 Roberta Lea has released her very first country EP! You can check out “Just A Taste” here. The EP has 6 songs with Lea’s fantastic storytelling ability. The first song, “Ghetto Country Streets”, is all about what Lea’s childhood was like in Norfolk, Virginia. “We were outside all the time, biking, picking berries, playing, and just being 90s kids. That what this song is really about”. Another song, “Back to Georgia”, was written by Roberta when her daughter wanted to go back to Georgia to visit family. With the majority of her music, Lea often starts by writing lyrics because “you need a good story in order to tell it. Songs are storytelling and I want people to hear my story too”. Lea played violin in school and then started going to church as a teenager which expanded her musical experience where she played keyboard and guitar. Once Roberta started playing more gigs, she realized the keyboard wasn’t easy to move so she started focusing on the guitar. “Being a musician was never presented to me as a career choice. I just continued to play, sing, and write, and people started asking me when I had an album out”.
Lea had been playing local gigs and then found a home with the Black Opry. Holly G, the founder of the Black Opry, invited Lea to the 2021 Americana Fest in Nashville, Tennessee. “We had an Airbnb which then turned into the Black Opry House. All of these incredible artists gathered, and it was really like a sitcom because people just kept showing up at the door. First Reyna (Roberts), then came Brittney Spencer and then Emily Scott Robinson”. Roberta stayed most of the week and just took in showcases from Allison Russell and Miko Marks. In addition, Lea attended the Americana Awards at the Ryman Auditorium, a stage Roberta dreams of playing one day. “The Black Opry is such a spirited community and I think Nashville is ready to have those important conversations.” Artist and Black Opry performer Lizzie No “was playing a show at Rockwood Music Hall in New York and the person she was originally supposed to play with cancelled. Holly reached out to us and said “Let’s do a Black Opry writers round”. We are all so excited for the upcoming shows and for whatever is to come”. You can find more information about the Black Opry here, and on Twitter at @BlackOpry. The group includes Lea, Aaron Vance, Jett Holden, Joy Clark, and Tylar Bryant, along with some very special and legendary guests appearing at their upcoming shows. After the success of the New York show, Holly G and the Black Opry have other shows scheduled in Memphis, Nashville, at the historic Exit/In, Dolly Parton’s Dollywood, and Houston, Texas, with many more dates and cities to come. You can buy tickets to all of the events here. Check out Roberta Lea on Twitter and Instagram at @iamrobertalea on both, as well as her website.
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