#TBT to 2015 when I was the opener for Tamia's Love Life tour. This clip brings back so many memories...of stress. Lol. This was my first night opening for the tour. This show was in ATL. Although I performed often, I was nervous as heck! So much goes into even a simple performance. And what's more, it isn't easy to perform for a sold out audience that isn't there to see you. But the Atlanta audience was AMAZING! In this short clip you see me on stage alone, singing Stevie Wonder's "All I Do"...(which happens to be one of my favorite songs to sing live)...But let me tell you a little bit about what happened behind the scenes… Some of what it took to pull of this "One-Woman" Show, that in actuality, wasn't one woman at all...Let me briefly explain. I was offered the opening position after the tour had already begun. This means I had to figure out my song list, my wardrobe, how I was going to obtain instrumentals for my show, how I was going to track my show, oh, and I had to release my single during the tour. I had to figure out how to do all of this without impeding on my usual position of singing background for Tamia. Which Also means I had to do two sound checks per night, of course wardrobe change, and work extra hard to preserve my voice so as not to compromise my primary job of singing backgrounds for T. Whelp...anxiety, I mean, challenge accepted!
Fortunately for me, and I like to think for him as well, my ex-boyfriend and I were amazing friends. We still are. He sprung right up to the challenge of first, convincing me to accept the offer of opening (lol) and second, helping me to get my band, at the time, to track my show with live instrumentation. He booked a studio in Nashville where I could watch a live stream and direct them from my hotel room in New York. He brought in Kenneth Bean on keys, Andre Hayden on bass, Jonathan Boddie on guitar, The Late B.B. King's drummer Tony Coleman on drums, Varney Green on trombone, Josh on trumpet, and himself (Rod Allen) on saxophone. Once all of the music was tracked and arranged to my liking, we had the session sent to Atlanta to my good friend Travis Cherry to mix the show. On to the next destination, Washington D.C.
Working around Soundcheck and performance times, I was also constantly on the phone with my in-house producer and longtime friend Tony Hinton trying to get my single mixed and mastered in Nashville. We decided on my good friend Ryan Frederick, a now Grammy winning engineer, to mix and master the single which was to be released during the tour. I also had to choose the photo for the single, and due to the short window I had to work within, I decided to do the photo edits and graphics myself.
While the tour traveled from D.C. to Atlanta, my son graciously took on the challenge of getting lost in the sea of sequin that is my closet, to pull pieces that I wanted to perform in for the tour. The following morning, Rod dropped by my house to pick up the wardrobe from my son, and drove them down to Atlanta. Fortunately for me, we had an off day in Atlanta the day before the show. So once I arrived in Atlanta, Rod arrived shortly after, and we headed directly to the studio to mix the show. Upon listening to the session, we decided the show needed another lift. Travis then called in touring drummer Geoff Morgan to re-track some of the drums to match a new energy I wanted to introduce to the performance. So I went into the booth to record scratch vocals of the new energy I wanted, and Geoff came immediately and tracked some new drum fills and energy for me. He absolutely killed! We did some light mixing that night, but Travis did the heavy lifting overnight on his own. The next day was show day! But not just any show day, it was my first day wearing two hats for the tour. I had to find my rhythm in communicating with the sound engineer what I liked in my mix, separate from the mix I would need later for Tamia's show. Our front of the house and stage sound engineers Luge and Eric helped me out a great deal. They gave me the peace of mind I needed to pull off this show. Tamia and celebrity hair and makeup artist Demi Valentine gifted the wonderful celebrity make-up artist Kisha Augustine for a flawless look, and our road MD Dre Gray introduced my show to promote the tour family dynamic we all had. What's more, our choreographers Todd Johnson and Craig Watson took it upon themselves to get behind the light board and created a light show for my performance on the fly! Now how's that for a "One Woman" show?😉