Grammy-winning English singer-songwriter chanteuse Corinne Bailey Rae’s live show is on the road and making a stop in Cincinnati September 12 at Memorial Hall in honor of her new album, Black Rainbows. Rae is quite literally the “jack of all trades” when it comes to vocal range. An award-winning songwriter, Rae's delicate, soulful, melodic voice is exasperated with hints of pop, punk, alternative rock, and classic soul.
Her 2006 megahit, “Girl Put Your Record On” has 50 million views on Youtube alone. A tip of the hat to the iconic Bob Marley song,”Three Little Birds”, “Girl Put Your Record On” sings of distracting oneself with music to escape the compounding worries of life, and let your hair down and relax about things a bit.
But don’t put Corinne Bailey Rae in one box.
Black Rainbows veers in a new direction and truly shows Rae’s vocal range and multifaceted talents. Black Rainbows explores Black femininity, Spell Work, Inner Space/Outer Space, time collapse and ancestors, the erasure of Black childhood and music as a vessel for transcendence.
“New York Transit Queen” is a song you’ll want to play loudly; with heavy alt rock and punk influences a la The Runaways and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon.
The song is a tribute to the first of the African American Miss New York Transits. Way ahead of its time, The Miss Subways pageant ran from 1941-1976, and became one of the first American beauty pageants to be racially integrated, with a diverse group of women earning the title. The first African American was crowned Miss Subways in 1948 and the first Asian-American was honored in 1949.
“This music has come through seeing. Seeing has been like hearing for me. While I was looking, songs/sounds appeared,” said Rae.
Black Rainbows is the result of a several years long conversation between Rae and the objects and happenings in the Stoney Island Arts Bank, Chicago. Wide ranging in its themes, Black Rainbows themes are drawn from Rae’s encounters with objects in the Arts Bank.
"I knew when I walked through those doors that my life had changed forever,” explained Rae.
Located in Chicago’s south side, Stoney Island Arts Bank is a cathedral to Black Art, a curated collection of Black archives comprising books, sculpture, records, furniture and problematic objects from America's past. As well as being a site for archive, the Arts bank is also a place for convening. Bailey Rae attended The Black Artists Retreat there in 2017 and performed in the space.
Don’t miss an unforgettable evening with Corinne Bailey Rae.
