Nicole Cassandra Smit - Strong Woman - Ramrock Red Records

Artist: Nicole Cassandra Smit
Title: Strong Woman EP
Label: Ramrock Red Records
Rel. date: December 17th, 2021
Cat. No: RRR024

Available on Bandcamp:
https://ramrock.bandcamp.com/album/ni...

The story behind ‘Strong Woman’ is a long and winding road. Originally submitted to the label by Joseph Malik as a demo about a man getting ready to go out to meet his girl, the song was put in front of Nicole who rewrote the lyrics and flipped the idea to reflect a woman doing the same thing. With Joseph Malik on production and co-writer along with long time musical partner and arranger David Donnelly, ‘Strong Woman’ is a positive affirmation of confident womanhood.

The original version was first featured on The Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show on 6Music by Ashley Beedle during his ‘Trunk of Funk’ interview. When the North Street West production crew got hold of the track, they gave a nod in the direction of Muscle Shoals emphasising the County Soul elements, underpinning Nicole’s effortless vocals with upright piano, muted horns and Hammond B3.

Born and raised to Indo/Swedish/Dutch parents in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nicole Cassandra Smit is an Edinburgh based singer/songwriter who blends her smoky voice and country ballad lyrics with RnB hooks and soulful harmonies. Both parents were avid music fans and her father was a performer and sound engineer, so Nicole grew up surrounded by influences and singing was a natural part of her life. From the age of 8, she started inventing her own songs and never stopped. In 2014, she started out as a backing singer for the show ‘Blues! ‘and for the following years, one of its featured artists. In 2016, this blossomed into helming a spin off show of her own ‘Queens of The Blues’. The sell-out show was performed at Edinburgh Fringe and Jazz & Blues Festivals in Scotland, England and Germany and the line-up of the show would perform all year round under the name ‘Nicole & The Back Up Crew’. At the same time, Nicole formed SMITTEN with Charlie Wild & Alex Palmer, an original lo-fi alternative trio, that started in 2016 and to date have released 2 EPs, a live album and were invited by a national promoter to tour Italy in 2018 & 2019. Currently Nicole is working on an album of original solo material and will be releasing independently in 2022.

Follow:
• https://nicolecassandrasmit.com/
•   / nicole.cassandra.smit  
•   / nicole_c_smit  
•   / nicole.cassandra.smit