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Knee deep into the first six-track session of his latest recording project, Chris Pierce was in soul music’s Promised Land, making the vocal booth in the Muscle Shoals, Alabama studio his home. Vibing with The Swampers, the Muscle Shoal Horns and The Shoal Sisters – the legendary session musicians who defined the classic Muscle Shoals sound back in R&B’s 60’s and 70’s heyday – the singer found personal rebirth in service to the songs that inspired his own prolific, multi-faceted career as a soul and blues singer/songwriter. In the middle of Wilson Pickett’s classic “Don’t Fight It,” Pierce sang a key lyric that defines the power of R&B for him and millions of others. It also made the perfect title for an album that brings Pierce’s twenty-year recording career full circle: You’ve Got to Feel It!

Recorded in two sessions in the fall of 2015 and winter of 2016, the 12 track collection is driven by the fresh perspectives and freewheeling imagination Pierce brings to a grooving and emotionally searing set list featuring 60’s and 70’s classics by the soul singers whose passion has spoken to and ignited him since early childhood. The set list is an R&B lover’s dream, featuring classics by Solomon Burke (“Cry To Me”), Clarence Carter (“Slip Away”), James Carr (“The Dark End of the Street”), Arthur Alexander (“You Better Move On”), Jimmy Cliff (“Many Rivers to Cross)” Al Green (“I’m A Ram”), Otis Redding (“That’s How Strong My Love Is”), Marvin Gaye (“Trouble Man”) and Stevie Wonder (“You Haven’t Done Nothin’”).

The sessions feature the The Swampers, the name given to the famed Muscle Shoals rhythm section by Leon Russell and immortalized in the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic “Sweet Home Alabama.” The group was inducted into the Nashville-based Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008. On hand are David Hood (Bass), Spooner Oldham (Wurlitzer and Piano), Jimmy Johnson (Guitar), Harvey Thompson (Tenor Saxophone), Charles Rose (Trombone) as well as Will McFarlane (Guitar) Bryan Owings (drums), Steve Bassett (Hammond Organ/Piano), Kelvin Holly (Guitar), David Resnik (Guitar) Steve Herman (Trumpet), Doug Moffett (Baritone Saxophone), Cindy Walker (Background Vocals) & Marie Lewey (Background Vocals). The sessions also include a featured background vocal by Grateful Dead member Donna Jean Godchaux on the title track "Don't Fight It," who also appeared as a backup singer on the #1 hit song "Suspicious Minds" by Elvis Presley in 1969.

At one point during the sessions, Pierce got so into the moment in the vocal booth that he began ripping his clothes off, sweating and jumping up and down. “I was celebrating life, doing what I could to get into the soulfulness of not leaving anything in my soul out of it,” he says. “I grew up in Southern California, but thanks to my parents who were always spinning classic vinyl R&B cuts, the sounds that came from Muscle Shoals were served at my breakfast table every day. I was fed Solomon, Arthur, Wilson and Otis from the time I was a little kid. I feel like the music of that era, the rawness of their emotion spoke to me. I wanted to feel what they felt. I didn’t even get into contemporary music till my teens. I have always been very emotional, a deep thinker and a heart on my sleeve kind of person.

Pierce adds, “my sound came from knowing it was okay to wear my heart on my sleeve and sing soulfully from my gut like my idols did, while celebrating the authenticity of my own voice. I was blessed enough to have parents who said, yes, you can do this. My sound as a vocalist, songwriter and instrumentalist developed over time in a lot of different stylistic directions, but it’s now found its way back to the simple rawness and soulfulness I love with this album. Having the opportunity to sing these songs that I grew up with -- with the incredible musicians who played on the originals is a dream come true.”

The impetus for the sessions that evolved into Pierce’s latest full length project was a call he received from veteran musician and producer Dave Resnik, who tapped a teenaged Pierce to tour with his Chicago based rock/R&B band, Sonia Dada, in the early 90s after seeing him perform at South By Southwest with Jon Butcher. He called Pierce out of the blue in 2015 and asked him if he had seen the award winning 2013 documentary Muscle Shoals about the history of the studio and the artists who recorded there. Resnik told Pierce he knew the legendary depicted in the film through co/producer Steve Bassett, and suggested the two take a trip down there. Pierce snapped, “My backpack’s packed and ready. Don’t threaten me with a good time!”

Pierce felt an instant camaraderie with the musicians, got in the vocal booth and quickly knocked out “Cry To Me” and “Dark End of the Street.” On a roll, they picked a few more songs Pierce was familiar with and recorded a total of six tunes that day. Back in L.A., Dave Resnik and co/producer/organist Steve Bassett called the singer and suggested they double down and return to Muscle Shoals a few months later and make it a full album. Some of the songs that made the second list were more obscure to Pierce, but he was up to the task on those, singing lyrics from his cell phone as the band jammed on the other side of the glass. Almost everything on these sessions, and then the full album, were single or double takes.

“Being down in Muscle Shoals with those legendary folks, observing their intuitive, old school spontaneity was incredible,” he says. “They just came in, wrote down the charts, sat down, reached in and pulled all that soul out. Seeing that demonstration of heart and emotion in its purest form was an education beyond education.”
This past year, Pierce’s trademark facility for Soul/R&B prompted Siddhartha Khosla, composer for the NBC breakout family drama “This is Us,” to tap him to collaborate on a song for a poignant episode late in the season called “Memphis.” Their collaboration, “We Can Always Come Back To This,” was not only the emotional crux of the episode but became a hit single as well, charting at #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart and in the Top 20 on the Rock and R&B charts. The episode featured two versions of the song, sung respectively by Brian Tyree Henry and Hannah Miller with the following episode opening with a solo/acoustic version of the song sung and played by Pierce. In 2018, Pierce was nominated as a co-writer of the song for "Best Song/Recording Created for Television" by The Guild of Music Supervisors.

Pierce’s success with “This is Us” caps a rich history of song placements in films like the Oscar winning “Crash” and TV’s “Brothers and Sisters,” “In Plain Sight,” “Eli Stone,” “What About Brian,” “Lincoln Heights,” “North Shore,” “Half and Half” and “Army Wives.” His single “Are You Beautiful” was used in a national Banana Republic ad campaign, and he has relationships and sponsorships with several music and clothing companies, including Blue Microphones, Hohner Harmonicas, Moody Straps, Taylor Guitars, Horny Toad and Nau Activewear.

Over the years, Pierce’s eclectic vibe has led him to worldwide tours as a solo artist and as an opener for everyone from B.B. King, Seal, Aaron Neville and Jamie Cullum to Colbie Caillat, Al Green, Toots & the Maytals and Robert Cray. In addition to a solo discography that includes such critically acclaimed albums as Static Trampoline (2005), Walking on the Earth (2007), Chris Pierce Live at the Hotel Café (2009), I Can Hear You (2011) and When the Hustle Comes to a Stop (2012), he has also done full length recordings (in addition to ongoing performances and tours) as a member of two other units: the classic roots R&B project Reverend Tall Tree and contemporary blues/Americana duo War & Pierce (with singer/songwriter Sunny War). Pierce also performs as a featured guest with several orchestras around the U.S. and abroad, and has been well received by the TED community with his popular TED talk on “The Healing Powers of Music.”

“To be honest, because of my eclectic background and career, people sometimes have a hard time figuring out what I do best,” says Pierce, who won an Ella Fitzgerald scholarship to study jazz at USC after touring with Sonia Dada. “I get called as a vocalist, songwriter, arranger, guitarist and harmonica player, depending on what people need – but in all cases I don’t get into the studio unless I know I can deliver.

“Feeling a kinship with the people I work with is key,” he adds. “The first time I went to Muscle Shoals, I felt like I was pulling in some kind of spiritual familiarity, as if I had been there before. My body and spirit were immediately at ease, and it felt like home, even though I had never physically set foot there. When I met The Swampers, the Muscle Shoals Horns and the Shoals Sisters; I felt an immediate sense of love and fellowship. These were some of my musical heroes, welcoming me with open arms, bringing in homemade food to the table and making me feel like I belonged. From start to finish, the creation of 'You’ve Got To Feel It!' was a beautiful, soulful experience.”

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