Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, artist, songwriter and composer Hattie Wilcox was raised on Chopin and Debussy, hillbilly blues, and soul. These sounds are in her blood and sneak into her music all the time. In her new CD Red Bird Tattoo, Hattie writes and sings her favorite--the blues.
\"Something Real\" is a I\'ve-had-enough song inspired by one of Hattie\'s favorite artists, Reverend Al Green. \"Love Leave Me\" sits nicely on the edge of its honky-tonk piano bed with Hattie sick of love hangin\' around after her lover is gone. \"Go It Alone\" is Hattie\'s heart smashed to bits and stomped on.
\"I Don\'t Belong To You\" is Hattie\'s I\'m-done-I\'m-walkin\' song inspired by Etta James. \"You Save Me\" is making fans weak in the knees with Hattie\'s softer side shining in the sultry vocal conversation she\'s having with herself. It\'s Norah Jones meets Rickie Lee Jones. Check it out. You\'ll probably agree, it\'s sexay! And as much as Hattie loves to sing sweet soul and jazzy blues, she\'s gonna sashay around now and then on the sawdust singin\' Lyle Lovett\'s \"Cowboy Man\" and \"Why I Don\'t Know.\"
Red Bird Tattoo wraps up with the smooth and melancholy \"My Birthday\" intimate party for two and a bonus track--Hattie\'s old-timey ragtime piano solo \"Miss Hattie Moran\'s Augusta Georgia Rag\" complete with scratchy 78 rpm record sound dancing out of the CD like it was a 1940s radio. You\'re gonna want these songs in your car to keep you company when you\'re stuck in traffic.
Miss Hattie Moran\'s Augusta Georgia Rag
\"If Scott Joplin had lunch with Keith Jarret, he might have... jotted down this little ditty.\"--Suzanne Dean, Berklee College of Music
Hattie has signed many songs to music libraries in the US, Canada, and Australia, and has begun to receive radio play in the US, Belgium and Germany. In June 2006, Hattie\'s song \"Whiskey\" was selected as a finalist in the compo10.com blues festival and Hattie flew to Finland to perform in the live finals in Vantaa. In September 2007, Hattie signed licensing agreement with Stimulus Films for her song \"The Leaving\" (fiddle instrumental featuring Wanda Vick) to be used in Grilling Bobby Hicks film (Georgia sneek preview November 17, 2007) and soundtrack CD. The PBS 12-part series Roadtrip Nation 2007 (in its 4th season) licensed Hattie\'s tribute song to all the folks affected by Katrina, New Orleans Down, in November 2007.
The Red Bird Tattoo band is lead by the one-and-only Johnny Neel, soul man, harp man and keyboard player formerly of the Allman Brothers. Johnny Neel is a Grammy-nominated artist and songwriter who cut his first single at age 12. Arranging all the songs on Red Bird Tattoo, Johnny\'s original tunes have been recorded by the Allman Brothers, Joe Louis Walker, John Mayall, Irma Thomas, Ann Peebles, Marie Osmond, the Oak Ridge Boys and Travis Tritt. Taking turns on lead guitar are some of Nashville\'s finest: Doug Jones on \"I Don\'t Belong To You\", Mark Matejka (Lynryd Skynyrd) on \"Go It Alone\", and Hattie\'s regular guitarist Brian Davidson on everything else. Brian, a guitar enthusiast since age 8, is a British native who grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1992 Brian won the country category--one of 12 first-place honorees of Guitar Player Magazine\'s \"Ultimate Guitar\" competition. In 1997, Davidson led a group which made it to semi-finals in Musician magazine\'s Best Unsigned Band competition. Brian\'s most recent accolade is being chosen one of the top 6 contestants in the 2007 North American Rock Guitar Competition. Seasoned pros and Nashville \"A\" list session players, Daryl Burgess is on drums, and Dennis Gulley plays bass and engineers. Hattie is proud to have these talented musicians leaving their mark in her songs and watching her back.
Playing piano at age 7, Hattie was a shirtless girl growing up in the humid-sweet south, and when she wasn\'t in school or outside all day in the woods, Hattie played piano for her mama, her \"Big Mama\" Aunt Hattie and her first music teacher, Annette Kahn. Every week one summer her mama drove Hattie two hours (each way) to Greensboro so she could study with Hungarian concert pianist, Lili Keleti. Hattie remembers her weekly reward after each lesson--a cheeseburger and fries--as exciting to little Hattie as Miss Keleti\'s mysterious accent and high-drama, arms-in-the-air teaching style. Befriending the piano, riding tree-lined Carolina highways and salty fast-food is the stuff of Hattie\'s musical beginnings.
At 13, Hattie was accepted for study by Loren Withers, head of the music department at Duke University. Not wanting to practice four hours a day like his other students (and her idol Yoko Nazaki), she soon quit. Classical piano on hold, Hattie discovered the lyrical fiddle music of the Blue Ridge Mountains and continued her life-long love affair with soul. Though she was way to young to get in, Hattie\'s first concert--Sam and Dave singing and sweating in their satin shirts open to the waist--is a permanent imprint on her soul.
After highschool, Hattie returned to the piano to continue music study at Mills College in Oakland CA. After college she lived for five years without a TV, and her love of music and modern poetry came together when she began to write songs inspired by Etta James, Ray Charles, and the Reverend Al Green (to name a few).
What folks are saying about Miss Hattie Moran\'s Augusta Georgia Rag
Twisted and sexy.--Thomas Macaoidh, Vibist and composer, Albany, OR
Come to Montreal, you crazy pianist...--Chris Nippard, Songwriter/vocalist/guitarist, Montreal, Quebec
Scott Joplin, Debussy, Mompou, Stravinsky, Jelly Roll Morton and other influences . . . it could be soundtrack . . .very surprising and original
--Moises Prieto, Guitarist/Producer, Madrid
Intriguing Quirkiness . . . Kevokian, Hardcore Metal band, New York
Mood zig-zags between Mose Allison, Scott Joplin and--in its classic passages--Dave Brubeck . . . emotionally intense and evocative. The Philomankind (Power Pop) Pisa, Italy
If this performer was playing in my bar, I\'d be hanging off the end of the piano and buying the drinks. Jim Pearson, songwriter, UK
Smooth Ragtime --I really like the feel of this song. It has a very different sound to it. It makes you think of a time gone by--very nice touch.--Big Dutch, Hip Hop/R&B Artist & Producer, Watts (Compton) CA
Hattie composed the solo piano track \"Miss Hattie Moran\'s Augusta Georgia Rag\" in honor of her great-aunt Hattie Dermott Moran (1891-1951). A stride and ragtime piano player from Augusta, Georgia, Hattie Moran performed as a vocalist and pianist for the Lion\'s Club, The Exchange Club of Augusta, local theatre, and for St. John\'s Methodist Church for more than 30 years.
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