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Nicole Hart		Nicole Hart		Nicole Hart

The NRG Band

Simply called "Live NRG," the CD by this premiere ensemble sparkles with energy and and starts your body swaying to the rhythm. The band is aptly named. A New Rhythm Groove inspires one to move to the solid beat and instills a strong desire to hit the dance floor. The musicianship and vocals carry the listener along on a musical journey spanning a cohesive mix of Blues, soul, funk and R&B. Through all seven tracks, the CD had us swaying to the seductive sounds of Nicole Hart's sultry vocals and the bands rock solid rhythms. If you love your Blues mixed in with a touch of soul and sprinkled with a bit of good ole' fashion rock n' roll, The NRG Band delivers! A great party band, we recommend spinning this one whenever you want to wake up and get your groove going.

To order the CD, visit The NRG Band website:
http://www.thenrgband.com

After listening to "Live NRG," we couldn't resist asking Nicole Hart a bit about herself and how the NRG Band came into being. Here's what we found out...

BB: How old were you when you started singing and what was it that got you started?

NH: Honestly, I have been singing since the doctor took me out of my mama and spanked me for air...that was my first high note! My father was an opera singer, and I was interested in singing and in music since I was a toddler. My mother was also an artist who worked with paint, charcoal & pencil. I remember that I had to be in second grade in elementary school to try out for the church choir, because that was the rule. I remember biting my nails the entire year I was in first grade, because I sat in church every Sunday & couldn't WAIT to get into choir. I worked hard to memorize all the hymns before I got into second grade. By the time I was in third grade, my father had become the choir director and, I hope it wasn't nepotism, but I was given my first solo! From there I went onto study madrigal and a capella singing in school, moving into all state, all region and national choir groups singing Handel and Copeland in up to 8 part harmony. I loved it! It threw down in a different way from the the popular music that I also loved.

BB: Who are the artists that influenced your style and who do you listen to now?

NH: I have very eclectic tastes: I range everywhere from Aretha (big time, especially Aretha Sings The Blues) to Chaka Kahn (unbelievably funky, soulful phrasing and range) to Linda Ronstadt (great tone, great tunes) & Bonnie Raitt (of course!) I discovered Janis Joplin only recently in the last 5 years, as many people have compared me to her & are always asking me to cover her and sing her tunes in my set, which I take as quite a compliment. She is truly great, but I am definitely not trying to sound like her....Ella Fitzgerald has to be, right next to Aretha, one of my all time favorite vocalists. She had attitude & love for life with a great sense of humour, and great depth, PLUS great techinque and innovation. Between Aretha and Ella, there you have it. Desert Island discs. For men, it is definitely Donny Hathaway, Stevie Wonder & James Taylor. What a way to put a song across. Donny makes me cry.

Today, I love Susan Tedeschi, one of the greatest new singers around. She is wonderful, & I find myself covering a lot of her songs. Of course, I will always love Etta James. What a stylist. She slays me. I respect Sheryl Crow a lot, for her diversity & her songwriting & producing, and also for her technique vocally. She is always interesting. I love Marcia Ball. What an attitude! Party!!! Shawn Colvin. Koko Taylor, though I sound nothing like her. Again, great attitude.

With men, I also LOVE Lowell George, James Brown, Otis, Sam Cooke, & David Ruffin...and AL GREEN!! And Howlin' Wolf.
Eva Cassidy is one of the greats, too. Do you know her? Oh, man, and while I'm at it...Dusty Springfield!

BB: Of all your musical experiences thus far, including live performances, recording, etc, what stands out most in your mind as being a special career moment - both personally and professionally?

NH: I have to say that singing live in the studio with Billy Joel was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life, both professionally & personally. I was booked for the session at Sony Studios in NYC & it turned out to be a live shoot for a music video at the same time for his River of Dreams CD. While we were between takes, Billy wandered over to the piano & started playing classical music that I happened to be familiar with. I have a background in classical music and I started naming one by one the tunes he was playing by the composers Bach, Chopin, Debussy, Satie, etc. He never spoke a word, just smiled at me, and then would play another tune until I named that one, too. It was a pretty fun game! Singing back up for Michael Bolton at the famous Red Ball at Trump Plaza in NYC was a great experience. That man has a tremendous amount of soul...much more so than you hear in his records. Sharing the stage with Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry were both absolutely incredible experiences!!! Bo Diddley is a pretty frisky guy, and there's only one Chuck Berry. Hearing Miles Davis perform in NYC at the Piers before he passed was an experience I will always cherish. Michael Brecker with Wayne Krantz at Towne Hall was one of my favorite shows ever. Catching Prince at an invitation only performance at the House of Blues in LA on the Sunset Strip was a mind blower, too: he played as a power trio, just him on guitar, with a bassist and drummer, and he blew the roooooof off that place. I had new respect for him after that show, and am grateful I saw it. Hanging just offstage at numerous Steely Dan shows during their reunion tour was a dream come true, too. My boyfriend at the time, Drew Zingg, was musical director & lead guitarist....we had just begun our relationship when he got the call to play the tour. I even went with them to Japan, which was an experience in itself, of course. Some of the great performance experiences I've had as a lead singer were playing the main stage at the Riverhead Blues Festival, the Fairfield Theatre in Connecticut and the Westport Festival, also in Connecticut. I am never frightened when there are a lot of people in the audience; at least not once I hit the stage. In a way, it is harder if there are only a few people!

BB: How did it come about that you and the other NRG members met and started performing together?

NH: Musical Director, arranger, & keyboardist Lance Ong and I had been together in a band called THE SHADES. When that disbanded, Lance and our very talented bassist, Vonnie Hudson, & I decided we wanted to keep making music together. We held auditions and heard many fine players, but there was something outstanding about drummer, Joe Piteo, and guitarist, Rich Cohen. It was musical synergy. That got the band off to a great start. We worked 6 months straight with that configuration, doing as many shows as I could book to get the band as tight as possible. However, Rich had told us from the beginning that he had his own project, and I was booking so many gigs he wasn't able to devote the time he wanted to his own thing. He was great for us for that first six months, but then we decided it was best to part ways, and I called up a guy I have known for over 13 years, a fantastic guitarist named Gil Parris, who actually has a Grammy nomination under his belt, as well as 5 national releases. Gil is one of the most amazing musicians I have ever had the pleasure to work with, & he happened to be a good friend of our drummer, Joe, as well. We worked him in, but he also has his own career & I knew right from the start we would need another great guitarist just in case, so I called Dave Gross. Dave just won a nomination for the 2007 Blues Foundation Awards (formerly the WC Handy Awards) in the category of Best New Artist. Dave is an excellent musician, performer and songwriter, and one of the nicest fellows you'd ever want to meet. What is interesting for us is that Gil and Dave bring two completely different approaches to our music, so it can be pretty darn intriguing what comes out in the mix night after night. Gil is more Jazz and fusion influenced, & has country blues influences as well (he has listened to a lot of Hank Garland, one of my favorites!) whereas Dave is deeply influenced by Hubert Sumlin & Django Reinhardt, and has a more traditional Blues sound. It is very rewarding working with both of them, and we toggle back and forth between the two. We also have had the good fortune to work with chromatic harpist and saxophonist, Stanley Behrens (Willie Dixon, Ruth Brown, Jimmy Smith, Canned Heat) on several shows this summer, too. Lance & Stanley were friends from back in the day when they both did session work out in LA, and he flew out to the East Coast this summer just to do a few shows with us....We got him on this live record for two tunes, which is just great. I have to stop here and let you know that Vonnie (who plays five string bass,) Joe and Lance have a special chemistry with each other, and singing with those guys backing me up is quite a thrill. Each of them is a terrific musician in his own right, and they all solo beautifully. There are a lot of solos in this band, because we feature each musician. Many bassists we have worked with over the years have refused to solo, but Vonnie eats them for breakfast! I call him our secret weapon, because it is mesmerizing to our audience when he steps up and takes a solo. Our drummer, Joe, is also just an outstanding soloist, and I love to call certain tunes at certain times just because he has a drum solo in it - he blows the audience's mind and really gets them excited. The band is just wonderful, and there is great deal of synergy between us. Lance is also one of the deepest musical cats I have had the pleasure to work with, and we write together, produce together, and love performing together. He plays an instrument onstage known as a Lync, which is a keyboard midi controller he wears with a strap so that it hangs like a guitar from his neck. It enables him to move all over the room when he solos, and has a pitch wheel which he uses in a way so that it often sounds like a guitar. He also uses a Nord Electro module which he has tweaked to emulate a B-3 so well that if you close your eyes, you'll think there is a Leslie in the room. He's a great songwriter & just a great musician all around.

BB: Any studio projects being planned for the near future?

NH: Yes, we had originally planned to release a studio effort first, but found we really needed a recording quickly just so we could get some airplay and bring attention to NRG right away. The band is so tight in live performance; it was a logical first step to record live for release. Ideally, however, we are planning to release a studio record, & Lance and I have written many new tunes that we haven't even brought into the live show, yet. You know, there's always so much to do! These days you have to be a booker, manager, producer, publicist, sales person, & marketer, all while writing, performing and recording, too! To be successful in music, it's a 24/7 job, but sometimes life demands your attention as well. We're juggling all these things but, yes, we are putting the pieces together for the next release which will be a studio project. Having said that, we have a great show coming up on January 12th at the Turning Point in Piermont, NY with Gil Parris and we plan to record that live, too! We'll have to see how that comes out...You never know!

BB: Thanks, Nicole!

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For booking, you may contact The NRG Band at:

Email: PureNRG@TheNRGBand.com
Tel: 201-696-0971
http://www.thenrgband.com/Contact.htm
http://www.myspace.com/nrgband