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MP3 Denitia Odigie - Contrast
5 MP3 Songs in this album (22:32) !
Related styles: ROCK: Acoustic, EASY LISTENING: Torch Songs
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"Contrast is Odigie''s fourth release (for the record, she''s recorded strictly EPs to date) and—true to its title—it sounds unlike anything she''s done before it. Her alt-rock leanings now take a backseat to country-touched soul, and her earlier penchant for abstract lyrics and avant-garde melodies have disappeared altogether. The difference is clear from the very first track, a 3/4 ballad framed in languid slide guitar titled "Missing You." Her girlish cayenne-pepper voice skips from breathy to syncopated to belting, not exactly the kind of singing she was known for in the past.
Some strategic listening kicked off Odigie''s shape-shifting journey. "Somewhere along the way I got a hold of some rare Aretha Franklin and it freaked me out a little bit," she says. "I mean, I just listened to it over and over and over again." (The Aretha she''s referring to is the 1970 album This Girl''s in Love With You.)
"I just connected with that soul feel," says Odigie. "That''s my first musical memory—Al Green. So I think it was just a matter of me getting back in touch with the kind of music that really moves me. I think when I was doing more of an alternative thing, it was an unconscious movement from my late teenage years: ''This is the music I''ve been listening to and this is the music I''m going to put out.'' And this whole soul direction has been more of a conscious thing."
Denitia Odigie is that rarest of combinations--a cleverly inventive songwriter who is also an incredibly gifted vocalist. Her songwriting channels her love of wide-ranging musical styles into a fresh and highly individual sound, and her voice is equal parts power and nuance, passion and control. It is no wonder that she is impressing a growing contingent of critics and fans.
She was called "the find of the Fest" at the POP Montreal Festival, and she inspired one critic to say, "If you bemoan the lack of passion in singers today, you must see and hear this woman sing."
Just 24, Denitia has drawn inspiration from a veritable rainbow of influences.
"In my formative years," she says, "I was learning the words to George Strait and Reba McEntire tunes and rocking out to all the nouveau grunge that was on the radio in the mid-90s. Now I live in Nashville, where this Americana/roots rock/alt-country thing is just in the air."
The combination emerges in arresting lyrics and scintillating melodies that bring together otherwise disparate listeners.
"Like a butterfly," said one reviewer, "she can be pegged to the page of a single genre and labeled as a certain kind of singer, but she''s really most beautiful when you let her just fly free."
Denitia grew up outside Houston, in Baytown, Texas, exposed to the music of Al Green, Smokey Robinson and DC Talk, among many others. When she was 13, her mother bought her a $100 Stratocaster copy, and her musical journey began in earnest. Within a year, she was leading worship at church.
A gifted student, she followed a scholarship to Nashville''s Vanderbilt University, simultaneously earning a B.A. in Art History and becoming engrossed in the city''s musical scene. She began performing in a local restaurant and took a songwriting course with a teacher who was, she says, "so encouraging. She was just very positive. And I think that somewhere in the back of my mind I started thinking, ''I really want to do this.''"
Denitia has since performed in night spots around Nashville and has put out a series of recordings that have let her explore her own talents and any number of musical avenues.
"My palate for music is much more discerning these days," she says, "and as a singer, my confidence has grown immensely. I have more control over my instruments--both voice and guitar--and I have really gotten comfortable with myself as an artist."
In the process, she has won converts and linked up with any number of like-minded musicians. A woman with a need both for introspection and for the give-and-take of collaboration and live performance, she calls music "an endless search for community. I want to feel connected, and taking one''s experience and sharing it with somebody else is the essence of what community is about."
As accomplished as she has become in the studio, it is live performance that Denitia sees as the bottom line of her calling.
"I love the dynamic, the push and pull with an audience," she says. "I want them to feel like they''ve been on a journey with me. I want to connect with them."
A woman of immense talent and real vision, Denitia is finding that connection, as more and more people gladly take that journey with her.
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