Rocky Wallace

 

To understand the essence of

singer/songwriter Rocky Wallace,

it is important to know that she was

 singing before she could talk. Her

first childhood memories were

 surrounded by music and an

intense longing to sing. This longing

 to sing created a void in her life at

an early age.

 

Growing up in a suburb outside of

 Detroit, her mother Jackie tried to

find her classes for singing, but no

one wanted to coach a 4-year-old

 singer whom they perceived as too

 young. But the longing to sing

would not go away. So her parents

tried to distract her with the usual

kid activities of piano lessons,

 gymnastics, dance, and even karate,

 but she quit them all within weeks

of starting.

 

At school she was not a good

student and even came close to

being expelled, but she didn’t care.

All she wanted to do was sing.

 Eventually her mom – realizing

Rocky would only be happy if she

 was singing – convinced a local

music school to give her voice

lessons.

 

Everything changed after that.

Singing was her medicine. She

started behaving in school, her

grades got better and music

became her life.

 

“I started taking classical lessons

 in middle school and then gospel

later on,” Rocky notes. “My

influences span every genre and era

 of music. I have a deep fascination

with singers and their techniques

and study how these singers

develop their unique vocal style.”

 

Who are these singers? Stevie

Nicks, Ella Fitzgerald, Amy

Winehouse, Susan Tedeschi, Carrie

 Underwood, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos

 Santana and the Queen of Soul

Aretha Franklin. When you hear

Rocky sing you hear these influences

 in her music and vocal style. Rocky

 aspires to sound like no one else.

 

“Someone once told me the best

 compliment they ever received

was when a fan told them ‘you

sound like you’. That’s something

that always stuck with me in

developing my own sound. There’s

no one else I strive to sound like

but me.”

 

Listen to Rocky and you will know

that this is the truth.