Little Ditty of a mostly true story experience

Two Tequilas Too Many

Far Star

The Headrocker (feat. Nomok & Amir Bresler)

Roberta Cleopatra Flack is an Aquarius from the Black South. North Carolina to be exact. Last month she announced her retirement from a 50 plus year career in music making, having been diagnosed with a rare (ALS) disease.

I refuse to let that announcement slip away into internet ether. That said, today I’m sharing the first of a two part series and tribute to her incomparable body of work. This is a thank you for the love, labor and legendary musicianship Roberta Flack offers..

For this episode I selected songs that speak to her range and that move me most, along with excerpts from interviews where she talks about her process in the 1970s. Link to the show in my bio.

Next month I’ll be joined by three Black women music scholars (@zfelice, @fredara @ebmoorhead ) who will further contextualize her legacy and talk about the songs that move them. That show will air on the Black Atlantic/Black Fantastic Sunday, January 8 @1btnradio fm! 11am (nyc) and 4pm (UK)…tune in.

Also! Please keep an eye out for the documentary on Roberta’s life and the children’s book she’s co-written!

Happy New Year Roberta Flack! Your hands and voice help us trace our lives through song.

Roberta Flack Tribute Vol. One

Saturday Secret Song Society #21: "Robot Diary"

Get the complete song and a new demo every week:
https://www.patreon.com/ameliaray

Robot Diary (edit)

best of me demo

Two Nights in Tulsa © 2024
Written By: Rita Weyls, Tommy Kibodeaux
Track produced by: Tommy Kibodeaux

V

He’s a life long Harley rider, a lover, more than a fighter
sick and tired of those one nighters, Thinking it’s time to stay in one place

V:

His girl waiting back at home, has had enough of being alone
The message on his phone, says “3 days, till I end this chase”

PC:
She’s the only good in his life. He don’t wanna lose his ride or die

CH:
(He’s got) Two nights in Tulsa, to end his crazy hell
Two nights in Tulsa, to redeem himself
She swears this is his last chance, for the hundredth time
He’s got two nights in Tulsa, 2 nights to finally make things right.

V:

He ain’t good at keepin’ a promise, even tequila don’t make him honest
He’s gotta stop this bridge from burnin’! Hope it ain’t to late, to start learnin’

PC2:
He knows what needs to change, is him, 
and he’d better change before she gives up on them.

CH:

Tag/Outro

Two Nights In Tulsa

From Studs Terkel's interview with a hotel piano player at the Sherman Hotel in downtown Chicago. Part of the Radio Diaries series, "The Working Tapes."

Radio Diaries

Piano Player Hots Michels

High Like An Eagle (time Keeps On Doping)

Dope - Ture (Rapture Remix)

AMELIA RAY IS THE INTERPRETER: part storyteller, part musician, and possible spy who has performed in 25 countries and speaks seven languages. Amelia’s unique perspective and songwriting ability inspires Cultural Cohesion – a celebration of our diversity and common understanding of our shared experience through music.

Cracking the code of what it means to be human, Ray has written compositions like “Ana no potable” – a song in Spanish in the voice of a disgruntled constituent to a lousy mayor –, “Dream” – a tribute to musicals dedicated to anyone who’s ever pursued their passions – and “Hambone Says” – a performance piece that uses a contemporary past aesthetic to explore U.S. racial and music history, and which won the Global Film Exhibition 2024 Best Music Video award. Her forthcoming single, “Pretending to Read,” sees our protagonist covertly people-watching on the subway while using a book as a clever disguise for her true intentions.

The San Francisco Bay Area native founded The Quarantuned Music Festival – a series of virtual music festivals benefitting artists affected by Covid-19 concert cancellations in 2020 – and Europe for Ukraine, an initiative to produce an original, multilingual composition in support of the Ukrainian people. Ray also leads financial confidence panels and songwriting workshops online and at conferences worldwide. The globetrotter may be hiding behind a book on a subway near you. Join the mailing list to find out where.

Robot Diary (edit)

Amelia Ray