Athena Denise Cage was born on 6 May 1970 in Russellville, Kentucky, and was educated at Western Kentucky University. Her career began as a background singer, working with a wide variety of musical artists including Country star Amy Grant and R&B giants, the Isley Brothers. Moving from Kentucky to Atlanta to pursue a music career, she auditioned for Keith Sweat's Elektra distributed label, and was immediately signed as lead singer of girl group Kut Klose, cutting the chart topping R&B classic 'I Like' with the group. After leaving Kut Klose she recorded her debut solo album, 'The Art Of A Woman', which was due to be released in July 2001 by Priority Records, but it was eventually cancelled along with many other projects when the label merged into Capital Records. Two singles were released prior to it's proposed release, but even 'All Or Nothing' becoming a hit was not enough to save the record from being shelved. Later in her career, Cage's passion for education took her to Capitol Hill a number of times, advocating keeping, restoring or establishing music and arts programs in America's schools, pointing out the correlation between excelling in music and excelling academically. In this quest, she had meetings at the White House and the U.S. Department of Education to share her views, and she met with the late U.S. Senate Education Committee Chair Ted Kennedy. In 2003, she established "The Athena Cage Scholarship Fund" at Western Kentucky University, her alma mater, and in 2004 the street where she grew up, Second Street in Russellville, was renamed to "Athena Cage Way" to honour her community work, youth service and efforts to restore the Old Logan Theater. As a tribute to these achievements from later in her career, here is her shelved album from 2001 for us to enjoy.
Track listing
01 All I Need Is Me
02 Hey Hey
03 Until You Come Back To Me
04 Turn You Out
05 Let Me Know
06 In The Mood
07 Respect (The Way It Goes)
08 Take It Out On Me
09 Make U Wanna
10 He Changed His Mind
11 You
12 All Or Nothing
13 Dream Lover
