Carleen Anderson

Carleen Anderson is an American soul singer who has had success in the United Kingdom. She is the daughter of the singer Vicki Anderson and stepdaughter of Bobby Byrd, and was most well known as the lead singer in the Young Disciples as well as for her own solo career.

Early career

Anderson was raised by her paternal grandparents in Houston, Texas during the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Her mother was Vicki Anderson, a soul singer who was the featured singer with James Brown during the 1960s and 1970s, and Brown is Anderson's godfather. Anderson briefly married in 1978 and had a son, but the marriage did not last and for most of the 1980s she was living as a single parent in California and attempting to launch her singing career. Her only major success was recording vocals for a song by her stepfather Bobby Byrd in 1988, and so in June 1990, she decided to relocate with her son to England to try her luck at starting a career there.

Anderson quickly formed an Acid jazz band with Marc Nelson and Femi Williams called the Young Disciples. The group's only album, "Road to Freedom" (Talkin' Loud, 1991), was a great success and contained the break-out single "Apparently Nothin"' (Talkin' Loud, 1992). Anderson received a lot of attention as the lead singer (and keyboardist) of the group, and used her heightened profile to negotiate a new, solo recording contract with Virgin Records in 1992.

olo career

Virgin years

1992 saw Anderson record backing vocals for Paul Weller's eponymous solo album, which was the start of a long friendship and working relationship between the two. Weller helped Anderson with her production and songwriting, which led to the release of her first solo work, "The Dusky Sappho EP" (Circa/Virgin, 1993). Throughout this period, Anderson also continued to supply backing and guest vocals for a wide variety of other artists from Galliano to Bryan Ferry to the first volume of Guru's Jazzmatazz project.

Her first solo album - "True Spirit" (Circa/Virgin, 1994) - followed, and was a moderate critical and sales success. It also contained her two most famous songs "Nervous Breakdown" (UK #27) and "Mama Said" (UK #26). Anderson cemented her working relationship with Paul Weller by providing backing vocals (with her cousin, Jhelisa) on his "Stanley Road" album (Polygram, 1995), and the follow up "Heavy Soul" (Polygram, 1997). To return the favour he worked with her on her second solo album, "Blessed Burden" (Circa/Virgin, 1998). The album continued her professional development, but was to be her final one for Virgin.

Independent years

Following her departure from Virgin, Anderson briefly filled in as lead vocalist for the Brand New Heavies following the departure of their previous lead singers N'Dea Davenport and Siedah Garrett. Anderson also continued to provide guest and backing vocals for other artists whilst working on her first independently produced album, "Alberta's Granddaughter" (Dusky Sappho Music, 2002), which was followed by greatest hits album "Up To Now: The Best Of" (Virgin, 2004).

Following this, Anderson moved to Dome records to release "Soul Providence" (Dome, 2005), and 2006 is mostly to be spent touring to promote the album.

Carleen's new album is to be released later this year in 2008. It is more of a ballad based album and will feature production from Massive Attack on a couple of tracks. It was rumored that Carleen's collaboration with the band would appear on their next album "Weather Underground" but confirmed vocalists for that release so far are her cousin Jhelisa Anderson, Horace Andy, Stephanie Dosen and of course 3D and Daddy G.

Discography

With Young Disciples:
* "Road to Freedom" (Talkin' Loud, 1991)

Solo Recordings:
* "True Spirit" (Circa/Virgin, 1994) UK #12
* "True Spirit - Remixes" (Circa/Virgin, 1995) UK #122
* "Blessed Burden" (Circa/Virgin, 1998) UK #51
* "Alberta's Granddaughter" (Dusky Sappho Music, 2002)
* "Up To Now: The Best Of" (Virgin, 2004)
* "Soul Providence" (Dome, 2005)
* "New Solo Album" (TBA 2008)

Solo singles
* "Nervous Breakdown" (1994) UK #27
* "Mama Said" (1994) UK #26
* "True Spirit" (1994) UK #24
* "Let It Last" (1995) UK #16
* "Maybe I'm Amazed/Ghost in My Bed" (1998) UK #24
* "Woman in Me" (1998) UK #74

Under the alias Mardou Fox:
* Subterraneans feat. Mardou Fox "Taurus Woman" (1993)
* Numbers "Ballad of Mardou Fox", "Traffic", "Mardous Lament", "Jack Summerset" (2001)

Collaborations:
* Duet with Omar "Who Changes the Seasons" (1992)
* Jazzamatazz "Sights in the City" (1993)
* Incognito "Trouble don't always last" (1994) (with Ramsey Lewis)
* Duet with Lewis Taylor "18 With a Bullet" (1998)
* The Brand New Heavies "Saturday Nite", "Apparently Nothing", "Try My Love", "Swinging Big Tom"
* The London Community Gospel Choir "Whenever You Call" (2001)
* Agent K. "Ride Away Getaway" (2002)
* Andy Hamill "Falling" (2003) (with Tony Woods)
* Full Flava "Stories", "You Are (My Destiny)" (2003)
* The London Community Gospel Choir "I Surrender All" (2003)
* Courtney Pine "When The World Turns Blue" (2003)
* Mamayo "The Game" "Born to Love" (2005)
* Hope Collective "Give and Let Live" (2005)
* Duet with Paul Weller "Wanna Be Where You Are" (2005)
* Duet with Jocelyn Brown "Parting the Waters" (2005)
* Incognito "Show Me Love" (2005)
* Incognito "Summer in the City", "Tin Man", "That's the Way of the World" (2006)
* Full Flava album, "Music Is Our Way Of Life". Carleen performs lead vocals on a cover of Jean Carn's "Was That All It Was". (2007)

External links

* [http://www.carleenanderson.net/ Official website]
* [http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/artists/detail/7/carleen-anderson/ Ronnie Scotts Artists]