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     *Songbird Deneice Williams has found yet another reason to be thankful. The famed singer of such mega-hits as “Silly of Me” and “Let’s Hear It For the Boy” took an unfortunate fall at a recent Los Angeles-area concert last Saturday night.

      Williams was going on stage at the annual Sunset Junction Street Fair in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, opening up with her very powerful and soulful acapella song “God is Truly Amazing” when she mistakenly stepped off the stage and fell six feet to the concrete.     

      “I was the first act to go on in the dark,” she described. “They announced me and I went out. And just seeing the faces of some people, I decided to take a step closer and the next thing I knew I was on the concrete in the pit with people telling me to wake up. I didn’t feel myself fall, I never saw it coming. One minute I was on stage and the next minute I was on the ground.”

      Concertgoers reported that the crowd went silent as fans held their breath.

       “I think I was out for less than a minute,” she said. “It was long enough for my sons to be shouting at me. I told them, ‘I didn’t pass out.’ And they said, ‘Yes you did. My oldest son was very, very broken up.”

      At that point, the band reportedly started playing “The Old Rugged Cross.” Williams son Forest then picked up the mic and started singing “I Need You Now” and asked fans to pray for his mother, while they worked to revive her. Williams said that when she did come to, she felt the pain in her ankle, but was more concerned about finishing her set and asked for a microphone to perform the song with her son.

      “I think I must have been in a state of shock,” she told EUR’s Lee Bailey. “Once I came around and realized that I knew that I couldn’t do the entire set the way I wanted to. I wanted to do something for them because they were just so concerned about me and I felt the love coming from them so I just had to do that for a little while. And then my sons demanded that I sit down so they put me in a chair and I sang from the chair until my son who is my road manager said, ‘That’s it, we’re going to the hospital.”

      She continued that even as the paramedics came and checked on her leg, she kept singing.

      “The paramedics came and looked at my leg. But I kept singing. I was lying down. I think that’s a reason – the shock of it and the concern that I had for the people there not to worry about me.”

      Fortunately, Williams sustained only injuries to her leg and ankle area from a rather treacherous fall. But the singer is concerned about how the accident happened and how it could have been avoided.

      “There are very few times that we’ve not had a sound check or gone out on the stage [before the show]. There is usually a stage manager there to tell about any problems like cords/wires on the stage. They give you a warning, especially if you haven’t been out there. So it was pitch black with a bright spotlight and I was caught very unaware,” she said.

     She also explained that the song she performed was hardly an aggressive beat and that she always performs the song in one spot, maybe moving a step to the side. That’s exactly what the singer said she did on the night of the accident, so with that, she explained she might consider taking action to cover her medical bills.

      “I’ve yet to proceed on that, and I’m being very careful,” she said. “I’ve already seen three different doctors and I don’t think that I should be responsible for any of that. I’ll remain prayerful, but I think I would have felt better if the promoter had at least come over to the dressing room or even inquired about how I was doing. I’ve yet to hear from him. Not one word. I think that that’s very, very disrespectful.”

      Still, overall Williams is very positive about the incident.

      “I have been doing nothing but praising God that it is what it is and not worse because it could have been much worse,” she said. “When I was in the emergency room I was thinking about Curtis Mayfield and those that had had similar accidents and they came out much worse than I did. I know that it was God. I’ve got a lot to be thankful for.”

      Williams said she is now feeling OK during recovery, though she still is suffering from a lot of pain. She described that the pain is just slightly less than that that she felt the night of the accident, although she kept performing – a fact that she chalks up to shock.

     She said that she continued her set not only because she felt she owed it to her fans, but because her personality isn’t the type to grumble or whine about her situations.

     “I am not a person that complains, and that can be a good thing and that can be a bad thing. I am the oldest child and I’ve been responsible all my life; not only for myself, but for a lot of people. I’m the person that says, ‘Let’s not look at the problem; let’s look at the solution.’ The problem is nothing. That’s part of my philosophy in life. But, I’ve got a cast on my leg and I have doctors that are concerned, so it’s not nothing. It is a something.”

       Williams is extremely glad her “something” isn’t major, though. She’s fractured her ankle and likened her swollen leg to that of an elephant.

      “I should be OK in at least two months,” she said. “It will take me a while to come back around and I won’t be dancing in heels any time soon. I’m going to miss some work. My spirits are good because the doctor told me that I don’t need surgery. My spirits are high probably because I’m so grateful that my injuries weren’t more serious. So many things could have happened for me, so I count it as a blessing. It’s going to be inconvenient for a while; it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while, but it’s something that my body can heal.”

     Williams said that she is looking forward to getting back to work, but in the meantime, she thanks all the well wishers and is grateful for the prayers and support. Fans can send her a note on her Myspace page at www.myspace.com/deniecewilliams where she’ll personally be checking in and posting updates.

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