India.Arie: Multi-Faceted Artist

Music in High Places

My wife has been an India fan for quite a while now. A ways back, we watched a docutainment DVD that featured India Arie and her band exploring Brazil. As they explored the landscape and local culture, they were followed by a film crew who documented their experiences and several outdoor, acoustic performances. A production like this is a great opportunity to learn more about the featured country as well as get a more intimate peek into the artist’s mind and heart.

I grew to appreciate India.Arie’s raw, genuine, creative spirit and the undeniable sincerity of her voice and story. She performs with ease, never pushing or showing off. It’s witness to her artistic maturity.

Finding More

I began to explore more of her music and was pleased to find new lyrical themes, interesting grooves and vocal expressions. Refreshing, I say. All of this got me to wondering what a live performance of hers would be like.

Live, In Concert

My wife and I went to see her in a great auditorium. Man, India put on a great show. The band was really tight and groovy. They were controlled, yet explosive. India appeared real comfortable on stage as she introduced the band, told stories, goofed around a little and performed a great variety of her songs with ease. Her backup vocalists were incredible and I especially appreciated how India gave them solos and featured them on several songs. At one point during the show, India came off-stage and sang up and down the aisles – she was having a ball and the audience ate this up.

India.Arie’s a very talented songwriter, vocalist and musician that I will always be interested in her work, her story and her excellent voice. I suggest that you give her a listen.

Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado. She absorbed musical skills early in life as she was encouraged by both parents. Her mother Joyce is a former singer (she was signed to Motown as a teenager and opened for Stevie Wonder and Al Green) and is now her stylist. She has an older brother named J’On. After her parents divorced, Simpson’s mother moved the family to Atlanta, Georgia when she was thirteen. Simpson had taken up a succession of musical instruments throughout her schooling in Denver, but her interest in the guitar while attending the Savannah College of Art and Design, in Savannah, led to a personal revelation about songwriting and performing. “When I started tapping into my own sensitivity, I started to understand people better. It was a direct result of writing songs”, she said at the press release of her debut album, Acoustic Soul.

Co-founding the Atlanta-based independent music collective Groovement EarthShare (Groovement was the collective artists’ name and EarthShare was their independent label name), her one-song turn on a locally-released compilation led to a second-stage gig at the 1998 Lilith Fair. In 1999, a Universal/Motown music scout spotted her and made an introduction to former Motown CEO Kedar Massenberg. Arie currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia.

credit: wikipedia.org

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