Res Show in D.C. @ Busboys and Poets!!!

Live: Res at Inside The Artists’s Studio, DC
December 8, 2009 | Written by Stone
Photos by Tashir Lee.

To some Res is one of the best singer songwriters in Modern R&B. To others, she’s not yet a household name. However, to a small group of fans in Washington, DC last week, Res was the center of the world.

Fans packed the Langston room of Busboys and Poets to hear an acoustic performance and a Q&A with DC’s DJ Stylus Inside the Artists’ Studio, modeled after actors’ show on Bravo, sold out quickly, and the finale in the series was one of the best yet.


The setting was an intimate stage: Res starts off timid and slightly nervous but instantly gains control of the crowd. She’s almost shocked when people know her songs. The setlist included a mix of tracks from her classic How I Do, and her latest, Black Girls Rock. Her latest, seem more personal and focused than her previous efforts: Res took the guitar to play a song, Let You Go on a left handed guitar. “I’m too cute to cry all day, ” the lyrics go, “I wish you weren’t such a fucking waste of time.”
To some Res is one of the best singer songwriters in Modern R&B. To others, she’s not yet a household name. However, to a small group of fans in Washington, DC last week, Res was the center of the world.

In several songs Res rails against the industry that never was comfortable with her. On the Idle Warship track “LA Famous,” she talks about her frustrations with the handling of her image and the lack of promotion for her album.
And that was the bulk of her post performance discussion. Why did she not get the play that other stars received?

Discovered by Hank Shocklee, Res was on a world-wind path to stardom. The favorite in backrooms of the record label, her album, How I Do was greenlit and funded. Unfortunately, being a multi-dimensional Black woman causes issues for the label. “I’m a buffet type of chick,” she says about her music. “They didn’t know what department it should be marketed to.”

The discussion was intimate and candid. In response to a question about Nas’ verse on the track “Ice King she says “I didn’t like what he did” to gasps in the audience  “but truthfully everything ain’t for me to like”. She then goes on to tell the story about how she nervously approached him at Baja Fresh in LA. Came to the first show in LA.

Her Second album was never released, and was mirred in label drama. Frustrated, Res asked to leave and never got another deal. But don’t fret–the past 8 years Res has been living life, traveling the world and living on the beach in LA. However, due to public demand, she decided to release her latest album, the free Black Girls Rock.

All in all, Inside the Artists’ Studio was a great way for fans to connect with their favorite artist on a more personal level. At the end of the night, Res and Stylus took questions from the audience. “I personally believe people are ready to see Black people do different shit,” she says in response to one question, and its true.A few questions and several marriage proposals later, I can say that everybody in the room that night was ready for some “different shit.” Are you?

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Profile: Recognized as an international music tastemaker by industry insiders and musicians "in the know," Stone (aka Winston Ford) is the creator of The Couch Sessions, the premier online destination for alternative urban music and culture. 

Res Creative Toys...

I was sitting in my room, looking around and thought I'd show you some of my toys that keep me creative and happy..My very first guitar was a right handed acoustic guitar, that I bought off of 45 Street at one of those music stores. And YES! I got totally ripped off! lol First of all I bought a RIGHT-HANDED guitar...but I'm left handed! The guy at the store convinced me that it would be easier for me to just learn right handed and i would have less problems getting guitars and lessons etc!!! WRONG!!!! Fast forward, I went back to the Paramount Hotel and leaned the guitar against something ,it slid and literally broke to pieces, 4 days later!

So then a year later, my manager at the time,brought me a left-handed Baby Taylor Acoustic! Now THAT, was a great investment and I suggest if you are learning to play, buy one of those. Its not only cute but it's easy to play, sounds great and if you travel as much as I do or less...it fits in the overhead compartment of all airplanes!!! Even the small commuter planes! I would show a picture of mine but, i left it at the studio.

Then I moved to LA met Wah Wah Watson and he has always been, one of my guitar gods and now a big brother. I wanted an electric guitar and was thinking all about "how cool I would look with this color guitar etc" instead of the "feel" of the guitar. I ran out to guitar center on sunset and picked the only left handed shiny red Fender they had in stock, under 250 bucks and couldn't WAIT to show WahWah! When I first told him I was going to buy a guitar he told me "Res, take your time and wait a minute,just look around first" but I didn't. So i went to his house and he took one look at the guitar and said "Take that shit back!" and he laughed at me! He picked up his Fender and said "Feel this..." His guitar felt AMAZING in my hands, I didn't want to give it back! Then he said "Pick your shit up" and my guitar felt like a block of wood. It's all about the right guitar not the prettiest.

Then Wah Wah called his friend Taye Uhler, a fellow left handed guitar player and Taye took me to True Tone's in Santa Monica and I got MY guitar. My first electric guitar was a Burns Brian May...what's so special about this guitar is that it has these cool switches on it, so i can change the sound of the pick-ups. There are 3 settings. 1 setting makes the guitar sound like a Les Paul, the other setting give me a Stratocaster sound and the other is a Telecaster sound....

I also picked up a full size Ovation Acoustic just for a full size sound and a Mini low-end model youth size bass for fun! Shoutout to Chase and amazing artist from Paris but residing in LA, who came thru and spray painted my case! I will never sell these guitars too many great memories attached..

What kind of toys do you have?

-Res

My Latest Inspiration: BIRTH of the COOL by Barkley L. Hendricks

Barkley L.Hendricks (above)
Tyrone,1976 (above)
Fela:Amen,Amen,Amen,Amen... 2002(above)

Lawdy Mama,1969(above)

It seems like I have the strangest , but the BEST luck, when it comes to seeing art exhibits. I was the very last person to walk into The King Tut Exhibit in Los Angeles a few years back and this year , I saw the Barkley L. Hendricks' Exbihit BIRTH of the COOL, on the last day of exhibition!

For the last few months, I drove down Broad Street, for all sorts of reasons and I would glance over,while stopped at the traffic light and notice the words BIRTH of the COOL and a figure of a life size black man dressed in 1970's 'fly attire". This would get my attention because it reminded me of my mother and father and all their friends!

When I jotted down his name and google "Rebirth of the Cool Broad Street"

I was pleasantly surprised. This would be the moment I discovered Barkley L. Hendricks!

Who is Barkley L. Hendricks? He is an amazing painter who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and at an early age ,around 17 or 18 years old , started to paint life size portraits of African -Americans in an unique, provocative but brilliant way. He made the everyday person of the 1970's seem like royalty with colors, posture and his artistic approach. The way he captured facial expressions and dress is incredible. If you have the chance to see his work in person its inspiring and breathtaking all at the same time. And lastly it made me proud, to see someone paint people that are very familiar to my growing up and life in such a regal way. Which is the way I see them.The people he painted are my mother, my father, their friends, my family and people i've grown up with in North Philly while working in our family's corner store establishment. No I do not know any of his subjects prsonally but in one a sense or another I know someone who hey represent very very well.

This exhibit was so inspiring to me. It not only opened my eye to more art but it also prompted me to enroll in the University of the Arts Digital Photography Program.

And learn the art of digital photography, so I can document the people around me and present them in a regal, larger than life sort of way.

Get inspired by any means necessary!

Res