The first piece of music that captured my imagination was probably Ray Charles Live At Newport.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I grew up singing Ray Charles and Jimmy Reed.
Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.
I remember singing around the house to records that were playing. All kinds of music. And the great James Cleveland was often in our house, and I grew up with his sound as well.
If nothing else, we grew up loving the old blues artists and Ray Charles.
Charles and I are from Augusta, Ga. - so we come from James Brown territory, soul music and Motown. And Charles has always had a lot of Southern rock in there as well.
My father's record collection was full of New Orleans music of all kinds. I used to listen to the radio in New York, and all there was on it at the time was Madonna and Michael Jackson, so it sort of passed me by.
It was probably when I met Jeff Hamilton, the drummer I've been working with for the last 20 years. He's the one who brought Ray Brown to hear me sing at a restaurant in my hometown.
The many sounds of Memphis shaped my early musical career and continue to be an inspiration to this day.
We spent a month in LA using a pool of musicians, a string arranger called Benjamin Wright, some great backing singers, and it gave tracks like Dynamite, which was written there, that kind of flavour.
At Johnny's suggestion I pursued a career in radio that eventually brought me to Los Angeles.
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