The RECAP: Top 80 R&B Songs of 2017

As we’re approaching the end of 2017 I’ve compiled a list of great songs released throughout the course of this year by an array of artists who are either established or new on the scene.

If you’re not familiar with a selection I encourage you to give it a listen and you just might like what you hear...so without further ado:

80 George Tandy Jr. - Already Love

79 Xscape - Dream Killa

78 Lalah Hathaway - I Can’t Wait

77 Kenny Lattimore - Push

76 Vivian Green - I Don’t Know

75 After 7 - Too Late

74 Bell Biv Devoe ft. SWV - Finally

73 Mary J. Blige - Set Me Free

72 Andra Day ft. Common - Stand Up for Something

71 Ro James - Holy Water

70 Major. - Honest

69 Musiq Soulchild - Start Over

68 112 - Dangerous Games

67 Toni Braxton - Deadwood

66 Mya - Coolin’

65 K. Michelle - Make This Song Cry

64 Ledisi - High

63 Chante Moore - Real One

62 Joe - Lean Into It

61 Faith Evans ft. The Notorious B.I.G. & Snoop Dogg - When We Party

60 Miguel ft. J. Cole & Salaam Remi - Come Through & Chill

59 Kevin Ross - Long Song Away

58 Tamar Braxton - Blind

57 The Weeknd - Die for You

56 dvsn - Mood

55 LeToya Luckett - Used To

54 Yuna - Unrequited Love

53 Frank Ocean - Provider

52 Stokley - Level

51 Mya - Ready for Whatever

50 Daley ft. Jill Scott - Until the Pain Is Gone

49 Demetria McKinney - Easy

48 Bell Biv Devoe - Run

47 Frank Ocean - Nights

46 Tamar Braxton - My Man

45 Andra Day - Strange Fruit

44 Leela James - Don’t Want You Back

43 Kehlani - In My Feelings

42 Sevyn Streeter - Before I Do

41 Lyrica Anderson - Don’t Take It Personal

40 Jhene Aiko ft. Swae Lee - Sativa

39 Corinne Bailey Rae - The Scientist

38 Keyshia Cole - Incapable

37 LeToya Luckett - Back 2 Life

36 TLC ft. Snoop Dogg - Way Back

35 Kehlani - Honey

34 Majid ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR - One I Want

33 Charlie Wilson ft. T.I. - I’m Blessed

32 Mary J. Blige - U + Me (Love Lesson)

31 Khalid ft. Kehlani & Lil Wayne - Location (Remix)

30 John Legend ft. Chance the Rapper - Penthouse Floor

29 Jacquees ft. Dej Loaf - At the Club

28 Ne-Yo - Another Love Song

27 Jazmine Sullivan ft. Bryson Tiller - Insecure

26 Bruno Mars - Finesse

25 Dej Loaf - No Fear

24 Daniel Casar ft. Kali Uchis - Get You

23 SZA - Broken Clocks

22 Jhene Aiko - While We’re Young

21 Bryson Tiller - Run Me Dry

20 DJ Khaled ft. Beyonce & Jay-Z - Shining

19 Tory Lanez - Shooters

18 Mariah Carey ft. YG - I Don’t

17 Jeremih ft. Chris Brown & Big Sean - I Think of You

16 Tank - When We

15 Keyshia Cole ft. Remy Ma & French Montana - You

14 Miguel ft. Travis Scott - Sky Walker

13 Trey Songz - Nobody Else But You

12 SZA ft. Travis Scott - Love Galore

11 Jacquees - B.E.D.

10 Chris Brown - Questions

09 6lack - Prblms

08 SZA - The Weekend

07 Bruno Mars - Versace On the Floor

06 Childish Gambino - Redbone

05 The Weeknd - Reminder

04 Chris Brown ft. Usher & Gucci Mane - Party

03 Khalid - Young, Dumb & Broke

02 DJ Khaled ft. Rihanna & Bryson Tiller - Wild Thoughts

01 Bruno Mars - That’s What I Like

New Video: Cassandra Lucas (formerly of Changing Faces) - Give Love a Chance

Cassandra Lucas who was one-half of the 90’s female duo Changing Faces that brought us hits such as “Stroke You Up” and “G.H.E.T.T.O.U.T.” is back with a new powerful social injustice message “Give Love a Chance” which touches on the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Give Love a Chance” is the follow-up to Lucas’s “I Love You” single from her forthcoming debut solo project.

New Music: En Vogue - Rocket

Grammy nominated R&B/Pop vocal group En Vogue drops the latest offering “Rocket” from their forthcoming seventh LP Electric Cafe scheduled for a March 30th 2018 release.

“Rocket” was written by Ne-Yo who toured with the ladies over the Summer in Australia.

“Ne-Yo is a singer’s songwriter! We’re honored to have the opportunity to put our signature sound on a song from one of the most talented artists and composers today”, says Terry Ellis.

“Rocket” follows the release of the singles “Have A Seat” ft. Snoop Dogg, “I’m Good” and “Deja Vu” by the powerhouse group.

Earlier this year I caught up with Terry Ellis for an exclusive interview (HERE) where she discussed the upcoming En Vogue album Electric Cafe.

New Album: Miguel - ‘War & Leisure’

Grammy Award-winning artist Miguel has dropped his fourth album ‘War & Leisure’ today via ByStorm Entertainment/RCA.

The album features the latest single “Come Through and Chill” which reunites Miguel and J. Cole and produced by Salaam Remi who originally produced the track on his 2016 ‘Do It for the Culture’ collection.

Other guest features includes Rick Ross, Travis Scott, Kali Uchis and Quin.

Overall, ‘War & Leisure’ sonically is a step up from a commercial standpoint in contrast to his last effort ‘Wildhearts’ thanks to songs such as “Skywalker”, “Criminal”, “Pineapple Skies” and “Told You So”.

Soul Train Awards ‘17: Lady of Soul Award - SWV

The 2017 Soul Train Awards which aired on BET last night were most assuredly a stone gas honey! With the commandeering soul-try one, Erykah Badu back as the host for the 3rd straight year there was no denying that the state of R&B music is on FIRE! Straight out the box to get set the party off was none other than Sisters With Voices (SWV) getting the stage LIT as they celebrated the 25th anniversary of SWV becoming a group. The Lady of Soul recipients bounced through a medley of classic hits that had the crowd immediately on their feet. Performing “I’m So Into You,” “Right Here,” and a gag worthy rendering of “Weak At The Knees.” The coup de grace that killed the amazing performance was when Method Man and U-God joined the ladies onstage to perform fan favorite “Anything” the WuTang remix which was originally performed with Ol' Dirty Bastard (RIP).

Taped at the Orleans theater in Las Vegas, the show also featured appearances by BBD, 112, Toni Braxton, Guy, Bilal, Faith Evans and more.

Interview: Songwriter/Producer Mike City - New Album ‘For the Holiday’

Following the release of The Feel Good Agenda Vol. 1 album, Mike City who is known for writing and producing hits such as “I Wish” (Carl Thomas), “Heard It All Before” (Sunshine Anderson), “One Woman Man” (Dave Hollister) and “Full Moon” (Brandy), has recently released his first ever Christmas project For the Holiday which features 7 all original songs that showcases more of his singing ability. I caught up with Mike to discuss For the Holiday, his first big break in the music business and much more...

Terrance: Talk about how you got your first big break in the music industry.

Mike City: It’s crazy because my first big break was on a rap artist by the name Rappin’ 4-Tay when he was on the Virgin record label and the song I produced “Money Makes the Man” actually became the first single from the album. That was my first major placement. Then after that I did Carl Thomas. We got together because we had a mutual friend. That’s how I was able to get “I Wish” in.

Terrance: Cool. Can you share a little backstory behind three of the biggest hits you produced starting with “I Wish” for Carl Thomas.

Mike City: That was a true story. It really happened and I wrote about my pain. I didn’t know she was married and the whole nine and when she got sprung on me I was like, Wow! Is this serious? Well, everything happens for a reason. Ironically, Carl said he drew to it because it happened to him too, so that’s crazy within’ itself. Again, true story and it really happened.

Terrance: Sunshine Anderson “Heard It All Before”.

Mike City: That would be a true story too and I know Sunshine because when I was leaving college that same year she was coming in so that’s how we crossed paths and everything. It’s funny because I knew her dudes from back then and that’s how we were able to come up with that (laughs).

Terrance: Brandy “Full Moon”

Mike City: I just wanted to write something for Brandy that was magical and it’s crazy because it didn’t take me that long to do the track. I remember being in the Record Plant and she had stopped by and I was working on the track and she went to the Gravity Center and by the time she got back, I had the track and the hook done and she gave me one of these looks like Whoa! In five days me and Brandy had already been working so we had a good feel in our process and relationship. She went in the booth and cut the hook. It took me two weeks to write “Full Moon” the verses and the bridge and everyday I would get a call from her or Big John who was A&R of the project at the time and they would be like, are you done yet? Are you done yet? It consumed my whole two weeks and that’s all I did but I just wanted it to be so correct and accurate because remember she was coming off that monster album Never Say Never and I was like I got to make sure she have the right joint, so that’s what happened with that.

Terrance: One of your frequent collaborators is Faith Evans who recently dueted with you on “When I Luv” from The Feel Good Agenda Vol. 1 album. What is it like working with her?

Mike City: It’s rather easy because she just has a friendly warm spirit and everything and outside of that she’s just a great artist and honestly it didn’t take her long to cut her vocals for “When I Luv”. Probably less than an hour. Seriously.

Terrance: “Paradise” which features B. Slade and Karen Clark-Sheard is one of the standout cuts from Faith’s Incomparable album.

Mike City: Just think about the voices on there. You’re talking about three world-class singers like literally three top singers in the world so that’s a beautiful thing.

Terrance: I remembered you produced for Karen as well.

Mike City: Yep. I got a chance to work with her back in the day on her 2nd Chance album on the song “Brand New Day” with Yolanda Adams and obviously I grew up on The Clark Sisters, so that goes without saying as well as The Winans and Commissioned, that’s like the basis of 90’s R&B.

Terrance: Erica Campbell recently made a statement about embracing the digital world of music but can we give credits? As a songwriter/producer yourself, what’s your take on that?

Mike City: I mean, that’s important because I feel the thing with R&B is with digital and streaming it’s the genre that hurts the most. I remember we used to go to the store and buy records. That was tangible and an event to getting away like a whole outing process but now it’s not an event to get on your computer and log in and type in the music you like so Erica has a point. There’s no personal connection, experience or energy with digital music.

Terrance: Getting into your newest project For the Holiday. It’s rare we hear all new original Christmas music nowadays. Why did you take that approach as opposed to traditional songs?

Mike City: I wanted a new challenge and I woke up one day and said, you know what? I want to do a Christmas project. I wanted to do an R&B Christmas project like when you hear it you’d be like, yeah Mike City did that. I wanted to give basically a feel good Christmas project and like however we do it we got to keep R&B alive man.  

Terrance: What advice would you give to the aspiring songwriter/producer out there who aspire to do what you do?

Mike City: Honestly just do what you like. If you really want to make a name for yourself as a producer or a writer you have to really stand out in some type of way whatever the genre is. There’s a lot of dope trap producers but they have to stand out or else they just gonna be in the pile and it won’t mean much of anything. I was blessed and able to come through in a time where standing out meant a lot so when you heard a track you knew Mike City did that so standing out in the long run will help in you have a longer shelf life.

Terrance: Is there anything not discussed you would like to add?

Mike City: I appreciate you showing love for the whole culture man. It’s really important especially since you’re 31 so you’re right there. I love all types of music. I grew up on Hip Hop and House music. I grew up in Jersey and Philly so I was right there when it was poppin’. I like Trap music but I don’t want to hear it all day. I don’t want to hear nothing all day though. I’m an R&B dude, Hip Hop dude, House dude, it’s whatever and I put all of that energy together when I’m creating and everything. I did a Reggae record “Dem Haters” for Rihanna on her second album. But again I appreciate you for putting forth the effort because we got to keep R&B alive man it’s very important. I think it will come back around but it’s going to always come back to the soul and feeling of the music.

Download

'For the Holiday' (HERE)

BET Launches New Digital Series “State of R&B” featuring Sevyn Streeter, Elijah Blake & More…

BET Networks has launched a new original digital series called, “State of R&B” that brings together five singers, songwriters and producers in contemporary R&B music to discuss the genre past, present and future.

The three-episode series explores the cultural phenom 90’s R&B (90’s Back), how technology has changed the music industry (What’s Good, Now?) and the main theme of this year’s Soul Train Awards (Music Heals the Soul).

The celebrity panelists include Sevyn Streeter, Elijah Blake, LaShawn Daniels, Rachel Kerr and Harmony Samuels.

Visit

www.bet.com/sorb

Lyric Video: Kenny Lattimore - ‘I Cry Holy’

Grammy-nominated R&B vocalist Kenny Lattimore has released the lyric video “I Cry Holy” from his first ever Holiday album A Kenny Lattimore Christmas which was released last year.

Kenny also share the story behind the song:

In other Kenny Lattimore news, just recently he released his ninth album Vulnerable which features the lead single “Push”.

I caught up with Kenny Lattimore in our exclusive interview to discuss the album.

READ HERE

Interview: Actor/Singer Leon - New Single “Beautiful” | Being A Sex Symbol

Actor/Singer Leon best known for films such as Cool Runnings, Above the Rim, The Five Heartbeats and The Temptations, recently released a new single “Beautiful” with his band Leon & the Peoples. Leon discuss the powerful message behind the single, what he’s looking for in his career and much more...

Terrance: How do you deal with the whole sex symbol persona in Hollywood?

Leon: Well, there’s nothing to deal with as far as people taking a liking to me anyway they want to. Whether it’s my art of acting or my ability to entertain or if it’s my band Leon and the Peoples or if it’s the way I look. Of course I appreciate it, it keeps me working.

Terrance: Is there a particular film of yours that stand out that you are personally proud of?

Leon: I’m proud of a great deal of my work. I really don’t choose one over the other. Whatever you like is the one I like the most because you’re the one that’s watching it. I really don’t watch my movies.

Terrance: What has been your most challenging role thus far?

Leon: I think there were quite a few that were challenging because they are not me, so whenever you take on someone else who have talked and walked on this Earth, you have a certain responsibility to them, their family and the people who knew them. You want to capture the essence and that’s always a huge responsibility. When I played the role of Little Richard, that was far from me. That’s an Icon and someone that’s actually alive to go and see that movie and see the portrayal, so it’s a huge responsibility when you do something like that.

Terrance: What do you attribute to your success or sets you apart in the film industry?

Leon: I will say that my success and what sets me apart is that i’m an individualist. I’m an individual and don’t try to follow other people. I think being uniquely who you are is what you have to offer to the world and that’s what I’ve given the world, so that’s what sets me apart from anyone else.  

Terrance: At this point in your career what are you looking for?

Leon: I’m just looking to do more memorable work. I’m very lucky to have seen a poll with the 25 most important African-American films of the past 25 years and I starred in 5 of them. I was like, Wow...that’s really great because all I’ve ever wanted to do was make work that was memorable that’s passed down from generation to generation.

Terrance: Talk about the inspiration behind the new single “Beautiful” with your band Leon & The Peoples.

Leon: It’s about telling the people in your life that they are beautiful and not being afraid to tell them they are beautiful. I think especially in these times right now we need to uplift one another, especially women. It’s a more difficult time than ever trying to find their place in this world and in the Barack Administration we’ve seen more women stand up than before. It’s important to let them know that they are beautiful while doing it.

Terrance: Is there a title yet for the upcoming album?

Leon: The title is ‘Love Is A Beautiful Thing’.

Terrance: Are there any upcoming shows scheduled?

Leon: Yeah, my band have a show which is the last show for the year in Phoenix, AZ at the Feel Good Caribbean Festival on November 25th, Thanksgiving weekend.

Terrance: Is there anything not discussed you would like to leave with the readers?

Leon: I’m really excited about next year. Really looking forward to having the album out and touring the Country. People are really going to love the album.

Download “Beautiful” HERE

An Interview with The Tony Rich Project

Grammy Award-winning Singer, Songwriter, Producer and Visual Artist Tony Rich took the music world by storm with his breakout hit  “Nobody Knows” from his 1996 debut album ‘Words’ courtesy of LaFace Records followed by other hits such as “Like a Woman” and “Leavin’”.

I caught up with Tony Rich to discuss his latest project ‘Encaustic’ which is available on iTunes, what it was like growing up in Detroit, getting signed to LaFace and much more...

Terrance: Growing up in Detroit, how did it shape you to who you are today as a musician?

Tony Rich: Growing up in Detroit was like, you know how you grew up in that city and at some point you would more than likely want to move out of that city because that’s what you’ve seen all your life up to that point? For me, I’ve always been that curious type like, what else is out there? So I was convinced Detroit wasn’t the world but I grew up in Detroit with my mother so I really didn’t have a choice to make a choice but the thing about the city of Detroit was there was always music so of course as a kid before I could choose music I would always hear what my mother was playing. Then there was the radio playing and then there was the video era and once I was old enough to choose what I wanted to listen to or see or whatever, that’s when I started to listen to different types of music because when you grow up in a house where my mom was always listening to R&B music and never listened to Rock or anything else and also in that time there were no computers around to discover new music like YouTube or iTunes so you were limited to your choices and once I could do that I started to listen to other types of music in addition to R&B and then there was Hip-Hop as well. I can say for me it was cool growing up in Detroit I didn’t spend a whole lot of time outside because I was inside creating. I gained my interest in music around 9 years old. I was doing visual arts so I started music as an extension of that as another way to express myself.

Terrance: How did you get discovered and signed to LaFace Records?

Tony Rich: I was in Detroit in ‘91 and I was actually working with this group there that needed a songwriter/producer so I was the guy who wrote the songs for them and one of the guys in the group, his brother set up a meeting for the group to do auditions. At the time John Salley was playing for the Detroit Piston’s and he had a recording studio there and John loves music and he was looking for acts and so the group went over there and I went with them. While sitting there I’m not saying anything and so John was naturally drawn to, the quiet guy, like what do you do? I’m like, I just write songs and I’m not trying to be out front like that and he goes, can you sing a song? I said yeah but I’m not trying to do that and so as time went on John reached out to me and not the group. He was not interested in the group. He wanted to link up with the guy who wrote the stuff he heard so from the point John was actually the first person to pay me some money to produce tracks and so I was working out of his studio for a while and then he was traded to the Miami Heat and once that happened he got rid of the studio and all of that. He and I kept in touch but while I was at that studio there were a couple of guys who were on their way down to Atlanta and they said once they get there they were going to hook me up and I was like, yeah okay, you know I heard that before. They actually called me maybe a year later because I was working out the studio they once worked out of and the guy that was running that studio would tell them whenever they would call that he have to think about it, and anyway they wound up reaching me at home and they then linked me to Pebbles who then flew me down to Atlanta the very next day and that day she sent me over to L.A. Reid because she felt that I could learn more if I worked with him as a songwriter/producer directly as opposed to her. That’s how I ended up signing to LaFace as a songwriter/producer.

Terrance: What was the experience like to win the Grammy for Best R&B Album for your debut album Words?

Tony Rich: Well, I was out on the road touring and promoting the Words album and back then you used to find out about your nominations by fax and I went into the office when I was in town which I was a bit shocked because my mind wasn’t there and I wasn’t thinking about that or the Grammy process or none of that so I wasn’t expecting it, but I saw it and looking at the Grammy nominations and I’m saying to myself, okay which one of these I wanna win? And I remembered being interviewed because I was in 4 nominations. One was for “Nobody Knows” for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance which I was up against Eric Clapton so quite honest I knew I didn’t have that one. Then I had Best New Artist and I think No Doubt was in that category and LeAnn Rimes and didn’t think I had that one. And then there was Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and I think Luther Vandross was in that category and I was like, I definitely don’t have that one. Then there was Best R&B Album and I was up against Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite and Maxwell came out maybe a couple months before I did, so when I was being interviewed I said I was going to take home at least one of those I’m not going home empty-handed but in my heart of heart I knew which one I wanted to win which was Best R&B Album and the reason I spoke that into existence was that would be the award that would change the game for me in my profession as a songwriter and producer and as an artist. I knew as a producer I could charge more. I knew that as a songwriter it would put me on another level and as an artist it would put me on a certain level as well but I wasn’t expecting the other element that came with that and so when I won, it was a really interesting experience because you go on stage and they hand you a Grammy and you think it’s yours and when you walk off stage they snatch it from you because your name isn’t on it and you don’t know that until it’s all over. So they snatch it from you and push you into the photo-op room, hand it to you again to take pictures with and they snatch it again, like where is my award? And then they send it to you in the mail UPS a couple months later so your high on winning kind of dies down because you can’t hold it in your hands til a couple months afterwards (laughs). Then when you get it, it’s like what do you do with it? People ask, where do you keep your Grammy? I’m like I keep it on a shelf in my closet. I mean, because looking at that doesn’t motivate me, but it’s a cool award to have and really cool to be in the category I was in especially since leading up to that, my music was never considered R&B. “Nobody Knows” definitely wasn’t playing on R&B radio still to this day.

Terrance: Because the support wasn’t there?

Tony Rich: I didn’t have a lot of R&B radio support if any, but when I went to do shows what you consider to be the R&B crowd, and let’s be clear R&B is just another word for black. It’s like Gospel and Christian. Gospel is like saying Black Christian Music and so I would see a mixture of faces in the crowd when I performed. Black people knew my music, it’s just they weren’t playing it on the radio so that means they had to discover it some other kind of way. Although R&B radio didn’t support my music, the R&B audience supported my music that came out.

Terrance: How would you best categorize your music if it’s not considered the traditional R&B?

Tony Rich: It’s almost impossible to be considered a black person and to not have heard or influenced by R&B music because even if you get off into other types of music as I did, that’s just going to be a part of your experience. There’s no way of getting around that. It also depends on how you fuse it into what you do. My music has never been strictly one genre. The first album you probably had 3 out of 10 songs that had an R&B influence but then there are some other songs that were very folky-like and “Nobody Knows” was very Country I just didn’t sing it like a Country artist and there was some stuff on there that sounded like Nirvana would have done it and there was some Steely Dan type of stuff. I’ve always made records like that I wanted to have a wide variety of sounds.

Terrance: Overall, do you feel you were treated fairly at LaFace given the roster of artists they’ve had?

Tony Rich: Well, I have to say when I was at LaFace I probably had it better than a lot of artists. Starting out as a songwriter/producer it’s a different relationship once you’re on the other side as opposed to being just an artist, because in the whole grand scheme of things it’s the most volatile relationship between a record label and artist whereas a songwriter/producer with the label that’s like buddy-buddy system. Once you’re an artist it become really, really strange and procurer, but the way I was set up there because I produced my own record I didn’t have to pay other producers so when it came down to it I made money on the frontend versus having to wait on the backend because the artist is the last one to get paid and the first ones to get charged and make the least amount. Often times when you seen as artist in that time they were Platinum but that didn’t mean anything other than the fact they owed that label a lot of money. They hadn’t recouped yet. You’d have to be multi-platinum to recoup and because I wrote my own stuff, as a publisher I made a lot of money on that so I didn’t have no complaints because I knew I was making money in other areas so I didn’t have the time or energy to focus on the unfairness of the other part because clearly contracts are not set up to be fair to the artist. They are just not. Then I left after the second album, it was just time for me to go and it was strictly creative because my manager at the time for my first album was actually offered a job which essentially left me without a manager who was a serious brainchild of breaking me out into the market. It put more of a strain creatively going forward on the next record than anything else, and so I decided to go to another label where I could get proper attention and that was right before they sold LaFace, so their attention was on being acquired. And also during the whole LaFace tenure, they never put out more than one artist at a time because they didn’t have the machine to do that and the year that they put out my second album they also put out Usher’s and Sam Salter’s album all in the same month and Usher’s record got some traction in the R&B market with it being an R&B label, they then started to push the funds that way.

Terrance: Bring me to date with your latest project Encaustic and the creative process behind it.

Tony Rich: The encaustic process in the painting world is where you fuse hot beeswax and fire to create layers so when you look at it it’s three and four dimensional and I was actually working on an encaustic piece because I’m into Visual Arts as well and I was thinking about naming the album and that’s when it hit me, yeah this is it. When I listen to a record and I select the music, I do an analysis of what I’ve put together so lyrically and musically it’s in layers, but it was an interesting record to make just because I captured things I wanted to capture like the vision I had for the record. I can’t say I had a thought on what the songs were going to sound like, I just thought what the record would sound like, like the elements of the string quartet. I wanted to use that because it’s more intimate and at the same time very haunting because with my music on the instrumentation side has always been kind of dark. That’s where I put those types of dark emotions essentials, sexual I put it into the music and intellectually is where I grow lyrically almost in a poetic fashion. I feel if my words can read like a poem then I’ve done the right thing lyrically and if the music can play by itself and cause people to feel things then I think I’ve done the right thing musically and then those fused together like an encaustic piece it gives you a multi-dimensional pieces.

Terrance: Cool. And to wrap it up. What’s next? Are there any shows scheduled?

Tony Rich: I’m heading back West and I’m going to start shooting 8 shorts for the 8 songs on the record. It’s going to be a really cool visual I’m going to roll out over the next 9 months. I’m going to approach this the same way I did when I was at LaFace and just work this project for a year and the clips are going to be really interesting because it will tell the story of the Encaustic process. I’m in the process of setting up the shows. I want to do some really, really special performances as opposed to just performing anywhere because I don’t think that really does anything. It’s always a special thing to be on Center Stage because it’s not a lot of people in there so it’s intimate and you’re pretty close to the stage. I think a string of shows like that is much better because then people walk away feeling connected to the performance.

Follow Tony Rich:

Facebook @thetonyrichproject

Instagram & Twitter @thetonyrich