"I have known Erin since 1969, and I've always thought she was a great singer . . . because she sings from her heart, and those kind of singers are my favorites."
Tim Hauser - co-founder of Manhattan Transfer
"This new CD is MAGNIFICENT!!! I recently bought it on itunes...but after listening to it many times now, I'm just in awe..... your voice is clear, authentic...so smooth - it feels sexy and intimate. The CD is timeless. The song selections, your duet...your scatting, "je cherche un homme".....all fabulous. The whole thing is ear candy; it's so well done. It just puts me in a good mood. "
Alizabeth Jackson - Singer/Songwriter
After a decade plus hiatus from the music business, jazz vocalist Erin Dickins is back with a new album and a new attitude. A founding member of the original jazz vocal group Manhattan Transfer, Dickins’ latest CD Nice Girls is a collection of beautifully recorded, exquisitely performed and brilliantly chosen gems - from cool sultry ballads to swinging arrangements. The release is the perfect soundtrack to Dickins’ comeback.
Though she began recording Nice Girls in 2009, one could say that the opus has been in the making for the better part of the last two decades.
Having recorded with a virtual who’s who of musical geniuses— from James Brown and James Taylor to Leonard Cohen and Talking Heads—Dickins quit the music business cold turkey. “I had not found my authentic voice as an artist, and it was time. I moved to Honolulu, as far away from New York as I could get,” she says. “It was there that I finally learned that what matters is the gift of music I have been given, and my willingness to share that gift.”
The highly accomplished singer/performer was lured back into making music after producing a show for Habitat for Humanity, a favored charitable organization. Working with 200 amateur performers on the show sparked Dickins’ creative juices for the first time in a long time.
Soon thereafter, Dickins was invited to perform again and the ball began rolling from there. “It was meant to be. Everyone and everything I needed—musicians, writers, producers, songs and support team—all arrived, as if on cue. I couldn’t have stopped this if I wanted to.”
As the child of artistic parents—Dickins’ mother was a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall and her father an amateur jazz pianist—she was bound to return to her first love. Anchored by the single and video “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast”—a remake of 1950’s starlet Julie London’s song—Dickins’ first solo album on Champagne Records was carefully crafted over a two-year process by a stellar group of renowned musicians including producer Jesse Frederick, pianist/ arranger Rob Mounsey (Natalie Cole, Elton John, Tony Bennett) and bassist David Finck (Harry Connick Jr., Rod Stewart).
Having returned to her passion, Dickins now views herself as a “messenger of joy.”
”I consider it my honor and my responsibility to spread the joy that I experience every time I open my mouth to sing. Music is an instrument of transformation, and I am wholly transformed when I sing. We all listen to music and attend concerts for that very purpose. I think that as musicians we have a really unique gift,” says Dickins.
“When I perform I give 200 percent. If I can be an instrument for joy, just for one instance, then I have done what is asked of me. That’s how you heal the planet, right? One song, one person, one joyful encounter at a time - it’s nice work if you can get it.”
Seeing Dickins perform with her live band is an experience you do not want to miss. Riding off of the success of her recent show at Avalon Theatre in Easton, MD, Dickins will be performing several spot dates throughout the U.S in 2011.
Thankfully for fans of good music, Dickins’ return to jazz will not be short lived. She is currently in the early stages of writing and pre-production for the follow-up to Nice Girls with Frederick. And the pair is even tinkering with the idea of a live album.
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