A conversation with singer Carmen Rodgers about ‘Cocktails & Conversations’

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Indie soul vocalist Carmen Rodgers - a Texas native who currently resides in Atlanta - made noise in 2011 when she dropped her acclaimed full-length album, The Bitter Suite - Deluxe Edition. (I even picked it as one of last year’s 10 best CDs.) For 2012, Rodgers decided to take her show on the road and preview music from a brand-new album (titled Intermission) that she plans to release in September. This Saturday, June 16, she (joined by singer Jon Bibbs) ends her nationwide trek - branded the Cocktails & Conversations Tour - in the ATL, and we got a chance to chat with her briefly about her musical walkabout.

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So how has the tour gone for you?

Carmen Rodgers: It’s been awesome. It’s been great to be able to really get the response of people who may not have even known who I was and the people who were familiar with the work I’ve already done and see what they thought of the new music ... And I would say definitely the hit song is a duet that Anthony David and I have that will be on the next record called “Charge”; no matter who’s the stand-in guy singing the song and no matter how many ways I sing it, people ask, “Can I get that song now?” ... But it’s been a lot of fun.

I wonder, for an independent artist like yourself, what is like going on a tour like this?

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OK, I have to say that this was some of the hardest shit I’ve ever done.