Danielia Cotton | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Danielia Brooks |
Born | September 24, 1967 |
Origin | Hopewell, New Jersey |
Genres | Rock, blues |
Occupation | Singer-songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Vocals, guitar piano |
Years active | 2001–present |
Website | Danielia Cotton's official website |
Danielia Cotton (born Danielia Brooks on September 24, 1967) is an American rock singer, songwriter and guitarist.
Cotton grew up in the small western New Jersey town of Hopewell, New Jersey, population 2,010. [1] She was one of four siblings raised by a single mother. Her mother, a jazz singer by avocation, supported the family doing accounting work. When Danielia was 12 years old, her mother gave her an acoustic guitar, [2] she also started singing with her mom and her aunts in a gospel group, the Brooks Ensemble Plus. [3] Growing up as one of only seven black kids in Hopewell Valley Central High School, she was not exposed to R&B and hip-hop. Along with her growing love for rock, Danielia developed a warm appreciation for jazz and gospel. [4] Danielia wound up at the top of her high school class, the first to graduate from the New Jersey School of Performing Arts. Her vocal skills earned her a full scholarship to Bennington College. [2] Danielia chose to pursue acting at Bennington and spent most of her senior year at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. She doubled up on credits, so she could still study music, taking tutorials with avant garde jazz trumpeter-professor Bill Dixon, who, she says, "really trained my ear."
In 2005 Cotton released her debut album Small White Town (title inspired by Hopewell). [3] Her second studio album, Rare Child, released May 20, 2008, was ranked in the top ten albums downloaded on iTunes during its first week of release. [5] On July 7, 2009, she released the live EP Live Child, a companion piece to Rare Child. The EP won the 9th Annual Independent Music Award for the ‘Best Live Album’ and 'Live Performance Album Vox Pop' for the album "Righteous People". [6] In 2012, Danielia released The Gun in Your Hand, followed by The Real Book in 2014. In 2017 she released The Mystery of Me, an album that features a mix of rock and soul, from the soaring "Set Me Free" to the deeply personal "Drink" and the upbeat "4 Ur Life," which pulls inspiration from classic Motown as well as Sly and the Family Stone. [7] The album was covered by numerous media outlets including The New York Times . [8]
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her personal lyrics and unconventional compositions which grew to incorporate pop and jazz elements. She has received many accolades, including eleven Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century."
Philip Tyler Keaggy is an American acoustic and electric guitarist and vocalist who has released more than 55 albums and contributed to many more recordings in both the contemporary Christian music and mainstream markets. He is a seven-time recipient of the GMA Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Gospel Album. He has frequently been listed as one of the world's top-two "finger-style" and "finger-picking" guitarists by Guitar Player Magazine readers' polls, and due to his complex and virtuosic playing, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest guitarists of all time.
Jamesetta Hawkins, known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter who performed in various genres, including gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, rock and roll, and soul. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind". She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spiritual lyrics and electric guitar. She was the first great recording star of gospel music, and was among the first gospel musicians to appeal to rhythm and blues and rock and roll audiences, later being referred to as "the original soul sister" and "the Godmother of rock and roll". She influenced early rock-and-roll musicians including Little Richard, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and also later guitarists, such as Eric Clapton.
Joan Anita Barbara Armatrading is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist. Her first major commercial success came with her third and fourth albums, Joan Armatrading (1976) and Show Some Emotion (1977), and she continues to play live and record studio albums. A three-time Grammy Award nominee, Armatrading has also been nominated twice for BRIT Awards as Best Female Artist. She received an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contemporary Song Collection in 1996.
Vivienne Patricia Scialfa is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Scialfa has been a member of the E Street Band since 1984 and has been married to Bruce Springsteen since 1991. In 2014, Scialfa was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the E Street Band.
Patricia Jean Griffin is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She is a vocalist and plays guitar and piano. She is known for her stripped-down songwriting style in the folk music genre. Her songs have been covered by numerous musicians, including Emmylou Harris, Ellis Paul, Kelly Clarkson, Rory Block, Dave Hause, Sugarland, Bette Midler and The Chicks.
Jazz is the seventh studio album by the British rock band Queen. It was released on 10 November 1978 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. Produced by Roy Thomas Baker, the album artwork was suggested by Roger Taylor, who previously saw a similar design painted on the Berlin Wall. The album's varying musical styles were alternately praised and criticised. It reached number two in the UK Albums Chart and number six on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.
Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli, known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish.
Dolores Brooks, also known as Sakinah Muhammad or La La Brooks, is an American singer and actress. She is best known as the second lead singer of the girl group The Crystals and the lead vocalist on the Crystals' hits "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron".
Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) is a live album of unplugged performance by Paul McCartney, recorded and released in 1991.
Vika and Linda, also known as Vika and Linda Bull, are an Australian vocal duo consisting of Vika Susan Bull and her younger sister, Linda Rose Bull. They came to prominence after singing backing vocals in Joe Camilleri's band The Black Sorrows from 1988. They left that group early in 1994 to start their duo with a self-titled album appearing in June that year. The duo scored their first number 1 album in 2020, with their retrospective 'Akilotoa: Anthology (1994-2006).
"Lay Your Hands on Me" is a song by American rock band Bon Jovi. It was released on August 1, 1989, as the fourth single from the band's 1988 album New Jersey. It peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the band's fourth single from New Jersey to chart in the Top 10 and it also charted at #20 on the Mainstream rock charts.
Esperanza Emily Spalding is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, a Soul Train Music Award, and two honorary doctorates: one from her alma mater Berklee College of Music and one from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).
Catherine Russell is an American jazz and blues singer. She is best known for her 2016 album Harlem on My Mind.
Roseanna Elizabeth Vitro is a jazz singer and teacher from Arkansas.
Becca Stevens is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who draws upon elements of jazz, chamber pop, indie rock, and folk.
Mollie O'Brien is an Americana, bluegrass, R&B, and folk singer from Wheeling, West Virginia. She has released a number of Americana albums with her brother, Grammy-winner Tim O'Brien. She has also released five positively received solo albums. She is currently based in Denver, and regularly tours and performs with her husband, guitarist Rich Moore, as a duo. Together they have released one studio album, Saints and Sinners and a live CD, 900 Baseline. She has regularly appeared on shows such as A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, and contributed vocals to the Grammy-winning album True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe. She is known for her interpretations of classic songs by artists such as Tom Waits, Memphis Minnie, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry, Si Kahn, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Kate MacLeod.
Carmen Souza is a Portuguese jazz singer and songwriter of Cape Verdean heritage. She combines traditional forms of Cape Verde with contemporary and traditional jazz.
Magda Piskorczyk is a Polish singer and multi-instrumentalist, composer and musical arranger. Piskorczyk has twice been a semi-finalist at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. She has been selected seven times in 10 years s 'Vocalist of the Year' by readers of the "Twój Blues" magazine.