JARROD LAWSON SPECIAL GUEST ON HITMAKERS! WITH HOST MEL ALBIN

This week's special guest on HITMAKERS! is Jarrod Lawson. It was in late 2022 that Jarrod Lawson had the biggest, and most unexpected, thrill of his music career. He had just received a glowing endorsement in print from Michelle Obama who, when asked by Entertainment Weekly who she was listening to, and after mentioning Beyonce’s Renaissance album, added “There’s this young jazz, blue-eyed soul kid Jarrod Lawson that I’m loving….”To be sure, jarrod is the best young blue-eyed soul artist to come along in many years. Jarrod's future is golden s is his melodic voice. At the time vocalist/keyboard player Lawson – previously Soul Artist of the Year at the UK’s Jazz FM Awards - had recently moved to Nashville from his long-time base in Portland, and received major airplay in the US and Europe on his version of the Isley Brothers 70s classic “Footsteps In The Dark”.And now two years later he has come up with a truly stellar collaboration with fast rising Los Angeles vocalist Raquel Rodriguez on NEXT MOVE, a sensuous harmony-laden retro slow jam that is destined to be one of the hottest R&B cuts of the summer. The track had its origins in a two-day writing/recording session he had with Raquel and Sam Brawner at their Blue Dream Studios some years ago. Their good friend Andris Mattson from the LA band Moonchild also took part. Nothing from that session found its way onto record right away but Jarrod says “the bones of the track which eventually became ‘Next Move’ haunted me above and eyond the others, and so recently I decided to resuscitate that rough idea. We got to work, refining and shaping the song, and voila - ‘Next Move’ finally became a thing”. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Rodriguez has been one of the most acclaimed independent soul artists since releasing her debut album “Sweet Side” in 2021 and it remains a staple on playlists, on US radio and on radio across the globe. Earlier this year she released a new EP “Back To Me”. Like Lawson she has also built a big fan following in Europe - especially the UK and the Netherlands - playing a European tour in June this year.