Confession: The night I found out I was pregnant with Grace, I was terrified. B and I had only been married for 4 months, I had just gotten out of my record deal and was preparing to go to LA to meet some new producers and planning my next career path. How was this pregnancy going to affect my dreams? Clearly nothing was ever going to be the same... Luckily for me, it wasn't.  

Motherhood has changed me in ways that I am so grateful for. It's not everyone's journey but I am so thankful that it has been mine...  

You can read the full interview HERE. 

Thank you so much Carly P. Jones and Come Hear NC for including me in this :-)

A very big thank you to my dear friend Uncle Devin for interviewing me for his show on Radio One. If you're interested in hearing his show regularly, you can tune in to the Uncle Devin's Radio One Talk Show Live on WOL 1450 AM/95.9 FM at 11:30am daily or stream it live at worldcnews.com.

A very big thank you to the very gracious and wonderful Terry Rader and Stephen at Everything Music Magazine for making me their cover story for the February/March edition. Thank you to Pink Diamonds by Tiwa Lawrence and @Bill Club for making me look pretty ;-) You can check out the story below...

I had the pleasure of speaking with host Marc Lee and his guest author and activist C. Leigh McInnis on the Voice of the People podcast. We spoke on art as activism, the state of the music business, and Prince. You can hear our conversation HERE.

On July 16, the boys and I are coming to Asheville!!!  Read more about the series HERE and I hope to see you there!!!

Thank you so much to Evie Fordham and TriangleToday.com for this awesome write up for my show this weekend (April 8), at 3pm at The North Carolina Museum of History in Downtown Raleigh for the Pinecone Music of the Carolinas series. Check out the article HERE and get more info about the show HERE. 

A HUGE thank you to SRW and Black Girls Allowed for featuring me and WeAreSeeds.net on their site for Black History Month!!! You can see the full piece HERE.

A very big thank you to Yitzi Weiner, SRW, and ThriveGlobal.com for this interview regarding my work with Walltown Children's Theater, my blog WeAreSeeds.net, and The Relative Pitch Youth Open Mic. Please check it out HERE!!!

Over the last year, I've been racking my brain, trying to figure out what I could do to add to the discourse that is happening in this country right now and do it in a positive way. A dear friend suggested I combine my love of children and current events and she sparked something in me. I thought, If we as adults can't wrap our minds around what's happening, imagine how confusing it must be for children? The result is this blog, WeAreSeeds.net, focused on "raising happy, healthy, socially conscious, intellectual, and spiritually strong children in the 'Post-Truth' Resistance Era". The name was inspired by my upcoming album, Seeds, and a proverb that states: “They tried to cut us down, they didn’t know we were seeds.”  I will feature articles, videos, quotes, and cartoons aimed at how to equip our children for the very adult social issues they face these days. I hope that you'll visit, find things that are helpful, and even contribute to the content on the page. May many conversations be started and hearts and minds changed because of content of this blog... 

I pray love, peace, and understanding for us all, 

Rissi

"Thanks to his passionate delivery and gift for interpretation, Owens successfully proves that the songs of Johnny Cash belong every bit in the soul canon as they do in country." - Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone Magazine 

A year ago, I got a phone call to come sing on a project that bridges the gap between Country and Soul music...and I immediately said "YES!!!". Brian Owens brought together some incredible musicians and singers to perform song from an iconic American artist, Johnny Cash, and I'm honored to have been among them. It's authentic, soulful, and a beautiful tribute to a great artist. Soul of Cash features "Ring of Fire", "Folsom Prison", and an original song written by myself and Brian called "Soul in My Country". You can read more about it at RollingStone.com and get a copy on Itunes, Amazon, and Spotify.