AA Boomer Musician Brings Vibrant
American Music Overseas

BY Kevin A. Stanley

The sweet sounds of American jazz, soul, hip hop and rhythm & blues garner new fans wherever they are played....

The legendary success of artists as varied as The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Tina Turner and even newer stars like Alicia Keys, John Legend and Beyoncé demonstrate that African-American music has global appeal. Because there are so many famous names performing internationally, it is sometimes easy to forget that there are also many wonderful lesser-known American artists performing overseas. Daryl Strodes is just such a performer; expanding the horizons of music fans in many cities worldwide.

At fifty, Daryl has already experienced enough adventure to pack two lifetimes! Over the course of his childhood, he lived in Pittsburgh, New York City, Charlotte, NC, and then spent time in Hong Kong, Australia and China. An only child, he still benefited from a close-knit family, and plenty of time with cousins, aunts and uncles.

Daryl grew up around music. His childhood neighborhood was filled with professional musicians, and everyday he took lessons from some of the best. In fact, you could say that music was in Daryl’s blood. His grandfather, John Hall, Sr., played tenor saxophone for both the Count Basie and Duke Ellington orchestras, and his mother is also a gifted singer. With a set of influences like this, it seems inevitable that he would develop his musical skills.

Still, he had options. He was also a promising high school football player, and by his sophomore year, had drawn the attention of college scouts. However, when he was pressed to decide between the music and football, music won. From then on, he poured himself into his passion. At the age of fifteen, he began studying the guitar and seriously focusing on singing. In time, he was accepted to the University of Pittsburgh. A professor there—Dr. Nathan Davis—was impressed by his abilities, and allowed Daryl and a musical partner to use the jazz band room to rehearse their original compositions. He was the envy of his classmates for this. A few of his other classmates, along with professors from some of the area colleges joined in to jam with them in that band room.

Experiences like this helped Daryl hone his skills, and soon drew him the attention of important people. A friend and touring partner of his introduced him to Dr. George Butler, then-VP of Columbia Records. Dr. Butler listened to some of Daryl’s material, and really liked what he heard. He got Daryl a contract offer: an offer that actually led him to pass on selling a song to Janet Jackson’s development crew! Daryl left the University of Pittsburgh, and headed to Columbia Records. The sacrifice proved worth it, because he always had an open door with Dr. Butler, and learned a great deal from him.

He would spend the next decade splitting his time between New York, Atlanta and Charlotte (where he was co-owner and operator of a full-service production studio). During this period, he continued to write, do session work, and learn production; sometimes studying the producers at the sessions after his performing duties were over. One concept he learned: artists prefer you to have a vision for their work, and bring a confidence in your abilities to the table when you sit down to work with each other.

As he grew in the industry, he managed to pick up new skills and techniques from the producers and artists he worked with. Daryl was fortunate during this time to work with some of the most talented people in the business: among them Jodeci, Keith Washington, and Grammy-winning songwriter and musician Daryl Simmons.

Daryl, Rex Rideout and Vastine Pettis eventually found themselves in a bidding war for some of the music they’d written while in college. Eleven offers came in from different labels. They settled on an offer—at the time, the largest offer made to an R&B band—from RCA/Bahia Records in New York. While production for their first album was in progress, Daryl gigged around New York with Roy Ayers, Noel Pointer, Angie Stone and others. A production deal was inked with Warner Bros. Records for them to write and produce a single for Bobbi Humphries. Big things were definitely happening…

But Daryl was about to learn an important lesson about the unpredictability of the music industry. The president at RCA/Bahia who had signed them left the company, and all of the projects he had in production were scrapped. The RCA deal was dead! He was learning quickly just how bottom-line driven the music business could be.

Undaunted,  Daryl had the opportunity do some touring, and took full advantage of it, performing with War, Third World, Yellowman, Buju Banton, Michael Rose of Black Uhuru, and Don Carlos in locales from the Caribbean to Hawaii and Australia.

Next, he joined forces with a publishing company who was interested in his catalog, and this brought his music to the attention of artists like P. Diddy, Destiny’s Child, the Backstreet Boys, Carl Thomas, Ashanti, Mary J. Blige and Mariah Carey.

It took Daryl’s label mate (and former college roommate) Vastine almost five years of coaxing, but he finally convinced him to do something that seemed almost natural given his upbringing: returning to Asia to perform. He’s now grateful he did! The reception there has been extremely warm and the audiences very receptive. Because radio in Asia is not locked into the same types of rigid formats that are found here in the United States, his fans are far more open to new musical experiences.

He recently took part in a seven-month Chivas Regal Tour of China, playing to sell-out crowds all over that country. He has also been able to discover an amazing community of expatriate musicians in Asia. While most of the foreign artists performing in China tend to be from Europe, most of the expats in Japan tend to be Americans. He has a group of friends there that can help bridge the distance between where he grew up and where he is today.Daryl Strodes keeps his eyes poised towards the horizon, and stays quite busy. In addition to continuing to tour and write music for other artists, he is also producing Asian, European and American artists through his own production company, and his new record label—BodyGuard Music—which will be debuting in Spring of 2010. He is in the studio working on his debut single, and will then be hitting the road again.

Daryl’s goal with BodyGuard Music is to find and showcase artists from all over the world who may have a giant following in their homelands, but be virtually unknown in other markets.

Keep your eyes out for Daryl Strodes, and keep your ears open for his new music, and the new artists BodyGuard Music will be bringing to the stage!

You can purchase downloads of his music at the following sites:

Rhapsody: (Offers 25 free song plays and also a paid-subscription service with thousands of songs available for download)
http://www.rhapsody.com/daryl-strodes/daryl-strodes-ep

iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/daryl-strodes-ep/id344737457

Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Daryl-Strodes-EP/dp/B0030QJOXU/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_1

And you can reach Mr. Strodes here:

Mr. Daryl C. Strodes
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