Elliott Yamin Wows Roanoke,Virginia

“Play That Funky Music White boy” was a huge hit for Wild Cherry back in the seventies and still gets major airplay today. Little did we know how appropriate of a song it would turn out to be for Richmond’s Elliott Yamin. Most of you know Elliott from American Idol Season Five where he came in third place. He recently released his sophomore CD, not counting his holiday CDs, entitled “Fight For Love”.

Elliott was in Roanoke,VA on July 17 to perform a special concert at the opening ceremonies for the Coventry Commonwealth Games of Virginia. The games are for male and female athletes of all ages and is similar to an Olympics type competition. I was fortunate to sit down with Elliott backstage before the show to ask him a few questions.

“It’s been a lot of fun so far. I love coming back to Virginia to perform. I have met a lot of great kids here too. I’m a diabetic and I met several kids who are also. It was great to share stories with them since we have that in common. Exercise definitely helps out with your diabetes. I love playing basketball myself,” said Elliott.

I asked him how the reaction has been to his new CD “Fight For Love”? “We’ve been very happy so far, given the landscape of the whole industry and the economy itself from the release of my first CD, we have been very pleased. It’s harder in the market being an independent artist, but I’m very satisfied with the response from radio and the fans.”

It has to be tough figuring out what songs to release to radio. How do you determine which ones? “We do a lot of testing at radio and we also listen to what the fans have to say on the websites. In Japan we released “You Say” as the first single because it tested so well, where here in the states we released “Fight for Love” as the first. I think we’re going to release “Can’t Keep on Loving You” as the next single here. We’ll send it to AC (adult contemporary) radio and see how it does,” responded Elliott.

Speaking of singles, I asked Elliott what happened to a song that I viewed on YouTube of he and Jermaine Dupree called “When I’m Gone”? “That is actually on the Japanese version of my new CD as a bonus track. I loved working with Jermaine. We got along great and the chemistry was awesome. To me, it’s an honor to be able to say that I actually got to work with him.
You know, Jermaine and I actually started working on a second song together but we never finished it. So, I can’t wait to get be able to work with him again.”

Elliott is a very busy man these days promoting his new CD. He had a gig in Modesto, California the day after his appearance in Virginia. He will be singing the national anthem at the WNBA All Star game. He also told me that he will be heading out on tour the day after Labor Day for six weeks with the band Thriving Ivory. “Their lead singer Clayton has the most amazing voice. It’s so unique. I’m looking forward to going out on the road with them,” said Elliott.

I always like to ask two questions of all artists that I interview to give a little insight to their fans. I asked Elliott if he had any “guilty pleasures”, if printable, that would surprise his fans? “Well, I don’t get a lot of down time, but when I do I just like to lay around and do nothing. I have a Shitzu named Buster and I like to spoon with him on the couch.” My other question was if you were trapped on a desert island with only one store bought CD, what would you want to have there with you? “Only one? Oh, without a doubt, it would have to be “These Songs For You Live” by Donnie Hathaway. I have worn that one out so many times. I love it!”

Elliott’s show that night was an acoustic set with his keyboardist Joonie and Russell Ali on guitar. He played a mixture off of his two CDs. Newer songs such as Can’t Keep on Loving You” and “You” and “You Say” translated so well acoustically. Elliott also mentioned that that show was the first time that they had performed “You Say” here. The stripped down arrangement combined with Elliott’s emotional vocals actually gave me goose bumps several times. An artist who is willing to play acoustically is very brave for it exposing one’s vulnerability. Elliott pulled it off flawlessly in Roanoke that night.

For those wanting to know, the set list consisted of : “Free”, “Know Better”, “Find a Way”, “One Word”, “Can’t Keep on Loving You”, “You”, “You Say”, “Fight for Love”, “Wait For You” and “Movin’ On”.

Elliott hung around after the show and signed autographs and posed for pictures with his fans. Being accessible like this really has a big impact on his fans. He’s such an amazing performer and human being. He listens to his fans and loves communicating with them. He is genuine and sincere and it shows. Elliott may play the N Club in Greensboro, NC on his tour. He is definitely worth the short drive down to check out. My thanks go out to all of his people who were so nice to me and the people involved with the games. A special thanks to all of the Etrain members that have contacted me and shown so much love and support. Thank you for welcoming me to you family. Thanks Covie for the amazing clip that I included on here from Roanoke.

Elliott Yamin wows the N-Club

American Idol has turned into a cultural phenomenon. Hundreds of thousands of people audition each year for a chance to win , but sometimes it pays to lose. Look at season five for a very good example. Chris Daughtry came in fourth that year and look at his career! Let's not forget the man who came in third that season, Richmond, Virginia's own, Elliott Yamin. he released his debut CD on March 20, 2007 and it debuted at number 3 on Billboard's charts and sold 96,000 in its first week of release. It set a record for the highest debut of an independent release and most copies sold.

Sales on his CD slowed down and it took an appearance on his old show Idol to ignite a flame that quickly grew. Elliott appeared on the top three results show on 05-16-07 and sang his first single "Wait For You" and the reaction was amazing. Within two hours of performing the song, the single shot up 60 spots on I-tunes and the next week, it rose from #80 to #31 on Billboard's singles chart and the CD jumped from #67 to #20. All from getting just a little bit of exposure on his old stomping grounds.

Elliott began touring like a madman in support of his CD. He made an appearance in Greensboro,NC at the N-Club on November 2 ,2007. He was scheduled to appear at WKZL 107.5FM to host their all request lunch show. Thanks to Jose Paza, I was able to secure an interview with Elliott there at the station. He was suppose to be there early that morning, but because his blood sugar was low, he was running behind schedule. I waited around the station for about 2 1/2 hours for him to arrive. He actually made it later that afternoon and stayed for a quick on air interview.

For those not in the know, Elliott suffers from Type 1 diabetes and wears an insulin pump because he hates needles.He told me of two programs that he is involved with concerning diabetes. One is Life For a Child which gets insulin to children in twelve underdeveloped nations. There are t-shirts and pins sold at the shows and 100% of the money goes to the program.The other is called Inspired by Diabetes. Anyone who has been moved by a story of anyone who suffers from diabetes can write into the website or his MySpace and send the story. winners are randomly chosen and prizes included free concert tickets and backstage passes.

I asked Elliott about any interesting road stories that he could share. "I was in Vancouver and I was feeling kinda down because my blood sugar was low. So, I drank a Pepsi right before I went out. It didn't pick me up, so I chugged another one down real quick. The good thing is it picked me up, but the bad thing is I burped during the first two songs! Oh yeah, at that same show, there was a drunk girl that got on stage during "Wait For You" and started dancing with me. It took a few minutes for everyone to figure out that she wasn't in the crew."

Luckily, neither of those instances were repeated in Greensboro that night. The show opened with an amazing set by Josh Hoge and the Last Goodnight performed a solid set and sounded very Maroon 5ish. Elliott came out to a roaring ovation from the crowd. He did covers of Dr. Hook's "Sharing The Night Together" and his idol Donny Hathaway's "little Ghetto Boy", which were both amazing. He played the majority of his CD and had the most incredible encore. Elliott and his keyboardist came out to do his encore which was another Donny Hathaway song "Song For You", which was his audition song on Idol. It gave me goosebumps!! He invited everyone to stay at the merchandise stand and that he would come out and meet with everyone shortly. There were probably about 100 people there and he talked to them and posed for pictures and signed autographs. He was very personable and actually listened intently to what you had to say.

I encourage everyone to try and catch Elliott live. His live shows bring so much raw emotion that is cleaned up in the production aspect of producing a CD. I want to thank Josie and everyone at WKZL for making me feel at home and welcomed as I waited for Elliott. Please go to his website of his MySpace page and help support his diabetes programs. I do wish Elliott the best in this very fickle music industry. He is a true talent and will be around for a long time.