I'm a country/gospel influenced,rock,folk,pop singer/songwriter specializing in spreading love and beautiful melodies. I tend to think of my sound like The Blind Boys of Alabama, The Handsome Family,Elvis, with a touch of Cyndi Lauper and Boy George in a blender. I am almost finished working on my new cd with my producer and pedal steel player Gerald Menke. The Cd is called ""Mighty Songs of Joy"". The first single I released ""Love Divine"" went to 1 on the SongVault Christian music charts for 6 weeks. After 3 layers of competition ""Love Divine"" has entered SongVault radio's permanent rotation: http://www.songvault.fm/artists/roger_anthony_mapes.htm My Bio ................. Roger Anthony (Tony) Mapes; singer songwriter painter and performance artist was born and raised in Muscle Shoals Alabama - ""The Hit Recording Capital of the World"" and the birthplaces of Helen Keller and W.C. Handy. The Muscle Shoals area was populated by an abundance of musicians and visual artists/painters. He began studying music painting and drawing at a young age with local artists and was encouraged to develop his own unique vision. Roger is influenced by pop rock blues gospel country and folk but doesn’t self-consciously follow any one tradition...combining them all into some hybrid of his own: www.rogeranthonymapes.com From 1997-2005 Roger Anthony Mapes performed as YOLANDA singer/songwriter/gender warrior with his/her band ""Yolanda and the Plastic Family"". Roger created the character ""Yolanda"" wrote the music created the costumes toured and recorded with his/her band and was the opening act for Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wash. In 2005 Roger as YOLANDA was featured on The Dave Chapelle Show. YOLANDA's NYC venues included CBGB's The Cutting Room The knitting FactoryWebster Hall and The Limelight nightclubs. From 1997-1999: Roger's music was favorably reviewed in Billboard Magazine 5 times. Larry Flick called him the ""...best unsigned artist of 1999"". For more information on YOLANDA go to: www.yolanda.net"