The Grammy nominated Foreign Exchange family made the second to last stop of their Authenticity Tour in the great city of Houston on 11/19/11, and a week later, the good vibes still linger. As I took my place in the crowd , I noticed that this was a truly grown folk atmosphere, full of die hard FE supporters, as well as some FE neophytes peppered throughout. I spoke with two young couples who were not very familiar with the band, and assured them that they were truly in for a treat.
The crowd came alive as the band members entered the stage, and erupted at the sight of multi talented musician Zo!, much to his delight. He was followed by the lovely and talented ladies Jeanne Jolly and Sy Smith, who lit the stage up with their appearance. The crowd lost it at the sight of Nicolay, who received a thunderous welcome, followed by pandemonium at the appearance of Phonte.
The band went through all of our favorites from the three Foreign Exchange albums, as well as selections from Zo!'s Sunstorm, and the Dear Friends project. Too many hits to list here, but I can assure you that no one left with the mindset of "Aw man, they didn't do _______". The crowd was completely under the band's spell, singing along to every note. As any FE supporter knows, Phonte wears many hats via his many aliases, however Pastor Tigallo Dollar was the one primarily presiding over this evening's festivities. From discussing the difference between love's presence in your "e-life" vs your "real life", to touching on the synergy good music can create amongst us all, Phonte proved to all who were unaware why he is considered to be a true Master of Ceremony. As evidenced in the snippet below, the crowd was clearly in the palm of his hand:
As a longtime FE supporter, having gone from never seeing them live to seeing them twice in one year was truly a pleasure, but not more than hearing rumblings of "Man, that was the best concert I've ever been too!" or "This was 5x better than that show I paid $75 to see!", and even "I'm going to buy their whole catalog right now!" True fans of the Foreign Exchange want to let the whole world in on the secret we've held since 2004. If you're still new the Foreign Exchange experience, I encourage you to do the knowledge here:
Much respect to Phonte, Nicolay, Sy Smith (always a pleasure seeing you!), Jeanne Jolly (so happy to have met you, my new crush), Zo!, Kush, Chris, T.Scott Jr., Aimee, and the entire FE Music family. Houston loves you, and can't wait to see you again. Salute to Urban Limelight , and shout out to my brother CarolinaWare.
Today's news hits me really really hard. As a teenager I grew up loving the music and the persona of Dwight Arrington Myers, aka Heavy D. Always a positive influence without compromising his thorough hip hop presence, his passing is breaking many hearts and leaves us missing one of the truly good guys of hip hop. An accomplished mc, performer, actor, producer......Heav will be sorely missed.
Most know of his many radio hits and smash singles, but this song was always my favorite. Rest In Peace, Heavy D.
Here he is rocking the 2011 BET Hip Hop Awards just recently
This past February at SoundPure Studios in Durham, NC, The Foreign Exchange gave a private acoustic show for 40 randomly-selected friends and supporters. The evening, captured on both audio and video, is the basis of their latest release, "Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange."
Serving as a companion piece to their latest release "Authenticity" and as a glimpse into their acclaimed live show, "Dear Friends" is a double-disc CD/DVD digipak that features the full acoustic concert performed by the band's current touring lineup of Zo!, Sy Smith, and singer/songwriter Jeanne Jolly. In addition to the live concert recordings, the release also features two new studio tracks; "Steal Away" featuring Jeanne Jolly and "All The Kisses" featuring Amber & Paris Strother of rising indie soul trio KING.
Tay & Nic let us have "All The Kisses" as an early present. Listen below:
