of the year award (the group also named her songwriter of the year in 1997 and '98). The new album, called "They'll Never Know,'' will be released in July. "I feel like one of the reasons why my music would be popular -- and this is what the fans who listen to it tell me -- is that it says something to them about their life, they relate to it,'' said DeLaCruz. Diane Skibinski couldn't agree more. She was driving to work when she heard DeLaCruz on the radio and was so moved by the performance that she bought two of the singer's CDs, one for herself and one for her friend Coleen, who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. "Her voice just was incredible,'' said Skibinski, an instructor at The College of Saint Rose. "Even in a radio studio.'' One song in particular spoke to Skibinski: "My Girlfriends Quilt,'' about an old quilt made from various patches, each one celebrating a different friend. Skibinski got the idea to make a similar quilt for Coleen, who was undergoing chemotherapy. One night, after she had given the quilt to her friend, Skibinski approached DeLaCruz at a concert at the Van Dyck Restaurant in Schenectady and told her the whole story. DeLaCruz was so touched that she eventually met Coleen, who has been cancer-free for almost a year, and the rest of the quilting friends. "She's so down-to-earth a nd kind,'' said Skibinski. "She's so thoughtful in two ways: She's thoughtful toward people and she's so thoughtful in her lyrics.'' Dressed in a pink top and cinnamon slacks, DeLaCruz curled up in a chair with a cup of tea and talked about her family, country music, working as a cashier at Sears, and launching into a career predominantly populated by belly-baring babes barely old enough to vote. "I'm starting this late. but I would have given up a lot sooner if I wasn't as experienced as I am in life and hadn't been through starting a business, getting jobs, losing jobs, competing, understanding why someone would pay you to provide a service. You've got to give people something; they're investing,'' she said about her music career. "I understand that much better now, so that really helps me get over the hurt of rejection and not to take it so personally.'' Rejection was a repeated refrain for DeLaCruz in earlier days. A Colonie Central High School graduate, DeLaCruz briefly studied fine art at the Art Institute of Boston, but left after a short time because she lacked the finances and the discipline. After quitting school, she worked at Sears in the Boston area as a cashier. "I felt really like a failure, because I went to school for a couple of semesters and I quit. Now I'm going to be a cashier for the rest of my life? I knew I had a lot more potential but I had no clue how to realize it,'' she said. She took her portfolio from art school to the man in charge of the advertising department and convinced him to give her a job, even though she had no experience. With that, DeLaCruz learned a lesson that she would apply to her various careers again and again. "There could be a side door entrance and you just have to figure out what that is,'' she said. DeLaCruz worked at Sears for several years, "but I longed to sing.'' She'd grown up playing guitar and listen ing to folk musicians like Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Joni Mitchell. Restless, she auditioned for some Top 40 bands. "The first band I got in, I got fired from because I didn't have any stage presence,'' said DeLaCruz, laughing. She described her performance style in a single word: "stiff.'' "I was very green and nervous. It's not like you have training. You just say to yourself, 'I want to try this,' so you get out there and you bumble around,'' she said. "I could sing the songs; that part was easy.'' She quickly got into another band ("They weren't as good. I had to start lower.''), then quit Sears to tour regionally in lounges and clubs throughout New England. About the same time, DeLaCruz became estranged from her first husband, her high school sweetheart to whom she'd been married for less than a year. The touring ended soon, too. Suddenly, in her early 20s, DeLaCruz realized she was on her own for the first time. "It was a really, really hard time to keep going,'' she said. When her mother had an operation, DeLaCruz went home to help her recuperate and never went back to Boston. Once back home, things started to get a little easier. She got a gig as a singer in a funk band. "When you're the singer, you're the eye candy of the whole thing. And I enjoy that. because I love attention. And by then I was really getting better at the whole stage thing.'' She figured she'd get in a national touring show band, maybe play Las Vegas, Atlantic City, travel around some more. Then one night at Harold's Office, an old bar on Wolf Road, DeLaCruz was singing when she saw a tall, good-looking guy walk in with a friend. She flirted with him during a band break. He offered to buy her a drink. She asked for orange juice. He gave her a screwdriver. She ordered orange juice again. "So, even then it was starting,'' she said, laughing. They married in 1980 and now have two children, Alessandra, 14, and Michael, 12. "When I met my husband, I thought, 'It's now or never. I either have to go do this touring thing or here I found someone who really cares about me.' I never thought I'd find someone like that,'' she said. "So I was practical about it. I thought this was more important, so I decided to stay here with him.'' But being a wife, mother and a singer in a band didn't really mix. "When I was singing in a band, my husband really didn't like that whole scene,'' said DeLaCruz. "He doesn't like music. He doesn't even understand why I do what I do and how I waste so much time and money on it -- in his mind that's how he looks at it.'' Her husband, Joseph DeLaCruz, a sales manager for a salon products company, said he worried about his wife being in a smoky barroom environment away from the family. "Family comes first, you know. Valerie put her career on the back burner, but it was always in her heart. But now that the kids are older, she really wanted to pursue her dream.'' When the children were young DeLaCruz stopped performing and did a number of other things: sold shoes for commission, worked at Macy's in the visual merchandising department, worked for an interior design firm. In 1984, she opened her own company, DeLaCruz Design Group. "There was a period of time when I did not do any kind of music at all,'' she said. "It was like an emptiness that I had.'' Finally, DeLaCruz talked to her husband about selling the company and devoting herself to music full time. "We have a wonderful communication. He could see how much it meant to me, and he didn't like it but he had to let it go and let me do it. It's much better now. And I'm very conscious of trying not to have it be disruptive to our life,'' said DeLaCruz. "It's hard juggling everything. But I think it's way better to try and juggle than to say, 'I'm not going to do it because it's inconvenient.' She began writing some songs, which she took to Pinewoods Studio in Melrose. With the help of composer and producer Gary Tash, DeLaCruz cut her first three-song demo tape. "She has a fabulous voice,'' said Tash. "She has tremendous intonation. She's very emotional. She pours herself into a vocal take.'' DeLaCruz realized that the songs she wrote sounded like country songs, so she decided to shop her tape around Nashville. "I thought like so many people think, country music is easy,'' she said. "I went in to see these publishers and I'm telling you, you're sitting there in this chair, they're listening to your songs and you feel like you took all your clothes off and they're zeroing in on that wart right there.'' She laughed. "They're polite enough, but that was rejection after rejection. "I was really despondent when I came back from that. But I did that same thing I did when I got fired from the band for no stage presence. I said, 'I'm going to get better. I'm going to show them.' She joined the Nashville Songwriters Association and studied with published songwriters. "She is wonderfully determined,'' said Tash. "It really comes down to the music. There's a sense of maturity to the music. She's not afraid to make herself vulnerable. And that speaks to people.'' "I won't give up,'' said DeLaCruz, smiling. "I am relentless, so it's perfect for me that I'm doing this now." Management, PR and Booking: DeLaCruz Enterprises LLC or call 518-505-1659