BY TROY MASTERS | Nashville singer-songwriter Daphne Willis will make her LA Pride debut with a main stage performance on Friday, June 10, at 9PM.
With Chicago roots and Texas ties, Willis brings both musicality and grit to the songs she writes and plays. Born in San Antonio to a classically trained vocalist and an audio engineer, Daphne began singing at an early age and found her way to the guitar in high school. Since then, she’s developed the confidence, melodic mastery and vocal range that have won her admirers from all over the globe.
Daphne Willis released her independent EP Matter of Time in September, 2007; in a twist of fate, Vanguard Records head Kevin Welk heard a track on an American Airlines flight. This led to a record deal in 2008 and the release of her second EP, Exhibit A.
To record her first full-length album, Daphne headed to the hills of Tennessee. She released What to Say in 2010, which was co-produced by Tim Lauer and Grammy winner Gary Paczosa. Album number two, Because I Can, came out in 2011 and reached the number two spot on iTunes’ Top 40 Singer/Songwriter Chart. On her following EP,Inside Outright, Daphne co-wrote songs with Hunter Davis, Chris Faulk, Angela Lauer, John Oates of Hall & Oates, Keri Barnes and Tim Lauer.
Willis’s most recent EP, 2015’s Get It, features the single “Done With Bein’ Done,” which she co-wrote with Grammy Winner Meghan Trainor. This EP was followed by two singles (both 2016): “Spider in the Roses” (a duet and co-write with Sonia Leigh) and “The Struggle is Real.”
