Danielia Cotton (born Danielia Brooks on September 24, 1967) is an American rock singer, songwriter and guitarist.

Early life

Cotton grew up in the small western New Jersey town of

Hopewell, New Jersey Hopewell is a borough in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. This historical settlement is located within the heart of the Raritan Valley region. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 1,918, a decreas ...

, population 2,010. She was one of four siblings raised by a single mother. Her mother, a jazz singer by

avocation An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces ...

, supported the family doing accounting work. When Danielia was 12 years old, her mother gave her an acoustic guitar, she also started singing with her mom and her aunts in a gospel group, the Brooks Ensemble Plus. Growing up as one of only seven black kids in

Hopewell Valley Central High School Hopewell Valley Central High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school operating as part of the Hopewell Valley Regional School District that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Hopewell Borough, Hopewell Townshi ...

, she was not exposed to R&B and hip-hop. Along with her growing love for rock, Danielia developed a warm appreciation for jazz and gospel. Danielia wound up at the top of her high school class, the first to graduate from the New Jersey School of Performing Arts. Her vocal skills earned her a full scholarship to

Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont. Founded in 1932 as a women's college, it became co-educational in 1969. It claims to be the first college to include visual and performing arts as an equal partner in ...

. Danielia chose to pursue acting at Bennington and spent most of her senior year at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Senat ...

in London. She doubled up on credits, so she could still study music, taking tutorials with avant garde jazz trumpeter-professor Bill Dixon, who, she says, "really trained my ear."

Music career

In 2005 Cotton released her debut album ''Small White Town'' (title inspired by Hopewell). Her second studio album, ''Rare Child'', released May 20, 2008, was ranked in the top ten albums downloaded on iTunes during its first week of release. On July 7, 2009, she released the live EP ''Live Child'', a companion piece to ''Rare Child''. The EP won the 9th Annual Independent Music Award for the ‘Best Live Album’ and 'Live Performance Album Vox Pop' for the album "Righteous People". In 2012, Danielia released ''The Gun in Your Hand'', followed by ''The Real Book'' in 2014. In 2017 she released ''The Mystery of Me'', an album that features a mix of rock and soul, from the soaring "Set Me Free" to the deeply personal "Drink" and the upbeat "4 Ur Life," which pulls inspiration from classic Motown as well as

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band from San Francisco. Active from 1966 to 1983, it was pivotal in the development of funk, soul, rock, and psychedelic music. Its core line-up was led by singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-i ...

. The album was covered by numerous media outlets including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''.

Band members

*Danielia Cotton – Lead vocals, electric and acoustic rhythm guitars, songwriter *Marc Copely – Lead guitar, backing vocals *Winston Roye – Bass *John Clancy – drums

Discography

Studio albums

*''Small White Town'' – September 6, 2005 (Hip Shake Music) *''Rare Child'' – May 20, 2008 (Adrenaline Records / Cottontown Records) *''The Gun in Your Hand'' – October 30, 2012 (Redeye Label) *''The Real Book'' – October 21, 2014 (Burnside / Cottontown Records) *''The Mystery of Me'' – December 1, 2017 (Cottontown Records) *''Good Day'' - March 18, 2022 (Cottontown Records)

EPs

*''Danielia Cotton'' – August 23, 2004 (Hip Shake Music) *''Live Child'' – July 7, 2009 (Cottontown Records) *''Woodstock'' – May 2, 2014 (Cottontown Records) *''A Prayer'' – July 29, 2016 (Cottontown Records) *''A Different War'' (Danielia Cotton & The Church Boys) – May 29, 2020 (Cottontown Records)

Singles

*"Testify" (April 1, 2008) *"Forgive Me" (2017)

References

External links

Danielia Cotton's Official Website
* *
Danielia Cotton
at

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

music {{DEFAULTSORT:Cotton, Danielia African-American women singer-songwriters African-American rock musicians African-American rock singers American rock songwriters American rock guitarists American women rock singers American indie rock musicians Hopewell Valley Central High School alumni People from Hopewell, New Jersey Living people Independent Music Awards winners 1967 births African-American guitarists American musicians of Puerto Rican descent Singer-songwriters from New Jersey Guitarists from New Jersey 20th-century American guitarists 21st-century American women singers African-American Jews Converts to Judaism 21st-century American singers 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American women singers