ArtistInfo

Sunni Nash

R&B/Soul
A.k.a. Sunny Nash

Sunny Nash began a music career at age 15 when she met Houston’s KYOK radio celebrity and media personality, George Nelson, who presented her a scholarship for winning the Miss Texas High Contest in 1965; she was a sophomore in high school. For her talent competition, she sang a medley of the 1964 R&B hit, ”Every Little Bit Hurts,” and the 1954 jazz standard, “Misty.” During the summer of 1966, George Nelson booked Nash to sing jazz and blues live on KYOK broadcasts with the Conrad Johnson Orchestra at the El Dorado Ballroom and Ray Barnett's Cinder Club with John Roberts and the Hurricanes. Nash shared Houston stages with blued-eyed soul singer, Roy Head, and R&B teen group, Archie Bell & the Drells. After she graduated high school in 1967, KTSA radio celebrity, Ricci Ware, arranged for Nash to audition for Abe Epstein Enterprises in San Antonio as a studio musician, background vocalist and recording artist. In 1968, Abe Epstein released Nash's country blues recording, “I Am Nothing Without You,” written by Ricky "Güero Polkas" Davila, then a songwriter for Epstein Studios and also a DJ at San Antonio's KEDA Radio Jalapeno, the nation's only conjunto radio station. Dubbed “Miss Soulsational” by Epstein, Nash was a Gulf Coast sensation from Texas to Florida singing a mix of blues, country and Tejano music. Nash went back to Houston in 1969 and got studio work writing, arranging and laying tracks. In 1971, Brunswick Records signed Nash as a studio musician and songwriter. With Curtis Mayfield’s Super Fly soundtrack trio, headed by drummer, Quinton Joseph, Nash co-wrote and recorded “The Third Movement,” which now has a new generation of worldwide Internet cult followers of old-school deep funk. After graduating from Texas A&M University in 1977, Nash was a vocalist, keyboardist, percussionist and dancer with Johnny Nash’s 1978 “I Can See Clearly Now” tour of the British Isles. Nash worked with Odell Brown, Marvin Gaye’s music director and songwriting partner of “Let’s Get It On.” In 1990, Nash wrote, produced and scored a University of Texas film, “We Have Something To Say,” nominated for a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award. The film’s theme song won Nash a People’s Choice, Sammy Davis Songwriting Nomination.

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