Curtis Harding (born June 11, 1979) is an American singer and songwriter. Primarily a
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '':wikt:soul, soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The ea ...
artist, his "slop 'n' soul" style carries the influence of genres including
blues,
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
,
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic dr ...
,
R&B, and
rock. His first album, ''
Soul Power
"Soul Power" is a song by James Brown. Brown recorded it with the original J.B.'s (plus Fred Wesley) and it was released as a three-part single in 1971. Like "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and other hits from this period it features ...
'' (2014), was followed by ''
Face Your Fear'' in 2017, with production from
Danger Mouse and
Sam Cohen.
Harding was born in
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County, Michigan, Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township, Michi ...
, and his family settled in
Atlanta
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
when he was a teenager. He was exposed to music at an early age as his family toured with his mother, who was a gospel singer. In the 2000s, Harding backed
CeeLo Green
Thomas DeCarlo Callaway - Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. He is known for his work in hip hop and R&B, including the Gnarl ...
, and he formed the
R&B/
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
band Night Sun in Atlanta with
Black Lips
Black Lips is an American garage rock band from Atlanta, Georgia formed in 1999.
History
The band formed in Dunwoody, Georgia after guitarist Cole Alexander and bassist Jared Swilley left the Renegades, and guitarist Ben Eberbaugh left the Rer ...
members in 2009.
Early life
Harding was born on June 11, 1979, in
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County, Michigan, Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township, Michi ...
.
His father is a mechanic, and his mother, Dorothy,
is a
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
singer.
He and his five siblings
were raised as
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Ra ...
s. They moved to Alabama when he was three, then to Arizona, California, Texas, and other parts of the United States.
His family had no permanent residence until they settled in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...
, when he was 14.
His mother toured in a van, stopping to sing at churches and work at homeless shelters.
Though he originally wanted to play professional sports,
Harding grew up around his mother's music, occasionally joining her on stage as a backing singer until age 15.
His family would stay – sometimes for months – at communities with churches of any
denomination.
Harding's sister, an amateur rapper, introduced him to secular music.
Harding told ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' that growing up around older people – his father is 27 years older than his mother – gave him an early sense of maturity: "My goal when I was a kid was to be an old man. That's what I was around. I wanted to be that old guy sitting on the porch."
Career
2000s collaborations
In Atlanta in the early 2000s, Harding was part of the hip-hop group Proseed.
He met singer
CeeLo Green
Thomas DeCarlo Callaway - Burton (born May 30, 1975), known professionally as CeeLo Green (or Cee Lo Green), is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer and actor. He is known for his work in hip hop and R&B, including the Gnarl ...
while doing promotion for
LaFace Records
LaFace Records was an American record label based in Atlanta, Georgia, that operated as a unit of Sony Music Entertainment from 2008 to 2011 and was historically a part of Bertelsmann Music Group from 1989 to 2004. It was most active and achiev ...
,
and he rapped on some songs off Green's 2002 album ''
Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections'' along with several Proseed members. He toured with Green as a backing singer on the 2002 Smokin' Grooves Tour alongside
Outkast,
Cypress Hill
Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have multi-platinum and platinum albums. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast and 1990 ...
,
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill (born May 26, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. She is often regarded as one of the greatest rappers of all time, as well as being one of the most influential musicians of her generation. ...
, and
The Roots
The Roots are an American hip hop band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Roots serve as the house band on NBC's '' The Tonight Show Starring Jimm ...
.
He also sang on Green's 2010 album ''
The Lady Killer'',
including co-writing the bonus track "Grand Canyon".
He moved to
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...
in 2008 to reinvigorate his musical creativity.
While he was in Canada, he bought a guitar and began writing songs without commercial aspirations.
He returned to Atlanta in 2009 and formed the band Night Sun, which mixes
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed p ...
and
garage rock
Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...
, with guitarist Cole Alexander of
Black Lips
Black Lips is an American garage rock band from Atlanta, Georgia formed in 1999.
History
The band formed in Dunwoody, Georgia after guitarist Cole Alexander and bassist Jared Swilley left the Renegades, and guitarist Ben Eberbaugh left the Rer ...
, performing several shows in
East Atlanta
East Atlanta is a neighborhood on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States The name East Atlanta Village primarily refers to the neighborhood's commercial district.
Geography
East Atlanta lies entirely within DeKalb County and is bound ...
and
Little Five Points
Little Five Points (also L5P, LFP, Little Five, or Lil' Five) is a district on the east side of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, east of downtown. It was established in the early 20th century as the commercial district for the adjacent ...
.
The band's lineup would grow to consist of Harding (vocals, guitar), Alexander (vocals, bass), drummer Joe Bradley of Black Lips, and
Night Beats guitarist Danny Lee Blackwell.
In 2013, the seasoned underground rock group recorded the single "No Pressure"/"On My Way" for the indie label
Burger Records
Burger Records was an American independent record label and record store in Fullerton, California, United States. The label was founded in 2007 by Sean Bohrman and Lee Rickard, members of the power pop band Thee Makeout Party. The record/video ...
.
Harding co-wrote "I Don't Wanna Go Home" with Jared Swilley originally for the Black Lips' 2014 album ''
Underneath the Rainbow''.
2014–present: Solo studio albums
Harding spent two weeks at Living Room Studios in Atlanta recording twenty songs in 2014, twelve of which were included on his debut album,
titled ''
Soul Power
"Soul Power" is a song by James Brown. Brown recorded it with the original J.B.'s (plus Fred Wesley) and it was released as a three-part single in 1971. Like "Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine" and other hits from this period it features ...
'' and released by Burger Records on May 6, 2014.
The album's reception was generally favorable, with critics noting its fusion of many musical genres. "Keep on Shining" was one of the singles the album produced; he performed the song live on the French talk show ''
C à vous'' in February 2015.
While at
The Growlers' annual Beach Goth festival, Harding met fashion photographer
Hedi Slimane. Harding was recruited as the face of
Yves Saint Laurent's Paris Music Project for 2015.
For the project (in addition to portraits) Slimane produced a video featuring Harding and the song "Next Time" from ''Soul Power''.
He also photographed Harding for the album's cover.
His second album, ''
Face Your Fear'', was released by
Anti-
Anti- is an American record label founded in 1999 as a sister label to Epitaph Records. While Epitaph's focus has mostly been on punk rock, Anti-'s roster includes gospel (Mavis Staples), country (Merle Haggard), hip hop ( Sage Francis, The C ...
on October 27, 2017.
He recorded the album at
Danger Mouse's 30th Century Studio in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
.
''Face Your Fear'' spent one week on the
''Billboard'' Heatseekers Albums chart at number 21.
NPR Music
NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...
named the album one of the best ten
R&B albums of 2017. Music critic
Ken Tucker
Kenneth Tucker is an American arts, music and television critic, magazine editor, and non-fiction book writer.
Early life and education
Tucker was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, and raised in Stamford, Connecticut. He earned a ...
said that Harding's earnestness in the album, tone and emphasis changes, and direct singing suggest both comfort in and knowledge of classic R&B.
Its opening track, "Wednesday Morning Atonement", was produced by Danger Mouse and
Sam Cohen.
Recorded on a Wednesday morning, the song is about a father missing his children, a metaphor for Harding's time neglecting to record another album.
''
GQ'' Shakeil Greeley described the album's title track ("Face Your Fear") as "the rare song that could soundtrack a wedding or a funeral, at once celebratory, sad, groovy, and of course, very soulful."
Greeley wrote that the mood of the album ranges from classic soul in "On and On" and "Need Your Love" to sadness in "Welcome to My World", with a cinematic psychedelic feel to other songs.
Harding performed "Need Your Love" as a guest musician with
Stay Human on ''
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second ite ...
'' in January 2018.
In advance of Harding's support of
Lenny Kravitz on tour throughout 2018, Harding released the single "
It's Not Over It's Not Over may refer to:
Songs
* "It's Not Over" (Daughtry song), 2006
* "It's Not Over" (Reba McEntire song), 1984, also recorded by Mark Chesnutt in 1992
* "It's Not Over" (Curtis Harding song), 2018
* "It's Not Over" (Rockmelons song), 19 ...
" on June 5. ''
Clash'' Robin Murray wrote that the song was "a driven return, a solid return".
In 2019, Harding headlined the finale of
Spoleto Festival USA
Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, is one of America's major performing arts festivals. It was founded in 1977 by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Gian Carlo Menotti, who sought to establish a counterpart to the Festival dei Du ...
in
Charleston, South Carolina.
Musical style

Harding describes his genre as "slop 'n' soul", joining soul music with
blues,
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
,
psychedelia
Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic dr ...
,
R&B, and
rock. "Slop" symbolizes Southern culture ("that's what you give to pigs"), and soul represents the music of his youth.
"Soul is an experience," Harding told ''
GQ'' magazine in 2017. "It can be in the way you dress, the way you talk, the way you sit down in a chair. It's a feeling that you can translate to someone with whatever you're doing."
His musical style has elements that are not usually found in soul, like
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis ...
s and a psychedelic feel.
Both of his studio albums include soft
string
String or strings may refer to:
*String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
s under his "cooing vocals"; on other songs, his "strong, passionate vocal style"
moves into the
falsetto
''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave.
It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...
range with spirited
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
blazing. The ''
Orlando Weekly
''Orlando Weekly'' is a liberal progressive alternative newsweekly distributed in the Greater Orlando area of Florida. Every Thursday, 40,000 issues of the paper are distributed to more than 1,100 locations across Orange, Osceola and Seminole cou ...
'' writes:
In addition to his mother, Harding has said that his influences include
Mahalia Jackson
Mahalia Jackson ( ; born Mahala Jackson; October 26, 1911 – January 27, 1972) was an American gospel singer, widely considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century. With a career spanning 40 years, Jackson was integral to ...
,
MC Lyte
Lana Michele Moorer (born October 11, 1970), better known by her stage name MC Lyte, is an American rap music, rapper, Disc jockey, DJ, actress and entrepreneur. Considered one of the pioneers of female rap, Lyte first gained fame in the late 19 ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
,
Albert King
Albert Nelson (April 25, 1923 – December 21, 1992), known by his stage name Albert King, was an American guitarist and singer who is often regarded as one of the greatest and most influential blues guitarists of all time. He is perhaps ...
,
the Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers were an American rock duo, known for steel-string acoustic guitar playing and close harmony singing. Consisting of Isaac Donald "Don" Everly (February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021) and Phillip "Phil" Everly (January 19, 193 ...
, and
Ronnie Dyson.
In 2015, Michael Hann of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' cited Harding and
Leon Bridges
Todd Michael "Leon" Bridges (born July 13, 1989) is an American soul singer, songwriter and record producer. He is best known for his 2015 song " Coming Home", which received regular airplay and was also a Top 10 Most Viral Track on Spotify. Brid ...
as "the new stars of classic soul" with other modern recording artists having brought the genre back into mainstream culture. Harding believes that soul's popularity is simply cyclical, and that its resurgence is "just the way people are."
Discography
Studio albums
Singles
Music videos
Guest appearances
Acting
Harding appears in the third season of
Sundance TV
Sundance TV (formerly known as Sundance Channel) is an American pay television channel owned by AMC Networks that launched on February 1, 1996. The channel is named after Robert Redford's character in ''Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'' and, w ...
drama ''
Hap and Leonard
Hap and Leonard are two fictional amateur investigators and adventurers created by American author Joe R. Lansdale. They are the main characters in a series of twelve novels, four novellas, and three collections of stories and excerpts. They are ...
'', playing infamous blues musician L.C. Soothe.
The season was filmed in late September 2017 in
Cedartown, Georgia
Cedartown is a city and the county seat of Polk County, Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 10,190. Cedartown is the principal city of and is included in the Cedartown, Georgia Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is i ...
, and began airing March 7, 2018.
[ ]
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Curtis
Living people
1970s births
African-American male singer-songwriters
African-American record producers
Singer-songwriters from Michigan
Record producers from Michigan
Record producers from Georgia (U.S. state)
Musicians from Atlanta
Male actors from Atlanta
21st-century African-American male singers
Singer-songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)