Home Ground

Stephen Emmer’s latest musical offering Home Ground combines the eloquence of spiritual, orchestral soul music with socially conscious lyrics. It addresses contemporary concerns within the timeless musical excellence of classic soul combined with the sonic impact of the 21st century. The Home Ground songs are vocally performed by a careful selection of musical icons from the last 5 decades.

Featured artists include Chaka Khan, Patti Austin, Leon Ware, Mary Griffin, Frank McComb, Kendra Foster, Dwight Trible, Andy Bey and last but certainly not least Ursula Rucker. 

The main lyrical thrust of Home Ground is the world that is in constant conflict or war, whether over land, religion or race; this is about poor against rich, justice against injustice, and the myriad other ongoing conflicts that beset our world.

For Home Ground Stephen received both the Golden Global Music Award 2017 as well as the Humanitarian Award 2018. Home Ground was nominated in the category Best Album at the 16th annual Independent Music Awards. At the IMA event held at the Lincoln Centre in New York City, Stephen Emmer’s ‘Soil’ featuring Ursula Rucker won both the voxpop and professionally judged award in the category Best Spoken Word Song!

Stream, download or buy Home Ground on CD or Vinyl here.

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Credits

Lyrics: Stephen Emmer, Glenn Gregory, Ursula Rucker & Chaka Khan
Mixed by Bob Power, New York
Additional mixing by Stephen Emmer & Lau Kagenaar
CD and digital mastering by Chris Gehringer, Sterling Sound, New York
Vinyl mastering by Mark Wilder, Battery Studio’s, New York

Executive producer: Joe d’Ambrosio
Associate producer: Lau Kagenaar
Project coordination: Maarten Bousie & Connie Kemp

Pre-production and recording by Stephen Emmer & Lau Kagenaar at Stephen Emmer Studios (Amsterdam & Hilversum)
Additional recording by Paul Power, Power Sound Studio, Amsterdam
Additional recording by Ronald Prent & Fieke van den Hurk, Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum
Additional recording by Bill Lefler, BL Studios, Los Angeles
Additional recording by Michael Freeman, CRC Studios, Chicago
Additional recording by Roy Hendrickson, Avatar Studios, New York
Additional recording by Lawrence Manchester, Milk Boy Studios, Philadelphia
Additional recording at The Village Recorder Studio, Los Angeles
Additional recording at Abbey Road Studios, London
Additional recording by Rob Macomber, Jazz Lincoln Centre, New York

Piano: Stephen Emmer, John Beasley & Lau Kagenaar
Drums: Yoran Vroom, Martijn Bosman & Joost Kroon
Drum: programming Stephen Emmer
Percussion: Jeroen de Rijk
Electric Bass: Stephen Emmer
Double Bass: Hein Offermans
Acoustic & Electric Guitars: Stephen Emmer
Keyboards: Stephen Emmer
Vibraphone & Glockenspiel: Murk Jiskoot
Horns: Tom Beek, Matthias Konrad, Martijn de Laat, Bert Pfeiffer & Robbert Scherpenisse
Strings: Vera van der Bie, Marieke de Bruijn, Ian de Jong, Merel Jonker, Eilidh Martin, Ben Mathot, Isabella Petersen, Jasper van Rosmalen, Jan Willem Troost & Alex Welch
Backing vocals: Judith Petra, Denise van Donselaar, Ivar Vermeulen, Laurens Kagenaar & Shirma Rouse

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