Finding her own way

[Himm2]

I'm confident this lull in activity is simply hiding something until all the ducks are in a row.

Like Tusk with Ana Free, I was a big supporter of former Idol Leslie Hunt before I knew of Haley Reinhart. Though Leslie won't be as big of a star as Haley the paths seem similar with similar backgrounds...both are from musical families (mom a singer, dad musician), both Chicago area, both with blonde younger sisters as their only sibling (although Leslie's died the night before Leslie's wedding) both with Jazz & scatting backgrounds, both have close friends that they were on Idol with (Leslie + Gina Glockson) (Haley + Casey), both good songwriters.
So after Leslie had the backing of Sony she released an album with great songs but it didn't meet sales expectations and was dropped. She went thru a dark quiet period gathering songs for two new albums, the first of which seemed to take forever to get released after all the work was done partly because she had to do it on her own with her own self-made label. "Your Hair Is On Fire" had reasonable success followed by "Wait For It". She is now actively touring as the lead singer for "District 97" (like Keith, John, Courtney) and the "Ken Arlen Orchestra" (like NOJO) and the "Ides of March" (yes from the 70's like Midnight) as well as many weekly gigs around Chicago 7 years removed from Idol.
There's no question that Haley Reinhart will be the force to be reckoned with that all her supporters expected. It's just a matter of timing, backing & promotion to achieve better results than Interscope was willing to devote.