Damien Sneed, the multi-genre composer, bandleader, musician and vocalist, announces a brand-new multi-media touring show for 2022, titled A Tribute to Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul. This dynamic presentation celebrating the amazing musical legacy of the late Ms. Franklin, arranged and musically directed by Sneed, will feature an accomplished cast of jazz, gospel, and soul musicians and vocalists.
The production will feature Sneed on piano and vocals, along with special guest Karen Clark Sheard, four-time Grammy and multiple Stellar and Dove Award-winning gospel vocalist and songwriter.
With a legendary career spanning several generations and a multitude of genres, Aretha Franklin truly earned her title, “The Queen of Soul.” Wrought in the Baptist congregations of Detroit, Franklin’s expressive and powerful vocals, complemented by skillfully executed yet profound piano melodies, propelled her to international stardom in the sixties. Beloved by musicians and listeners alike, Aretha is recognized as the most successful female recording artist in history with 112 charted singles on Billboard, 18 Grammy Awards, and over 75 million records sold.
Aretha Franklin continued to perform well into the later years of her illustrious life. During this time, musician, vocalist, and composer Damien Sneed toured along with Aretha, developing a strong mentee relationship with the soul legend. In Tribute to Aretha Franklin: The Queen of Soul, Sneed pays homage to the monarch herself with fresh renditions of her most cherished hits including “Respect,” “Knew You Were Waiting,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Precious Memories,” “Think,” “Until You Come Back To Me,” “Daydreaming,” “Freeway,” “Natural Woman,” and others. Backed by an accomplished cast of jazz, gospel, and soul musicians and vocalists, Damien Sneed’s multi-media tribute will be a tender and spiritual reflection upon the life of an iconic industry titan.
Joining the tour will be four-time GRAMMY® Award-winner and multiple Stellar and GMA Dove Award winner Karen Clark Sheard. A gospel music legend and a part of a musical dynasty, Clark Sheard is renowned throughout the music industry for her signature, one-of-a-kind multi-octave vocal range and ability. Her musical style with the legendary Clark Sisters and as a solo artist has inspired a host of today’s brightest pop divas including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, and Faith Evans, among countless others.
Also joining Sneed on tour will be featured vocalists Chenee Campbell, Markita Knight, Anitra Raquel McKinney, and Alicia Peters-Jordan, all of whom have performed with Sneed in numerous tours. The band will feature Alfred Rutherford on Hammond B3 organ and keys, Ronald “CJay” Alexander on bass guitar, Nathaniel “Nat” Townsley on drums, and Gabriel Michael Carter on aux keys.
Aretha Franklin was a giant of popular music and a global cultural icon. One of the best-selling musical artists of all time, with more than 75 million records sold worldwide, the undisputed “Queen of Soul” created an amazing legacy of more than six decades. She had sung before heads of state and foreign royals and gained admiration from fans, colleagues, and fellow artists across all genres. She is known all over the world simply by her first name: Aretha.
Her vocal mastery and artistic excellence have been recognized numerous times throughout her distinguished career. Twice voted as the number one Greatest Singer of All Time by Rolling Stone magazine, and her signature hit “Respect” was also named by Rolling Stone as the number one Song of All Time. Franklin is the recipient of the U.S.A.’s highest civilian honor, The Presidential Medal of Freedom; she is also an 18-time Grammy Award winner and a recipient of a Grammy Lifetime Achievement and a Grammy Living Legend honor. Aretha was the youngest individual ever to receive the coveted Kennedy Center Honor; the first female inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; the second female inductee into the US Music Hall of Fame; and an inductee into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. In 2019, Franklin was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation Prize for her contribution to American music and culture. That same year, Franklin’s family was posthumously presented with The Aretha Franklin ICON Award by the Stellar Gospel Music Award, which is now awarded annually to a Gospel music legend.
Aretha has been proclaimed internationally as “the voice of the civil rights movement, the voice of Black America,” and a “symbol of Black equality.” In 1968, her spiritually uplifting voice was heard around the world singing at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and in 1972 at the funeral of the Queen of Gospel Mahalia Jackson. Aretha’s acclaimed voice was declared a “natural resource of the state” in 1985 by the Department of Natural Resources of the State of Michigan. Aretha would later reach a milestone in her historic career by singing at the first inauguration of President Barack Obama.
“The tour was inspired just by thinking of something that I could do to honor the Queen of Soul, who was a great musician, a great singer, and a true icon,” says Sneed, who played with Franklin during her final performance at Elton John’s AIDS Foundation fundraising gala on November 7, 2017, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Sneed recalls some of her best advice, including “not to be discouraged by the things that I may be going through because there’s always someone going through more.” Sneed adds that as a creative artist, Franklin was “one of a kind, a monogene.”
ABOUT DAMIEN SNEED
As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with opera, classical, jazz, pop, R&B, and gospel legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, which he is featured on Norman’s final recording, Bound For The Promised Land on Albany Records. He also worked with Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, and many others. Sneed has served as music director for Grammy Award-winning gospel artists The Clark Sisters, Richard Smallwood, Donnie McClurkin, Hezekiah Walker, Marvin Sapp, Karen Clark Sheard, Dorinda Clark-Cole, and Kim Burrell, among others.
Sneed’s most recent studio recording is Damien Sneed: Unplugged, an all-gospel collection of soulful and inspirational songs, recorded in a spare studio setting with Sneed on piano and vocals alongside several noted vocalists, including Chenee Campbell, Linny Smith, Tiffany Stevenson, and Matia Washington. In January 2020, Sneed released his debut classical album, Classically Harlem and We Shall Overcome Deluxe on his boutique label, LeChateau Earl Records, which was established in 2009 to reflect his varied musical interests. Previous recordings also include Jazz In Manhattan (September 2019); The Three Sides of Damien Sneed: Classical, Jazz and Sanctified Soul (July 2018); Broken To Minister: The Deluxe Edition (March 2015); Spiritual Sketches (June 2013); and Introspections LIVE (January 2010). Sneed is a 2020 Dove Award winner for his work as a featured producer and writer on The Clark Sisters’ project, The Return, released on March 13, 2020.
For more information on Damien Sneed and LeChateau Earl Records, go to www.damiensneed.com and www.lechateauearl.com.
ABOUT KAREN CLARK SHEARD
Joining the tour will be four-time Grammy Award winner and multiple Stellar and Dove Award winner Karen Clark Sheard. A gospel music legend and a part of a musical dynasty, Clark Sheard is renowned throughout the music industry for her one-of-a-kind multi-octave vocal range and ability. Her musical style, both with the legendary Clark Sisters and as a solo artist, has inspired a host of today’s brightest pop divas, including Queen Latifah, Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Missy Elliott, and Faith Evans, among countless others.
Through the years, The Clark Sisters have recorded 20 albums, including GMA Dove Award-winner and Grammy Award-nominated Heart and Soul (1987) and Grammy Award-nominated Conqueror (1988) and Sincerely (1983), while crafting enduring gospel anthems such as “Endow Me,” “Pray for the USA,” “Name It Claim It” and “Is My Living in Vain?”
In 1997, Clark Sheard launched a solo career with Finally Karen on Island Black Music. An instant hit, it sold nearly half a million copies, garnered four Stellar Awards (Female Vocalist of the Year, Contemporary Female Vocalist of the Year, Music Video of the Year, and Best Children’s Performance for “Will of God,” featuring daughter Kierra Sheard) and a Grammy nomination. Clark Sheard continued her solo career with other hit CDs, including 2nd Chance (Elektra, 2002), The Heavens Are Telling (Elektra, 2003) and the GMA Dove Award winner, It’s Not Over (Word Records, 2006).
In 2007, she reunited with her sisters, The Clark Sisters, for their No. 1 comeback album, Live…One Last Time (EMI Gospel), for which The Clark Sisters won the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Gospel Album. They won a second Grammy for Best Gospel Performance for “Blessed and Highly Favored,” the lead single from that album. Clark Sheard, who wrote and led the song, won a third Grammy that year for Best Gospel Song (a Writer’s Award). The Clark Sisters were part of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Grammy Awards that year, joining Aretha Franklin, BeBe Winans, and others as performers for the evening.
In 2010, Clark Sheard stepped away from her solo recording work to record “Wait On The Lord,” a duet with Donnie McClurkin from his album, We Are All One. The record won a Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance, raising Clark Sheard’s Grammy Award total to four.
Lifetime honored The Clark Sisters in a biopic titled The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies of Gospel, which details their humble beginnings, struggles to find their place, to later becoming the best-selling Gospel group in the music world. The movie first aired in April 2020 and featured re-recordings of some of The Clark Sisters’ biggest hits like “You Brought The Sunshine.” The biopic earned raves for its actresses, including Clark-Sheard’s daughter and fellow gospel songstress Kierra Sheard.
