Boston’s beautiful and now very well known singer Nicole Nelson has been on a roll this year. Aside from her perennial success with her long time duo partner Dwight Ritcher, Nelson won a Boston Music Award for Female Vocalist Of The Year after appearing as a contestant on NBC television’s reality show The Voice. The BMA award comes after years of hard work on the local blues scene, and her initial appearance on The Voice found all four star judges falling in love with her voice as she crooned Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah. In fact, the four judges were each enthusiastically asking Nelson to pick their individual teams.
Winning the award at Boston Music Awards for Female Vocalist Of The Year was an exhilarating experience, as Nelson has been boosted by the city’s music scene for some time now.
“ It felt amazing,” Nelson exclaimed. “It was my first win, and it meant the world to me to get that honor from the city where I cut my teeth playing music. I will never forget that night.”
Nelson had been nominated for BMAs in the past. “Boston is the kind of city where new music is born,” she said. “So many talented people come here to learn and grow, and we are both very proud to be a part of it. We’ve always felt great love here, as individuals, and for our duo ‘Dwight & Nicole.’”
Nelson has been on the New England music scene for over 10 years. She and Ritcher both started blues bands in the early 2000’s and played regularly at name clubs like the original House of Blues, Johnny D’s in Somerville, and the Yardrock in Quincy.
“I originally moved to Boston hoping to go to Berklee, but the blues scene back then was just so much fun,” she said. “In the beginning I would go to every blues jam and open mike with guitarist Brad Faucher. He was so enthusiastic, and he really took me under his wing. He invited me to sit in with his band, Sweet Willie D and the Continental Walk. It was the best way to learn how to work a crowd and put on a show. I would also haunt Toni Lynn Washington and Rick Russell’s shows.’
After almost a year of that, Nelson entered and won the Battle of the Blues Bands and represented the Boston Blues Society in Memphis Tennessee in February of 2002. That really launched things for the budding singer in Boston. “I never did end up going to Berklee. I just started gigging all the time,” she quipped.
Before coming to Boston to study music, Nelson grew up in Brooklyn New York. Her musical training involved no formal lessons. She listened to every singer she felt was great, Sarah Vaughn, Whitney Houston, Count Basie, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Bonnie Raitt, The Staple Singers, Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Patsy Cline, Bob Marley, Buddy Guy, Mary J. Blige, Jimi Hendrix and Cyndi Lauper.
Nelson played violin and piano every day growing up, but never really learned how to read music. “I could always just pick it up by ear very quickly (a blessing and a curse!),” she said. “Music has always been very healing for me. When my brother suddenly died at age 15, I was completely devastated and was very much a lost soul for a long time. Music was the bridge between the immense pain I was in and the real world. I don’t know how I would have survived without it. I certainly would not have thrived.”
The singer’s personal background likely gave her the backbone to hold up under the recent pressure of facing a national television audience. Nelson gave a surprising answer when asked to describe what she was feeling and thinking during that moment on The Voice when all four judges were asking her to be on their team.
“Well, I really wasn’t thinking at all in that moment,” Nelson said. “It’s amazing how the mind can just shut down when there are so many powerful emotions firing on ten. I was feeling very intense excitement, also a streak of thrilling panic, like jumping out of a plane. I was aware that it was such a pivotal, beautiful, fleeting thing, and that I had to breath to take it all in. And I felt like I was on top of the world.”
Although Nelson didn’t complete the season, she learned many useful lessons during her Voice stint.
“The most important thing I gained was learning how to really prepare for shows at that high level and dealing with the pressure of it,” she said. “We all rehearsed constantly and went over wardrobe and hair and makeup changes with their staff for weeks in preparation for that 90 seconds of actual performing. I’ve taken home with me the importance of having more structure in my daily schedule and taking the time to go over each performance every day in order to get comfortable with it and make it the very best that it can be. It was a profound thing. I am now armed and ready for what ever road my career takes me down. I feel tremendously empowered. I also learned a lot from my coach on the show, Adam Levine, and from Mary J Blige. They gave me such great advice as far as dealing with the strangeness of fame and success, which I think I was fearful of for a long time.”
Many of Nelson’s local fans have been wondering aloud if she has heard from interested parties since her appearance on The Voice. Those who have followed Nelson’s career for the last eight years are mumbling questions about contracts, label deals, and, considering her striking appearance, a film role. Her answer is yes.
“I have heard from interested parties,” she exclaimed. “The show has opened doors in that sense. It is amazing how starring on NBC can get you a meeting. It is a blessing. But I haven’t been offered a film roll yet. I can’t wait to take on the challenge of a great acting roll. I have always planned on getting back into theater eventually. Broadway is definitely in my future. I would love to play Billie Holiday. Also, we (D&N) have some exciting partnerships in the works, thankfully, but we are definitely still looking forward to landing a good record deal. I do know that the right thing will find us. It seems that simply knowing that has brought so many great things into my life.”
One of the other questions being asked about Nelson’s appearances are why she chose Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” for her audition song.
“’Hallelujah’ is one of those songs that touches upon every human emotion,” Nelson said. “It is timeless and it is a joy to sing. It covers bliss and pain, heaven and hell, and everything in between. It is the perfect song for me.”
Asked how she felt after being eliminated from the competition—defeated? or she was just beginning her national recognition?—Nelson gave a philosophical response.
“I felt good about it. It was just my time to leave the show,” she said. “My friends and fans felt differently, of course, but I knew, at that point, that what the show was looking for, and what I was looking for, were two different things. I am incredibly thankful for being there while it lasted, and for everything I am getting to experience in my life as a result of it. I’ve chosen an exciting path for myself. For example, if I stayed on the show any longer than I did, I would not have been able to finish writing for the new album ‘SHINE’ in time to debut new songs at the BMA’s and win Female Vocalist of the Year. Everything in my life always seems to line up just as it should. The trick is to see that before it becomes hindsight, to see the truth of it as it is happening.”
The singer’s Dwight & Nicole duo perform at halls, clubs, and festivals around the country. The pair have a few choice methods when they go about marketing themselves outside of the Boston area.
“I find that our music is well received and people will check us out online and want to come out see us live,“ Nelson said. “Thankfully, we’ve done very well with grassroots promoting. We use great indie tools like PledgeMusic.com, a fan-funding website which is how we are funding our current album release without a record label. Fans can pre-order the new album today, and that money will go toward releasing it (in a big way) this Spring. (visit www.DwightandNicole.com for details on pre-ordering and funding the new album SHINE).
Although the Nelson-Richter act have expanded their gig dates into other territories, by tapping into those markets, they refuse to compromise on their musical standards.
“Our roots are quite varied, but that doesn’t leave our music watered down,“ Nelson said. “The love and dedication that we put into what we do enables us to go from scene to scene very comfortably. When playing a jazz room like the Blue Note we may play a show inspired by Count Basie or Ray Charles. In a theater where there’s a quiet listening crowd, we’ll likely display more of our lyrical, melodic tunes. If we are playing a big rock room like the Paradise in Boston, we will most likely bring along a horn section like the Aruda Brothers and play lots of our super catchy, high energy songs to rile everybody up. It’s fun. We are fortunate to have such diversity. It allows us to express ourselves, and our audience is as wide ranging as we are.”
It is also fairly common for one of her Dwight & Nicole songs to appear as background music on a television show soundtrack. The duo works with a few agencies and individuals who provide music for TV and film.
“They place our songs pretty often. It’s great,” Nelson exclaimed. “I think our music strikes a chord in people. We both pour our hearts into everything we sing and play, and that emotion comes across. Every emotion has a story behind it. They really go hand in hand.”
The Dwight & Nicole 2010 CD release !Signs has been well-received. Nelson said she and her duo partner did not have a plan or vision for it. They just wanted to get several of their fan favorite originals down on wax. That project was just a lot busier than their two discs before that, a live CD and an E. P. !Signs forced the two to practically live inside the studio for a year. For their upcoming album, SHINE, things are moving forward with a panoramic view.
“Now with the new album SHINE there is a vision, Nelson exclaimed. “I want very much to inspire people the way that I was inspired by music my whole life. I want very much to promote the kind of healing that I experienced by listening to songs that made me feel something. I believe that music is our universal language, and I can only hope that people will hear this album and feel a connection, and know that they are not alone.”
Nicole and Richter were actually making fans of out of well known people even before Nelson appeared on The Voice. This includes America’s prominent poet Dr. Maya Angelou.
“I made a fan of her, originally, opening up for her at Symphony Hall with the Nicole Nelson Band,” the singer said. “She was amazing, and such a powerful force. She stood by the side of the stage cheering loudly. I was in heaven. After my set, she asked me for an autographed copy of my EP. I was so nervous trying to think of what to write to Dr. Maya Angelou. I think I just said ‘thank you.’”
Nelson couldn’t really pinpoint a moment in time when she first started working with Dwight Ritcher and when that association came about. “We were fans of each others bands for years. I first saw him live opening for Otis Rush at the House of Blues, and I thought he and his band were so fantastic,” she exclaimed. “He was doing real raw blues but was also writing these great songs and bringing so much life to the music. We both moved to New York City around the same time in 2004 and started playing together there. It was the most fun I ever had playing music, and it still is.
When asked if Ritcher is her husband, fiancée, or partner, Nelson answered with good natured humor. “Well, he and I have been in love and pretty inseparable for the past eight years. I suppose if I have to call him something, it would be life partner, but I never call him that. I don’t like labels. If you start asking me when we are going to tie the knot, I’m going to start associating you with my grandma, and I will make fun of you,” she added teasingly.
When asked if the romantic relationship accounts for all of the musical chemistry, Nelson said: “Not at all. But our romantic relationship, business relationship and musical relationships do all co-exist. And they all ebb and flow together. I’ve had great musical chemistry with people who I certainly did not have romantic ties with and vice versa. But truth be told, we are more likely to make out after a great show.”
Aside from being a stunning vocalist, Nelson also plays the piano, bass, and violin on stage and in the studio. On the new record SHINE she plays one song on piano and one on bass, and she occasionally plays them live.
“If we’re doing a song that I’ve written on the bass, for example- I’ll play it live. I haven’t dusted off the violin in a while though. But I will. I feel it coming,” she asserted. Nelson and Richter write some songs together and some separately. “He writes all the time, I write in spurts,” she said.
Winning the BMA award and turning in a good showing on The Voice has left everybody in the greater-Boston music scene wondering where will Nelson go from here.
“Well first, we will kick off the New Year in a big way by performing at the Regattabar’s New Year’s Eve Gala in Cambridge Massachusetts,” Nelson said. “We’ve done that before, and it is the best way to cap off a year and bring gratitude and blessings into the year to come. My plans after that involve lots of touring, regular recording, and spending as much time as I can riding creative waves with the beautiful community that I have built around me. I also plan on practicing and playing my instruments more. I can’t wait to be able to focus less on promotion and more on art. I am also really looking forward to reaping some of the rewards of this decade of very hard work and dedication. Dwight and I are taking our first real vacation together in January. Hallelujah.”
