SINGING ALONG AS A FAN IN CONCERT CROWD GIVES JULIE RHODES IMPETUS TO GET UP ON STAGE AFTER LIFE-CHANGING CONVERSATION
Julie Rhodes wasn’t singing along to get anyone’s attention. She was
swept up in the songs of Yep Roc Records artist Jonah Tolchin at a house
show in Providence, RI and sang along. When support artist Dan
Blakesleee approached her after the set to tell her that he’d heard her
stunning voice and to ask if she was an artist, she admitted to him that
she was just a fan. He challenged her to write her first song, which
she did on the drive from Providence back to Somerville. Julie recalls,
“When I got home, I recorded it on my phone and sent it to Jonah and Dan
the next day with the message, ‘thanks for the inspiration.’ The two of
them listened to the song out loud in a Staples. Jonah reached out
immediately. He was really impressed and encouraged me to keep going.”
In fact, he went one step further, mentoring her as a musician.
After hearing the second song she wrote, Tolchin began to mentor her,,
at first having her guest on his sets and later producing her debut
album ‘Bound To Meet The Devil.’ Tolchin says, “Julie Rhodes is the
future of soulful music. She holds in her heart, mind, and vocal chords
what the world needs to hear. I think that it will mark the first
chapter of an awe-inspiring career for her.”
In under two years, that journey has taken her to the FAME Studios in
Muscle Shoals, AL, to record debut album as well to the stages of CMJ
and Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right. Pop Matters recently hailed the LP as
“the arrival of a significant new Americana/blues talent.”
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