“You were on the very first song we recorded for Moja, and you were the first female. Your voice was very powerful. If you listen to Volumes 1 and 2, you’ll hear your voice on the first song of Volume 2 as Moja, herself. The song is called, “She Did What She Had To Do”. There are dozens of female singers on the project from all over the world and you led the way”.
Carl Gustafson, Executive Producer of Moja: A Music Saga
From her humble beginnings as a child of the Civil Rights Era of the 60s in Southeast Missouri where her family picked and chopped cotton to survive, Erica has had a long and stellar career as a Blues Vocalist. She has performed with many of the greats in Blues, including BB King, Delbert McClinton, Bob Margolin, Miss Blues, and many others. Her voice has taken her all over the world!
In 2013, Erica, as a member of Dan Treanor’s Afrosippi Band, won 3rd Place Honors in the International Blues Challenge sponsored by the Blues Foundation, securing that honor competing against over two hundred band entrants.
In 2016, Erica appeared as a double-page photo spread in the Smithsonian Magazine’s historic companion issue coinciding with the opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).
Erica has been awarded Colorado’s Historic Five Points Jazz Festival’s Tribute Award for significant and lasting contributions to African-American music in Colorado and Nationally. The Colorado Blues Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Erica contributed to a musical effort in 2020 to support the Colorado Symphony’s Play On Recovery Fund. With Erica on vocals, the recording featured select members of the award-winning Colorado Symphony, including Concert Mistress Yumi Hwang-Williams.
In 2021, Erica was honored with inclusion in the International Book Series Phenomenon, Chicken Soup for the Soul, with a chapter written by her in their newest publication “I’m Speaking Now: Black Women Share Their Truth in 101 Stories of Love, Courage and Hope”.
In late 2021, Erica was tapped by Chris Anthony, Founder and Director of the Worldwide Chris Anthony Youth Initiative Program to collaborate with the Program to provide music educational experiences, and tools to enhance the classroom experience.
