LYRIC's Bio
Just over a year ago, Rosalyn Brunswick-McDuffie and Rhonda McLemore were two solo singers with a part time gig as background singers for gospel star Donnie McClurkin. Then, former R&B star Chris Walker who had produced their separate solo gospel cds had a dream. I heard the girls singing together in that dream, he says. So I approached them about coming together.
Walker, who enjoyed Top Ten R&B hits with Giving You All My Love and Take Time in the 1990s, then brought the two women and one other in the studio last year. The third singer came up with the name of the group, but decided to back out before the recording process began. She gave the girls her blessing to continue with the name she thought up and Lyric was re-born as a duo.
We call ourselves Lyric because thats what changes lives, says Rosalyn. Wed get to the studio to kind of gel and sometimes we would write to a track on the spot, says Rosalyn. Chris would put pen and paper in our hands and it was amazing how God gave us songs. Id come up with a verse. Rhonda would do a chorus and Chris would do a tag line. The lyrics came directly from our hearts. I would do something crazy and Rhonda would come back with something crazier. "
The crazy results are not crazy after all. The new CD A Brand New Day (Canvas Records) is a stellar collection of urban flavored inspirational and gospel tunes that boast the grit of Mary J. Blige with the polish of Heather Headley. The debut single Promise Land, an up-tempo funk number, is taking off at radio and the music video will soon premiere on Black Entertainment Televisions (BET) Video Gospel program.
Lyrics path is one that could have never been predicted.
Rosalyn was born in Los Angeles but her dad moved his family to Houston when she was a child. There, her mother became the minister of music at the Greater Jerusalem Baptist Church when Rosalyn was three years old and reared Rosalyn in the church. However, it never occurred to her that this could be a career until her school principal asked her to sing for an event. Oh, this must be pretty good, she mused and set off to chart a career.
I thought it was about entertainment and I was excited about getting people excited, she says. I was 25 and still entertaining people. It was about getting a check. Then, I realized it wasnt about me. When people started saying my life is changed based on something I sang, then, I knew it wasnt about me.
She sang with a band called Leon Mitcheson & Co. and at the age of seventeen, Mitcheson took her to Los Angeles to collaborate with Quincy Jones and Larry Dunn on a solo soul project. The spirit of the Lord was gonna make me feel uncomfortable about singing R&B, she says now. But, at that time, I was turning 18 and I said, this is what Im gonna do. But, her heart told her it was wrong and she left her dreams of a soul music career behind her and returned to Houston where she earned a dental technicians degree. On the side, Rosalyn, began to appear in Michael Matthews plays such as I Need A Man, Mama, Im Sorry and Fake Friends.
Also a Houston native, Rhonda is the sixth of ten children. Raised at Norton Temple (COGIC), she says, We went to church every night of the week. We didnt have a choice. Church was all I knew. In fact, her family had a singing group, the Jackson Family that sang around the city. Rhonda had a fast vibrato that her family always teased her about and they would never let her sing with the group. So, when her sister, Karen, fell ill one day, the family finally allowed Rhonda to fill in and sing with them.
She kept on singing, graduating from the high school choir to a year on the road in Mama, I Want to Sing. When she came off the road, she was hired to perform on Shawn McLemores Wait on Him CD and eventually ended up marrying him.
Both, Rosalyn and Rhonda have recorded solo CDs in the last few years but are now united for a shared cause. This album is not just for church, says Rhonda of their mainstream styled gospel. Rosalyn echoes her and says, We want to be able to reach the lost. Theres no way you can reach the lost if you bang them over their heads with just one thing. You have to meet them where they are.
They dont just meet people where they are musically. A portion of the proceeds from the new CD benefits the American Diabetes Association. The woman who raised Chris Walker was afflicted with the debilitating disease. Rosalyn and her husband, Efrem, a former police officer (now pastor of the Palace of Praise Church), take it a step further. They founded the Willie C. McDuffie Adolescent Treatment Home, which offers housing and therapy to first time offenders. It looks like a home, she says. We have a staff of sixty-six and we have fifty children living in one females facility and male facilities.
They arent just caring for kids in the community. The ladies have kids of their own at home too. Rosalyn has two daughters and a newborn son. Rhonda has one daughter. They are now learning how to balance career and family life as they promote the new CD. Ray Davis, the owner of the Medwise pharmaceutical company, is the backer of the duos label, Canvas Records. He really believes in the project and has been supportive of everything, they say. Hes spared no expense in helping us get this musical message out.
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