Louis York’s second album, Songs With Friends, underscores the power and beauty of community.
The duo, consisting of singer-songwriter Claude Kelly and producer-songwriter Chuck Harmony, called on some of their closest artist pals, and like a musical potluck, everyone brings their own unique flavor to the occasion.
The genre-spanning album features a dynamic guest list, including soul singers Lalah Hathaway, Anthony Hamilton, and PJ Morton; R&B vocalist Tamia; pop singer Jessie J; rockstar Chris Daughtry; reggae artist Gramps Morgan; and New American soul group The Shindellas.
Songs With Friends, released via the duo’s independent label Weirdo Workshop, was deliberately crafted with layers of intention. “We’ve been carrying the ball of Louis York on our own without asking for any help,” Chuck Harmony tells Rated R&B over Zoom, with Claude Kelly by his side.
“Songs With Friends was a conversation that me and Claude had like, ‘Yo, we got to move this thing forward outside of being creative guys. We got to get in people’s faces. Let’s make a duet album [with] friends that won’t mind collaborating, performing, doing TV performances, [and] the whole nine.”
Claude adds, “The ones who had real conversations with us beforehand about encouraging us like, ‘Yo, keep doing this.’ People on this album are industry friends, but they’re also real friends. We’ve had real conversations about getting through this crazy life as musicians.”
Sonically, Louis York sets the stage for their co-stars to shine, with each song handcrafted for each of them. “We didn’t want to ask anyone prematurely to be on the project until we felt like we had the right song and the right focused album for it,” Claude notes.
On Songs With Friends, the follow-up to 2019’s American Griots, Louis York and their compadres engage in heartfelt dialogues about life and love. They celebrate life’s brighter moments (“Have A Little Light” with Gramps Morgan), open up about isolation (“Alone A Lot” with Anthony Hamilton), and explore romantic themes — from the early stages of falling in love (“Three Little Words” with Tamia) to a love that sends them out of this world (“Heaven Bound” with Jessie J). Songs “Don’t Slam The Door” with The Shindellas and “Don’t Mean Much Anymore” with Lalah Hathaway navigate conflict and resolution in relationships.
In Rated R&B’s interview with Louis York, the Nashville-based duo discusses Songs With Friends, shares stories about select tracks, and more.
After you guys released your debut album, American Griots, you teased Healing Feeling and dropped two singles (“It Is What It Is” and “Headphones”). How would you describe your post-American Griots journey to Songs With Friends?
CLAUDE KELLY: Coming out of COVID, we were eager to express ourselves and figure out a new way of putting out our music. “It Is What It Is” and “Headphones” came as life demanded them. We were like, “People need to hear from us right now with this thing.” So, it started as a project called Healing Feeling. We took a creative shift based on what we felt we wanted people to understand and respect about Louis York.
You launched the Songs With Friends era with “Heaven Bound,” featuring your longtime collaborator Jessie J. How did that song come to life?
CLAUDE KELLY: We wrote the first version of “Heaven Bound” here in Nashville with Maggie Rose, another dope artist. Chuck and I have a long history with Jessie J. We worked on several albums [and have] several hits together. She’s a real friend, like when we’re in town, Jessie cooks dinner for us. We flew to LA to work with her. I knew that if we got in the studio, we would get the vocal of a lifetime. The other chip on our shoulder with Songs With Friends was we had those conversations with artists behind the scenes. I know how frustrated Jessie J is because she should be more respected. So a lot of it was like, “We are going to also remind them who the f—k you are because people be playing games.”
CHUCK HARMONY: One of the other messages we wanted to put forth with Songs With Friends is what we do with these vocalists. “Heaven Bound” sounds like “Heaven Bound” because I feel like Jessie J would sound good in that soundscape. We tried to give that to each artist. We’re proud of “Heaven Bound” because she is way more than pop.
You teamed with reggae star Gramps Morgan on the optimistic “Have A Little Light.” What was your intention with that record?
CHUCK HARMONY: That was a song we’ve been playing around with for a few years, trying to find the right fit [and] the right timing. We tried it out on somebody else, and it didn’t quite fit. A lot of times, we make the mistake of trying to give the songs that [Claude is] supposed to sing to somebody else. “Have A Little Light” was one of those ones because there is a real connection between Jamaican culture and country music that is real prominent in both spaces.
When we [met] Gramps and were working on this project, we realized we still had “Have A Little Light” in the stash that we could explore again. It’s an ode to [Claude’s] Jamaican roots, an ode to Gramps because he’s a reggae legend, and an ode to me because I’m able to live in between worlds musically, but in an authentic way. It’s a pop song as much as it is a country song as much as it is a reggae song.
Tell us about “Alone A Lot” with Anthony Hamilton. It charted on Billboard’s Adult R&B Airplay.
CLAUDE KELLY: That’s a song we actually worked on with him several years ago, and it was the wrong timing, I guess. Anthony was in Nashville, and he was a guest on [our podcast] We Sound Crazy. We were able to be like, “Yo, whatever happened to that song ‘Alone A Lot’ that we did?” We planned another trip for him to record it. We knew the song was strong. That’s one of my personal favorites. It’s so autobiographical. A lot of times I feel alone in how I think or in my discipline, or even just trying to figure out life. I don’t feel depressed. It’s just alone.
To the point of having a chip on our shoulders about how artists are respected, we have these conversations about the best singers and all that stuff. Anthony’s one of the best soul singers of our generation. It’s not just R&B. It’s blues, Americana, rock, southern soul, [and] country. Trying to bring out those flavors was a fun adventure with him. He’s another person that’s been a real friend. We’ve done close to 10 shows with him on his tour this year. For an artist to give you time on their stage is one of the most generous things. They’re sharing their audience. We don’t take that lightly.
What has your experience working on Songs With Friends taught you about friendship in the industry?
CLAUDE KELLY: I always say you have more friends than you think you have, and you have less enemies than you think. Me and Chuck are friends. We lean on each other for just about everything. I never really feel alone because we’re doing this together. There are times when we have to ask for help from other people. That’s always scary to do but the truth of the matter is with Songs With Friends, nobody we asked that’s on the album said no. It’s been reassuring to see that some people in this business are who they say they are because it’s easy to get jaded. [There are] a lot of bullsh—rs in the business to make you feel like you don’t have any friends, but in fact, you do. So, I am encouraged by this whole process.
You guys definitely have a proven track record for making quality songs, regardless of the genre. Where do you see yourself within this musical landscape?
CLAUDE KELLY: I feel like I care about a lot of stuff. I will never apologize for the fact that I believe that songs should sound good. There’s a lot of talk about how music should be and yada, yada. Truth be told, everyone would rather take the faster road than do what needs to be done. The artists that are doing really well long-term are putting out quality music. My hope is that we will focus on the people that are f—ing with us, and that’s a worldwide thing. In the end, you withstand the test of time because every time people saw you and heard about you, the bar was high.
You guys have a history of making music that nourishes and uplifts the soul. Even songs for other artists like Jessie J’s “Who You Are,” Estelle’s “Conqueror,” Keri Hilson’s “Pretty Girl Rock,” Mary J. Blige’s “Work in Progress,” and so many more. Can you talk more about that?
CLAUDE KELLY: It’s so funny because I don’t think we want to be, but we’re just happy, smiley guys sometimes. It’s also funny because somehow the songs end up there, but if you heard some of the conversations that go on… I think what happens with our songs is we go through a process of a major topic, concern or frustration. It could be anything. But what you get is the finished product of a problem, which is always a happy ending. I love emotional music, but I love inspiring music. So it’s Bob Marley, John Mayer, [and] those tortured souls that were telling the truth, but at the same time, it felt hopeful. Those are some [of] the artists we listen to the most. I think it’s in our DNA to have some kind of silver lining at the end of our music, but it ain’t easy.
Getting back to the album, Lalah Hathaway joins you on “Don’t Mean Much Anymore.” What was your experience working with her?
CHUCK HARMONY: When the album came out, I listened down to the album, and I got stuck on “Don’t Mean Much Anymore” because I couldn’t take myself out of it. It was literally the vocal performance and the lyrics of that song. Lalah is brilliant. We’re not talking about toiling in the studio. We’re talking about an hour and a half of her just flat-foot singing. A lot of it is on the cutting room floor because the song could have been 20 minutes based on her ad-libs alone.
CLAUDE KELLY: Lalah is one of the few people on the album that we hadn’t worked with. She came to a Louis York show early on with [music executive] Phil Thornton. He brought her to a show in New York when we lived in New York over 10 years ago. We hit her up. She’s like, “I’m a fan of y’all.” We went to dinner. We had Thai food in LA and kicked it. She was like, “I would love to be part of your album.” One of our favorite albums is the Lalah and Joe Sample album [The Song Lives On]. I still play it. It’s one of the best albums ever. Our goal was to get in the vicinity of that quality. Chuck is the best piano player I know, and I know he looks up to Joe Sample. As a singer, Lalah is the prototype. So we’re like, “We got to do this one justice.”
“Catch A Feeling” with Chris Daughtry feels like a stadium song. What went into making it?
CLAUDE KELLY: Chris is a good friend of ours. We’ve known him since before Nashville, but we all moved to Nashville around the same time. He’s one of the coolest people in the world with one of the craziest voices. “Catch a Feeling” was a song we were also sitting on that we had tried different iterations of and knew was special. We gave Chris a call like, “Yo, do you want to do a song with Louis York?” He was like, “F—k yeah.” We recorded that in Nashville. The concept behind it, behind these three guys who are from what appear to be different worlds who come up together for that thing is I just want you to catch a feeling over this. I want you to leave here with goosebumps. I want you to leave here changed.
CHUCK HARMONY: I also want to shout out to the musicians on that record because that’s some authentic rock; it’s all Black people in the studio. Brian Frasier-Moore on drums, Adam Smith II on guitar and the rest was me. We created a rock song that’s authentic. “Catch a Feeling” is a rock song.
What do you hope listeners will take away from Songs With Friends?
CLAUDE KELLY: We had a lot of missions with this album. First, we wanted to expand. We want people internationally and from different genres to book us for shows and see us for more than one thing because that’s important to us. This is an album of community. Chuck and I are the visionaries and at the forefront, but there’s songwriting on here that’s not just us. It’s Maggie Rose. It’s Kathie Lee Gifford. It’s the country artist Cam. There are lots of people involved on the music side. There are lots of brilliant musicians. The message also is to get together and make great music. There’s something different that happens when someone comes here in person and sings or solos the guitar, and that leads you to the next part of the song because you weren’t even imagining it could go to that place. There’s some power in the community of music. But really, I want people to recognize Louis York and see that we’re here to stay.
CHUCK HARMONY: I want people to realize we made a Grammy-worthy project. I want the award for this project. First of all, it deserves it. Secondly, there was a time at places like the Grammys when somebody won the Song of the Year, Record of the Year, or Album of the Year, and you had to go listen. I remember listening to Herbie Hancock because he won Album of the Year; that was good for music. I want to be the new generation of that for the Grammys because now, sometimes, it feels like a popularity contest. I want it to give back to the music and for it to give back to the music, albums like this got to win things. I’m not asking for the world. I don’t have to be next to Adele, but I think it should win something because that also aids us in putting out more music. When you can say Grammy-nominated or Grammy-winning Louis York, we can get in that theater in London. I’m not going to be silent about that desire.
