Cara Brindisi is a natural stage performer who lights up a room with her girl-next-door wholesomeness and angelic voice.

But she is humble when it comes to her talents, and she gets a little uncomfortable with praise, which was the case when she recently won two Worcester Music Awards — best solo performer and sexiest performer.

"It's not embarrassing because I understand where it's coming from and why there's an award like that," Brindisi said of being named sexiest performer. "My predecessor, Niki Luparelli, that's sexy. I get it. But being sexy is not my intention."

Brindisi, 26, is also level-headed, loves her day job as a certified music therapist (for the VNA Care Network & Hospice) and likes wearing low-heeled cowboy boots for comfort, whether it's winter or summer.

"I don't understand how women perform in stilettos," she said. "I'd never be able to do that, ever. You will never see me in stilettos."

Brindisi's singing style is charming and authentic, and her songs are intimate.

"I like to keep the texture of my voice really pure. I don't try to have it sound like something that isn't naturally me," Brindisi insisted. "The way that I would just sing while I'm cleaning my house is the way I try to sing onstage … It's only been since recently when I thought this is something I can do. But I know so many amazing singers, and singing is so subjective."

Brindisi will celebrate the release of her first CD May 16, with a party at the Worcester County Light Opera Company playhouse, 21 Grandview Ave., Worcester. (The show is sold out.)

Brindisi said she chose this unlikely venue because it's been such a huge a part of her musical upbringing.

"That was the very first place that I was onstage or I auditioned or I sang with a group or had someone teach me to sing," Brindisi said. "It was the first structured environment that my parents said, 'Let's try this out.' "

Making her stage debut at the age of 7 in "Mother Goose Inc." (she played an elf and uttered only one line of dialogue, "I'm Winky"), Brindisi also did WCLOC productions when she was a teenager and, later in high school, served as an assistant director for some of the company's children's shows.

At a very young age, Brindisi developed a mature taste and appreciation for music made way before she was born. Her grandmother played Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Billie Holiday and Dinah Washington records all the time, and Brindisi would sit in with the Joe Brindisi Quarter with her grandfather, who was the group's namesake and drummer.

She was briefly a backup singer in a garage band back in her Shrewsbury High School days, But Brindisi didn't start seriously performing as a solo artist until after graduating in 2010 from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

While her best concert experience to date was opening for Chris Isaak at the Hampton Beach Ballroom last year, the best compliment she ever received was after a gig at Oxford's Casual Dining, Brindisi said.

"I had a show that was more family-friendly, and this woman made a point to bring her daughters," Brindisi recalled. "She came up to me after the show and said, 'I want my daughters to see what it looks like to be a young woman doing something that she loves and doing something with integrity.' "

Brindisi said the new disc, "Until Tomorrow," is her attempt to make her music sound more professional and "kick it up a notch." She succeeds on both counts.

"Up until now, it has been like YouTube videos from 2009 and photos that my friends took," Brindisi said. "I never recorded my music really. I've been involved in other people's projects. I have experience in the studio with endeavors that other people set up for me. I'm a little nervous because this is like a trial-by-fire kind of thing."

While "Until Tomorrow" is not a full-length record (there's only five tracks), it's a full body record. Michael Harmon, who plays bass, percussion and drums on the record, and Eric Tait Jr., who added some keyboards and trumpet, give Brindisi ample backup. Tait is a fellow Berklee grad and owner of The Farm in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where the disc was recorded in November.

"The disc is much more than just me playing my guitar and singing," she said. "I took a week off from work. It was kind of like a mini-sabbatical of just going for it and seeing what happens."

"Until Tomorrow" opens with "One Last Day" This irresistible kiss-off to the West Coast was inspired by her six-month clinical internship she had to complete in San Diego and how much she counted the days until it was over. It's a song about longing, but Brindisi's sweet voice and organic guitar playing break through the mix like a ray of sunshine, as she wears her neck burn like a badge of honor.

"When I was out there, I was finishing school and not only the learning experience was challenging but living alone and living far from home was even more of a challenge," she said. "When I came home I had this crazy sunburn. That line, 'The burn on the back of my neck is the sun that I left,' it's the sunshine that everyone talks about is so beautiful and everybody loves the sun but, sometimes, you want to get back to the rainy days of New England and be with people you want to be with. I really wanted to leave. I never felt so uncomfortable."

Brindisi unleashes her inner-Taylor Swift on "A Lifetime," a song that starts as an intimate and unguarded conversation between two close friends and develops into a testimonial to the unbreakable bonds we share in our lives.

The Sarah McLachlan-sounding "Forever in Song," which Brindisi refers to as her "musical therapy song," was inspired by a gravely ill man she met at her first-ever visit to a hospice.

"Even though we leave this world, so much of who we are is still here," Brindisi explained. "People in my life, they stay in my life through music."

The album's angriest song, "Your Own Truth," is about confronting people who let you down in life and coming to the realization that only you can provide the truth you need.

And, lastly, "Lucky" is the only straight-out love song on the album.

"Yes, it's a love song about someone I love," Brindisi said. "I never write fiction pieces. That's why I'm always have a hard time sharing it. They are all about a particular person that I know or a particular situation or experience I've had."

For her sold-out, coming-out party for the new disc, Brindisi is going to abandon the solo acoustic singer-songwriter shtick for the night and rock out for 45 minutes with a full band that includes Steven Hopkins on guitar, Dale Bales II on bass, the aforementioned Harmon on drums, Brad Simmons on auxiliary percussion (including banjos and shaker) and Kim Zunner on background vocals.

Also on the bill are Matt Robert, Chris Houston (of the House Tones and formerly of the Feather Merchants, which is also Brindisi's old band), Brooke Slemmer (Brindisi's "dearest friend" from college) and SteveNkim (aka Hopkins and Zunner). Violinist (and former Feather Merchant) Chelsea White will play in between sets.

The new CD is available for $5 at That's Entertainment, 244 Park Ave., Worcester, and on iTunes. A large portion of Friday evening's ticket receipts is going back to the theater to help maintain and produce future programs, Brindisi said.

For those who can't get in to the CD release party May 16, Brindisi said there will be an "after-party" at Galway Bay Irish Pub, 186 Stafford St., Worcester, around 10:30-ish.

Contact Craig S. Semon at craig.semon@telegram.comFollow him on Twitter @CraigSemon