Rissi Palmer photo courtesy of Hot Schatz PR.
"...I'm a country girl, born and bred."
Rissi Palmer has the talent to succeed in any genre of music. Equally gifted as a singer, songwriter and entertainer, she was offered a pop record deal by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who have worked with Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson and Boyz II Men. Still, when it came time to pick a direction, she followed her heart and chose country.
"It was the hardest decision I have ever made," she says, "but I decided to pass on the deal because I knew I wanted to do country music."
Staking her future on the music she has loved since childhood, Rissi has risen to the challenge spectacularly. Her passion and dedication have brought her to the forefront among country's hottest young talent. She has written with many of Nashville's finest writers, including Angela Kaset, James Dean Hicks and Shaye Smith, penned the song "Faith," which appeared in the 2004 Lee Daniels/Miramax film "The Woodsman," and wrote "Hold On To Me," which Faith Hill held among a small group of songs to be considered for one of her own album projects.
RISSI PALMER, her self-titled debut for Atlanta-based, KOCH-distributed 1720 Entertainment, features Rissi's work with producers Keith Thomas (Amy Grant, Faith Hill, Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood), Dan Shea (Martina McBride, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez), Cory Rooney (Barbra Streisand, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez), Shannon Sanders (Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, India Arie), and Drew Ramsey (India Arie, Kimberly Locke). It reflects the variety of strengths that make her such a compelling artist.
"She checks all the boxes," says an enthusiastic 1720 President and CEO Terry Johnson. "She's an incredible vocalist, a great lyricist who writes most all of her own music, and she also plays guitar. But as gifted as she is in all those areas, the most special thing about Rissi is her heart and spirit. It’s who she is as a person and when you combine all that, you really have a superstar in the making!"
The new project clearly establishes her as an impressive talent, showcasing the poise and maturity she has gained through a lifetime of performing. RISSI PALMER is a testament both to Rissi's amazing vocal abilities and her lifelong passion for country music. She is equally at home with the sweet intimacy of "All This Woman Needs" and the ache of "Flowers On My Window Ledge." She can relay the heartbreaking longing of "Anybody Out There" and the sass of "Sweet Contradictions." She proves that her love of classic country is deeply rooted with a knockout performance--steeped in the echoes of Patsy Cline and Brenda Lee--of the timeless "If You've Got Leaving On Your Mind." But it is in the blues-tinged "Country Girl" where she unfolds her banner, luxuriating in her country roots with a song as infectious as it is joyful. Add to her vocal skills the fact that she wrote or co-wrote nearly all of the album's songs, and her debut is that much more impressive.
Rissi's hard-earned success is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to music and achievement. "I remember the house being filled with really good music," says Rissi. "My mother listened to a huge variety, pretty much everything classic and great." Yet it was the country music, like the Patsy Cline records she heard around the house, which would remain close to her heart after her mother's death.
"I lost my mother at a very early age," she says. "It was her love for music that has always stayed with me."
Her talent had been evident since she was a little girl, standing on a milk crate as she sang with teenagers and adults in her church choir. When Rissi was 13, the family moved to St. Louis, where she was exposed to music across the spectrum. It was in St. Louis that she took part in talent pageants, including Hal Jackson's Talented Teens, formerly the Miss Black Teen America pageant. Those experiences led her to join Team 11, an entertainment troupe that played for audiences including Former President Bill Clinton.
"That is where a lot of my country influences started to come out," she says. "At the audition we were instructed to pick an artist that we admired and perform some of their songs. I chose LeAnn Rimes and Shania Twain. I was not the one they expected to walk out and sing "Any Man of Mine" at those state fair shows," she adds with a laugh, "but they always liked it!"
It was also in St. Louis where Rissi met and partnered for a time with Us Girlz Entertainment, who began to groom and develop her budding talent. At 20, Rissi signed a publishing deal with Song Planet in Nashville, writing with many of the city's best. A performance at a New York club led a representative of Star Search to offer her a chance to compete, and Rissi rode her voice and stage presence all the way to the finals. Judge Naomi Judd was especially supportive, and it was Judd's manager who led Rissi, then singing jingles and recording songs for "Dance Fever," to the creators of "Waiting in the Wings," a CMT documentary on African-Americans in country music that also featured Charley Pride and Trini Triggs. Rissi was also featured on CMT's "Most Wanted Live" and worked with producers including Brian McKnight and Deborah Allen.
Her music reached Johnson, who liked what he heard and met with Rissi on a Saturday. The following Monday, he offered her a record deal.
"At the end of the day," says Johnson, "I've got to believe in the individual as a person, that they're going to have longevity and be able to take all that comes with success. I really believe that about Rissi and that's what sold me on her. She is very comfortable with who she is and where she's going."
Rissi is anxiously awaiting the chance to perform her new material before live audiences. "The best part of it all for me is to be able to touch people," she says. "Performing is almost like being in a friendship--I like to be interactive, to talk to the audience about the songs and what's behind them. The more intimate the setting, the better. Country is music that everyone can relate to. It's not exclusive to one age group or one type of people. The songs tell stories and they have such integrity--it's the music of life."
It is also music that will grow just a little richer as Rissi Palmer steps further into the national spotlight.
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