Conrad Reeder

Conrad Reeder
Background information
Birth name Connie S. Reeder
Also known as "The Demo Queen"
Born Columbus, Ohio
Genres Rock, folk, Pop, others
Occupation(s) Recording artist, singer, songwriter, playwright, professor
Years active 1974–present
Associated acts John Denver, Fugitive Blonde

Conrad Reeder (also known as Connie Reeder Nichols) is an American singer, songwriter, writer and college professor. She was married to the late producer and recording engineer Roger Nichols for over thirty years.

Music career

Reeder sang for fifteen years with John Denver in live concerts, on television and recordings including Dreamland Express and It's About Time. She sang live duets with Denver as well as performing as a background singer and stayed in contact with Denver's mother after he died in a plane crash.[1]

She also co-wrote the Denver song Thanks to You.[2]

With husband Roger Nichols in the studio

Reeder is credited as a writer or co-writer on all tracks of her husband's release, The Roger Nichols Project. [3] She was signed to Motown's Morocco Records in the early 80s but the label folded before her first album was released. Reeder led her own band called Fugitive Blonde in Nashville, Tennessee the 80s and 90s, with an earlier Los Angeles version titled Big Blonde.[4]

Writing career

Promotional photo for Reeder's single Urban Guerilla Man

She was a featured columnist and article writer at EQ Magazine [5] in the 1990s, writing as C. Reeder. The column, The Demo Queen, often lampooned the trials involved in the process of recording demo tapes in quest of a record deal.[6] Her writing sometimes takes a serious view of life and love,[7] and a book of her poetry, On the Beach: Poems and Vignettes, is available on Amazon.[8] Her plays have been staged in Florida and California (Graffiti).[9]

Education

Reeder graduated in 2008 from the University of New Orleans with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing/Playwrighting. Her thesis, Jack is Dead, was inspired by Denver's accidental death. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Palm Beach State College in Florida.[10] Reeder is currently a Doctoral candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and is also a lecturing professor at the Maui campus of the University of Hawaii.

Reeder with daughters Cimcie and Ashlee Nichols at the 54th Grammy Awards in 2012 to accept her husband's Special Merit/Technical Grammy Award.

References

  1. ↑ "Services set for Erma Deutschendorf, 87, mother of John Denver". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  2. ↑ "THANKS TO YOU LYRICS". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  3. ↑ "The Roger Nichols Project". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  4. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-music&field-keywords=wildlife+Fugitive+Blonde&rh=n%3A163856011%2Ck%3Awildlife+Fugitive+Blonde&ajr=0
  5. ↑ "Nashville State of Mind: The Demo Queen takes on the King of the Nashville Music Scene straight from Music Row". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  6. ↑ "Demo Queen Unplugged". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Sunshine on My Shoulder". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
  8. ↑ http://www.amazon.com/On-The-Beach-Poems-Vignettes-ebook/dp/B00DE8NVW4
  9. ↑ http://www.conradreeder.com/?p=1084
  10. ↑ "The Low Residency MFA in Creative Writing Alumni Page". Retrieved January 31, 2012.
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