India Arie’s Soul Bird, Kevin Ross

From the venue:

ndia.Arie is among a small class of post-millennial R&B artists more likely to cite and recall the likes of Bill Withers and Roberta Flack than almost any given artist playlisted by urban contemporary radio stations. Arie entered with Acoustic Soul (2001), an album that carried on the tradition of introspective, additive-resistant singer/songwriter soul. Instantly embraced commercially, critically, and within the music industry, it was a Top Ten, multi-platinum success, and led to nominations in seven Grammy categories, including all of the big four: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Best New Artist. Although Arie has placed eight singles on the Billboard R&B/hip-hop chart, she’s an album artist through and through.