Listen to Lauren Eylise perform and chat for WCPO Lounge Acts with host Austin Fast
CINCINNATI -- She made a big statement with her debut EP "Life/Death/Life" last fall, but now the Queen City's own neo-soul artist Lauren Eylise is sharing her "unapologetically feminine and soul-stirring vibes" with an R&B-loving crowd Thursday night at Downtown's Aronoff Center.
The songwriter and her band, the Part-Time Lovers, are celebrating Valentine's a day late by opening up The R&B Love Show, featuring Pretty Ricky, Lloyd and J. Holiday.
Earning a 15-minute slot opening for these Billboard-charting artists will be one of her most prominent opportunities so far this year, but Lauren Eylise explains it's not the only one of this caliber so far in her career. Alongside local shows at MOTR Pub and the Southgate House Revival, she opened for R&B artists Linkin' Bridge, Raheem DeVaughn and Tank in 2017.
Although she's been performing for more than six years, it wasn't until September 2017 that she released her first EP.
Using her ability to translate raw emotion into song, "Life/Death/Life" is Lauren Eylise's interpretation of her own healing. Having learned of the unplanned conception of her son while pursuing her music career in New York City, the singer narrates her journey through the perceived death of her dreams, the life of her child, the end of some relationships and the beginning of her career.
Each of "Life/Death/Life's" seven tracks draws from loves lost, lessons learned, plans diverted, black womanhood and the natural relationship between loss and gain.
"While I am excited to share this project with you, I must admit, it is for me," she wrote on her blog in August 2017. "This project is from me, to me, for me. It is a mirror for me to look on and within myself for healing and the reminder of all I’ve made it through and all that I am. I hope it can be a mirror for others as well."
Lauren Eylise's witty lyricism gives off the matter-of-fact tone of Lauryn Hill and the unapologetic savagery of SZA’s "CTRL" layered with vulnerability that is purely her own. While the EP is an ode to Lauren Eylise’s own personhood, she hopes any woman can pick it up and see herself. But with blatantly transparent lines sung in a sultry voice to her own guitar strumming, not only women and R&B fans will find themselves identifying with the themes of "Life/Death/Life." This is an album for us all.
Keep an eye to Lauren Eylise's website for tour dates to be announced this spring.
If You Go
8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15
Aronoff Center - Procter & Gamble Hall (650 Walnut St., Cincinnati)
All agesTickets range from $38.50 to $88.50. Buy at the website here.
Tickets also available at the Aronoff Box Office or retail locations including Hard2Knock, Exclusive Wear, BlaCk OWned Store and Ms BeezFly Closet.
More info at the Aronoff Center website here.
