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Please welcome GhettoSongBird to the blog. She has been invited to do a guest post.
The year 2001, in my hometown Philadelphia, was my initiation into a world I had no idea that I was not supposed to belong in. My race, gender, and passage from the hood did not equate to the sum of Rock artists that were being played on radio and television. It did not add up to what history required Rock‘n’Roll to be on the airwaves, at award shows, on the cover of magazines, in the latest music videos, displayed on CD covers or selling out stadiums globally.
Being a Black Woman in Rock, playing a hardcore lead/rhythm guitar, and writing aggressive songs about social issues was not going to skyrocket my career back then, but it did land me on a mission to break glass ceilings and heavy concrete walls at the same time.
How did I get to stages, such as CBGB’S, some desired to know? What led me to produce my 1st EP “Alley Of The Earth” with Kenny Terry and Rosa Lee Brooks (a recording artist who wrote and recorded with Jimi Hendrix) in Los Angles, 2002? The mere notion that I DID belong and this majestic power-driven music (that I fell in love with by listening to my mother’s record collection) called me through the voices of my ancestors who created every emotion of “race music” (the Blues and Rhythm and Blues) shapeshifting into Rock-n-Roll.
Learning about Sister Rosetta Tharpe empowered my journey (who lived her last days a few blocks from where I grew up in North Philadelphia). If she is the root of Rock music then I am definitely that flower sprouting out of the concrete sidewalk helping to keep the culture alive; growing and kicking ass in every sub-genre.
The awakening of my Enchanting Rock Goddess Tour gives me the unapologetic energy to celebrate everything I was told that I can not be in the rock music arena when I already am. I have to thank my Roxsploitation Band Ronin Ali and Chris Nelson for being the wings to help navigate me through this rock-n-roll Dream, that is indeed reality.
I had to pinch myself when legendary Rock venues such as The Whisky A Go-Go in Los Angeles (that I am performing at June 30th), The Bitter End in New York City (where I’ll be performing July 22nd) & the Troubadour in London (where I will rock November 27th) responded quickly to book me. After 17 years of doing this independent route, my urban legend is starting to take flight as wide as my gratitude. I am here, loud and clear in the name of Rock-n-Roll. Hell yeah!
GhettoSongBird Links:
For my tour schedule, my music and updates go to reverbnation.com/GhettoSongBird
My tour fundraiser:
Click here to support GhettoSongBird’s Diaspora Tour Fund organized by Samantha Hollins
