By Lee Hildebrand

'JUST KEPT TRYIN' and tryin' to be a superstar / Steady pourin' out / There was nothin' there / Finally, I reached for You and You reached back / I'll never forget that," Sunny Hawkins sings on "Where Would I Be," a tune from her debut, More of You (Apgar St.). The Oakland vocalist's mezzo tones soar gracefully over a syncopated drum machine and the symphonic swells of a synthesizer. The casual listener might assume it's Beyoncé or some other contemporary R&B diva, until the true object of Sunny's adoration sinks in: She's singing about Jesus Christ.

The stunningly attractive Sunny was until rather recently well on her way toward realizing her dreams of showbiz stardom. She'd been doing theater since second grade and in 2000 landed a lead on Broadway in the hit musical Rent. She left the show after two years to focus on writing songs and doing background vocals. In no time, Sunny placed songs with Aretha Franklin – the 2003 dance-club hit "The Only Thing That's Missin' " – and Patti LaBelle, and sang harmony on both recordings.

Sunny put her dreams on hold, however, after becoming reacquainted three years ago with future husband Jamie Hawkins. Her godparents are Jamie's parents – Oakland gospel stars Walter and Tramaine Hawkins – and they'd spent much time together as infants. But Sunny lost touch with Jamie after she moved to Washington, DC, at age five. A mutual friend reintroduced them, and Jamie invited her on a date.

"She was cute – very cute," Jamie recalls. "She'd grown up."

"We just clicked that day," Sunny adds.

If Sunny's career was in ascendance at the time, Jamie's was in limbo. Though a member of one of gospel music's most prominent families, he'd been trying his hand at secular music since he was a teenager, as bandleader for a succession of stars – MC Hammer, Jodeci, Boyz II Men, Lauryn Hill – and as a songwriter and producer. In 2001, Jamie stepped from behind his keyboards to launch a career as an R&B singer. He crisscrossed the country as the opening act on Jill Scott's first tour, in preparation for the release of his debut CD for the Elektra-distributed Monami/EastWest label. Advance copies of Jamie's self-produced neo-soul masterpiece were mailed to the media, but the disc was never released. Jamie's solo career was over before it had hardly begun.

"Some people could not agree, egos flared, and I got shafted," explains Jamie, who was then living in Teaneck, NJ. "I was in the middle because I was just product."

Sunny and Jamie moved back to the Bay Area in May 2003, were married at Bishop Walter Hawkins's Love Center Church, in East Oakland, and rented a two-bedroom apartment in a rough North Oakland neighborhood. The apartment was tiny, but it managed to accommodate his-and-hers recording studios.

The couple started making music together shortly after returning to Oakland. "We sat down and tried to do what we would normally do – write R&B stuff – but it didn't come out," Jamie recalls. Sunny suggested they write gospel songs instead. The result was her CD, released late last year on their own Apgar St. label. Hidden Beach, the BMG/Sony-distributed label for which Scott records, is slated to release an expanded edition of the disc this fall.

The dozen songs on More of You, all of which Sunny and Jamie wrote and produced, sound decidedly different from most gospel – but, then, people also said that in 1969, when Jamie's uncle, Edwin Hawkins, scored a massive pop hit with "Oh Happy Day," and in 1985, when his mother Tramaine's single "Fall Down (Spirit of Love)" became a dance-club smash.

"It wasn't gonna have that church sound anyway," Jamie says of his wife's album. "That's not me. My parents, even though they come from church, from Monday to Saturday what they played in our house was not James Cleveland. They were playing Earth, Wind, and Fire and James Brown."

The couple prefers the term "inspirational" to "gospel" for their music. They feel its appeal is broader than just to gospel fans, and indeed, the CD has gotten play on some adult-contemporary stations. "There are definitely other people besides Christian artists doing inspirational music," Sunny says. "I'm not sure what religion India.Arie embraces, but her music definitely has a spiritual quotient."

Since recording More of You, Sunny and Jamie have moved to larger, quieter digs in Oakland's Dimond District. "We have his studio upstairs and mine downstairs," Sunny says, "but we do have a living room."

Sunny Hawkins performs July 6, 8 and 10 p.m., Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakl. $10. (510) 238-9200.