Biography:

Something magical happens when a woman arrives and stops being afraid of the resonating fullness of her power and the potential impact of her voice. It can take a while for it to happen, decades even. But, when that internal click happens, that freeing moment in her life when she embraces the magnificence of her flawlessly flawed mind, body, and gifts, new levels of inner peace and creativity are achieved and it’s a thing of wonder to behold. After nearly 20 years in the music industry, such a moment has finally happened for triple threat singer/songwriter/producer Angela Johnson, the First Lady of Purpose Music Group. No longer the girl next door or the superwoman who thought she had to be super to be extraordinary, here is Angela Johnson unfiltered, unvarnished and definitely un-bossed. The title of her sixth solo album, Naturally Me, says it all. With the exception of Angela’s cover of Teena Marie’s Déjà Vu, Johnson wrote, composed, and produced every single song on this intimate ten-track release. Throughout, Johnson is a woman claiming her power and sharing her thoughts and feelings about matters of serious import, from politics and social injustice to motherhood and relationships of the real, not manufactured kind. Honest and direct, Naturally Me is a portrait of an artist fully realized, at last.


“I’m voicing my opinions about things that I think are wrong in the world today. I’m being more political, talking about what’s affecting my family and community. I’m putting myself out there, even though I’ve been afraid to. I wanted to talk about things that are relevant that many people aren’t talking about,” says Johnson.

Choosing to mine the spirit, energy, and deceptively simpler musicality of songs from the 1970s and ‘80s, the silver and bronze eras of the music she loves most, Johnson only tackles one cover, Teena Marie’s “Déjà vu,” here with the renown Onaje Allan Gumbs on grand piano. Throughout Naturally Me, the supremely talented trio of Lisala Beatty, Tiffany T’zelle Wilson, and Darius Booker vocally support Johnson’s confident foray into classic sounds with a modern, genre-blending approach that is strictly Angela Johnson. With the brightness of Diana Ross, the earthiness of Aretha Franklin, and the jazzy gospel doo wop of Natalie Cole, Johnson intimately sings about: keeping the home fires burning (“I Don’t Mind”), on not giving up on love (“He Saw Love In Me”), cleverly fighting to make ends meet (“I Promise [M.O.N.E.Y.],” featuring an incandescent Raul Midón on vocals and acoustic guitar), the need for a mental oasis from the daily grind (“A Beautiful Place”), and devastatingly about the Trayvon Martin case from a mother’s perspective (“Black Boy Lullaby”). Exploring the timeless sounds of artists like Prince and Steely Dan on “Say Yeah,” Johnson boldly writes about being fed up with America’s political and economic conditions and rallies a rousing call for community mobilization and a return to the earth for the natural foods we as a people once used to keep healthy in body and mind, a particular concern for the community-minded vegan. On the foot-stomping rock, soul and gospel hybrid jamboree, “Music Is My Religion,” Johnson instrumentally shares her expanded consciousness through her first spiritual language, the universal language of music. While others are writing radio songs damning love, our true believer goes in the opposite direction in a brassy, Motown-tinged ballad, “To Love Again,” whose protagonist refuses to accept anything other than the love she deserves and dares to still believe in. In a nod to her other true love, husband Russell, Johnson humorously writes about the gentlemanly, hands-off courtship he pursued to win her, in “Handz.” In truth, through her liberation, Johnson lyrically brings more of a tongue-in-cheek wit that rises up again and again throughout this declarative statement of Johnson as an artist and a woman, no longer worrying about who’s taking her seriously or not. She knows who she is and Naturally Me proves that Angela Johnson no longer has anything to prove to anyone ever again. In doing so, she also lets you know neither do you.