Nakia Daniel Reynoso (born February 20, 1975), known professionally as Nakia, is an American musician, singer-songwriter and actor living in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. He is a native of

Fort Payne, Alabama Fort Payne is a city in and county seat of DeKalb County, in northeastern Alabama, United States. It is near Lookout Mountain. At the 2020 census, the population was 14,877. This city developed around a fort of the same name, built in the 183 ...

Professional background

Nakia moved to Austin in 2002 from Chicago, where he had been working as an intern for Aware Records. After arriving in Austin, Nakia began to pursue a solo career but was first noticed by

Fastball The fastball is the most common type of pitch (baseball), pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. Its distinctive feature is its high speed. "Power pitchers," such as former major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, relied on the ...

guitarist and co-founder, Miles Zuniga. Zuniga recruited Nakia to join his rock and roll lounge act side project, The Small Stars. Each member of The Small Stars had an alter-ego and complete back story. Nakia created the character, "Vic Odin", who was described as a sleazy, double-crossing, British manager. He left the band in 2006. In 2006, Nakia performed in theatrical productions of ''

The Music Man ''The Music Man'' is a musical theatre, musical with book, music, and lyrics by Meredith Willson, based on a story by Willson and Franklin Lacey. The plot concerns a confidence trick, con man Harold Hill, who poses as a boys' band organizer and ...

'' and ''

Rocky Horror Show ''The Rocky Horror Show'' is a Musical theatre, musical with music, lyrics and book by Richard O'Brien. A humorous tribute to various B movies associated with the Science fiction film, science fiction and Horror film, horror genres from the 193 ...

''. He also had a role in the independent film ''Lone Star Blues''. Nakia soon became a featured singer at many local Austin venues and a favorite among many Austin music critics. In 2022, he appeared in an episode titled "Dueling Pianos", in the web series ''Skeleton Crew''.

Recording background

;''Playing the Cards'' In winter 2007, Nakia released the EP ''Playing The Cards.'' He formed the band Southern Cousins and the band began receiving positive reviews of their live shows. The band would go on to share stages with

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

and B. B. King and perform at events such as South Padre International Music Festival and

Austin City Limits Music Festival Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Zilker Park in Austin, Texas, on two consecutive three-day weekends and is inspired by the KLRU/PBS music series ''Austin City Limits''. The festival is pro ...

. ;''Water to Wine'' On April 14, 2009, Nakia release his first full-length album, ''Water To Wine''. Produced by Mac McNabb, the album features songs written by Nakia, Michael Fracasso, and Monte Warden. The album was well received by local and national media. ;''Street Songs of Love'' In November 2009,

Alejandro Escovedo Pedro Alejandro Escovedo (born January 10, 1951) is an American rock musician, songwriter, and singer, who has been recording and touring since the late 1970s. His primary instrument is the guitar. He has played in various rock genres, includin ...

invited Nakia to participate in his "Sessions on South Congress" performances at the Continental Club in

. Nakia went on to record backing vocals for ''Street Songs of Love'', featuring songs that were originally presented during the Continental Club sessions. This collaborative effort provided an opportunity for Nakia to work with rock producer

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

. The album was released in June 2010. ;''Drown in the Crimson Tide'' It was announced in February 2013 that Nakia would be releasing a new EP on March 5, 2013. The record features songs written with

Chris Seefried Chris Seefried is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman of the bands Gods Child, Joe 90, and Low Stars, and as producer and co-writer for the neo-soul band Fitz and t ...

, Aris Archontis,

Barry Goldberg Barry Joseph Goldberg (December 25, 1941 – January 22, 2025) was an American blues and rock keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. Goldberg co-produced albums by Percy Sledge, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, and the Textones, plu ...

Bleu Bleu or BLEU may refer to: * '' Three Colors: Blue'', a 1993 film * BLEU (Bilingual Evaluation Understudy), a machine translation evaluation metric * Belgium–Luxembourg Economic Union * Blue cheese, a type of cheese * Parti bleu, 19th century ...

, and Brian West. Three of the tracks were produced by

and Johnny Lee Schell.

Media appearances

In April 2011, Nakia announced that he had auditioned for the American edition of '' The Voice'',

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's new singing competition. This was confirmed when NBC released two separate commercials featuring Nakia's "Blind Audition." Nakia's hope in auditioning for the series was to be able to pay back his partner for supporting his music career. Nakia chose Cee Lo Green to be his coach after singing his song, "Forget You". Nakia also moved on from the Battle Rounds to the Live Shows after beating

Tje Austin Tje Austin, pronounced TYE, is an American R&B singer-songwriter based out of Austin, Texas. He is also a former contestant of NBC's singing competition '' The Voice''. Early life Tje Austin was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and adopted by a Morm ...

. Cee Lo chose him to be a quarter-finalist. On June 22, 2011, Nakia was voted off the show, finishing in seventh place after being beaten by

Vicci Martinez Vicci Martinez (born September 21, 1984) is an American singer/songwriter and actress from Tacoma, Washington. She came in joint third on NBC's singing competition series '' The Voice'' in 2011. She released her 2012 album with Republic Records ...

in the semi-finals. On June 28, 2011, Nakia was a guest on Kevin Smith's ''Plus One Per Diem'' internet radio show.

''Performances on The Voice''

Discography

* 2007: ''Playing the Cards'' * 2009: ''Water to Wine'' * 2010: ''Street Songs of Love'' (collaboration with

) * 2013: ''Drown in the Crimson Tide'' * 2018: ''Blues Grifter''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nakia 1975 births Living people 21st-century American singer-songwriters American male singer-songwriters American rock songwriters American rock singers American rock musicians Place of birth missing (living people) American soul singers American LGBTQ musicians The Voice (franchise) contestants Male actors from Austin, Texas Singers from Austin, Texas Singer-songwriters from Texas 21st-century American male singers Singer-songwriters from Alabama