Cecily – Awakening Pt. II – LP Vinyl – LIMITED EDITION – HAND SIGNED – CLASSY AND THEN SOME… !! – BACK IN STOCK NOW

Cecily is a vocalist and songwriter known for her sweet soprano and honest lyrics. Unmoved by passing trends, Cecily’s sound is rooted in a deep appreciation for mid-century soul and jazz, 90’s R&B, and re-imagined folk music.

This album is dedicated to bell hooks, Thich Nhat Hanh and George Alexander Bumbray Jr. You all taught me how to love.

“All awakening to love is spiritual awakening.” – bell hooks, All About Love

This project is supported in part by funding from the Maryland State Arts Council and from the Montgomery County Government and the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County

“Awakening Pt. II” explores unconditional love and its transformative power. Going beyond the romantic, Cecily dives into what hooks called a Love Ethic and examines how love can grow in each part of our loves and in society through familial love, self-love, divine love, and love of Mother Nature. “bell hooks said, “All awakening to love is spiritual awakening” and that’s how I felt when I wrote these songs and more broadly in my journey to awakening to love.” In crafting a thematic album Cecily pays extra attention to the individual identities and styles of each track. Working with the likes of Jenna Camille, Muhsinah, Allyn Johnson, Zachary Cutler and Jacob Ungerleider, the LP travels through the realms of Jazz, Soul and R&B with tenderness and musician precision.

Focus track “Come Home” is an ode to the comforting familiarities of home. Reminiscing on the specifics of “baked apples in the morning”, “Nintendo in the attic” and “dancing to Jackson 5 tunes”, Cecily’s soothing vocals are a guiding light on a detailed and blissfully nostalgic trip down memory lane, set against the plea of the track’s title: “Please come home”. Through intricate storytelling, she allows the listener an insight to what home means both for Cecily the child – for whom home is a place of wonder – and the adult, looking back: “The grace of childhood seems far away”.

Growing up surrounded by her parents’ vast record collection – her father, a lover of Miles Davis, and her mother, a Smokey Robinson fan – Cecily developed a love of singing and an appreciation for the connection she had to music from a young age. Through this upbringing and her own focus on poetry, her work is fuelled with a unique sensuality that informs not only her vocal approach, but also her self-reflecting lyrics, grappling with self-acceptance, vulnerability, and rebirth. With a degree in Political Science and Black Studies, and an understanding of how disillusioned politics can make people feel, Cecily works to bring purpose and power to her music and people’s lives. Over her career, she has done just that by making a commitment to create work that celebrates vulnerability as a strength, unconditional love as a grounding principle, and joy as an innate human right. As a Washington, DC native, raised in a city synonymous with politics, it was an obvious choice to pursue a career in public service, but at the age of 21, Cecily walked out of her International Relations classroom feeling disillusioned. After 10 years of singing as a hobby, she wanted to dedicate her life to music.

Her debut album ‘Songs of Love and Freedom’ garnered her a Wammie Award for Best Soul Album and was named Best New Soul on Bandcamp. 2019’s “Awakening Pt. I” was also named Best New Soul on Bandcamp, and landed her a SoulTracks Readers’ Choice Awards nomination for Female Vocalist of the Year, an Indie Soul Music Award for Best Female Artist of the Year and a Wammie Award for Best Soul Song for her single, “Clumsy”. “Awakening Pt. II” is the eagerly awaited follow up to this critically acclaimed release.

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