Song Stories

Attention PRINCE Fans!

July 2, 2017

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This just in! Monday Is Coming has just gotten a special connection with PRINCE! Yes, you read that right. See what had happened was… Joe Kelley, host of the Upper Room With Joe Kelley Radio Show liked Monday Is Coming so much that he’s adding it to his playlist starting this week! Now this is not just any radio show – it’s the first radio show to be endorsed by PRINCE! Upper Room with Joe Kelley has been going strong for 35 years.

The show broadcasts 24 hours/ 7 days a week at www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com,  and also, live locally, in Fairfield, CT on WVOF 88.5 FM Fairfield University Radio , on Mondays from 6-10pm EST.

Be sure to check out the celebrity artist interviews on www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com AND especially for the PRINCE fans, you’ll definitely want to download the 2 hour Prince Music Interview and Special on the site. You’ll find it on the homepage. So go there, be sure to listen and well you might as well request to hear Monday Is Coming while you’re there! And do me a favor – When you visit www.upperroomwithjoekelley.com leave Joe a comment thanking him for supporting your friend Dana Rice’s Monday Is Coming!

If you’re wondering how this awesome thing happened, let me tell you that it’s Jayne Olderman, producer and one of the co-writers of Monday Is Coming who is responsible for this magical moment. Have you checked out her website yet? You must do so right away! She’s at www.jayneolderman.com

 

Over 2,000 Views on Facebook

June 16, 2017

My son and I recorded this jazzy version of Monday Is Coming and posted it on Facebook. In under a week the video got 2,000 views! We’re so happy that people are enjoying the song. Please help us bring a few minutes of joy to more people by sharing this post with your friends and family. Let’s go for 3,000 views in the next week.

Here’s to an awesome weekend!

Dana

Sunday Afternoons…

April 23, 2017

Who Wants To Be A Princess?

March 27, 2015 — Leave a comment

I AM A PRINCESS BLACK

This week I finally got the AMAZING Don Thigpen to transcribe my new Gospel Song for children. The song is entitled “I Am A Princess.” Now before you go getting the images of Disney princesses in your mind, THINK AGAIN. I wrote this song after having a conversation with my beautiful goddaughter Zoe who, at the time, was 3yrs old. This kiddo LOVES her some Disney princesses – even though as an African American girl NONE of them (with the exception of Princess Tiana) looks like her.

Here is where the problem comes in. One day I asked Zoe what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said, “I want to be a princess”. I must admit that all kinds of worry came over me. I was worried about what being a princess meant to her especially since the “princesses” she had seen were all from the Disney brand. I was worried because all those princesses are ladies who waited for prince charming to swoop them up and live happily ever after which we ALL know is not based in reality. I worried because those princesses look NOTHING like her (again with the exception of Princess Tiana who because she is new is not on most of the princess things out there). I worried too because clearly my beautiful little goddaughter didn’t know that she was already a princess. Then I remembered that worrying NEVER solves a problem, but PRAYER always does.

So, I prayed for a way to teach Zoe what it really means to be a princess without damaging her childlike love of the Disney princesses. Being the songwriter that I am, of course the answer to my prayer came in a song. I recalled a scripture that I heard from a friend of mine Psalm 45:13 “The king’s daughter is all glorious within”. In that moment I realized that all I needed to do was teach Zoe to sing “I am a princess because my Father’s the king. God in heaven is my Father the king.”

Zoe still loves her Disney princesses, but now she knows that she too is a princess. I hope that little girls all over the world will get to hear this song and understand that they too are princesses.

Join my email list to be notified of the release date for the mp3 and sheet music for “I AM A Princess” by Dana Rice.

I Don’t Wanna Feel…A Song For Trayvon, Mike Brown, and Countless Others

August 22, 2014

Imagine this. You wake up in the morning and start going about your day as usual. Then later in that same ordinary day you learn that YOUR son – who you have loved, fed and clothed everyday for 16, 17, 18 years or more – is violently killed. YOUR unarmed son…was…killed and those who are sworn to serve and protect are doing just that… for… your… son’s… killer.

Right then is when the only thing you feel is pain, a pain so excruciating that your only wish is to not feel this.

I have not had the day described here, but as the mother of a black boy, every time this day happens to these mothers I too feel an intense pain that leaves me with only the desire to NEVER FEEL THIS FEELING AGAIN. Black mothers have been facing this awful feeling for centuries now – and that is a travesty. When I see their sons I see my son. I see my son who is not perfect, but who is loved and who is loving. I see my son who has hopes and dreams and big plans. I see my son who every once in a while still wants a hug from his mom even though he is taller than me and even has a few muscles. I see my son who has a lot to learn and who has a lot of living to do. I see my son who has a lifetime of experiences waiting for him to have. I see my son who changed my life for the better the second he was conceived. When I see their sons dead in the street, their dreams halted, their futures stolen…I see my son.

Regardless of the color of your skin If you can see YOUR son, YOUR brother, YOUR uncle, YOUR cousin when you see THEIR sons then raise your voice with me and let’s do something to stop this so that none of us has to ever feel this feeling again.

Here’s what you can do right now:

When talking to your friends about this issue keep the main thing the main thing – An unarmed teenager is dead.

Share this post to keep the discussion going.

 

Beauty By God: The Story Behind The Song

June 13, 2014

As a child from a single parent home growing up in Mississippi I spent a lot of time with my Grandma. To me she was this strong, funny, genius of a lady who could stretch a dollar from here to kingdom come. I was (and still am) amazed that she birthed and raised 10 kids and still had a heart big enough to love on all the grandchildren those kids gave her.

As an adult the lessons I learned while spending time in my Grandma’s house have proven to be lifelines for me. So when Pam, a friend of mine shared with me her vision for a ministry to women and girls called Beauty By God, I immediately thought of my Grandma. I still call her for advice on all kinds of things, to learn how to cook certain dishes that I’ve never tried, and just to share  few laughs. Anybody who will take the time to listen to you go on and on for hours on the phone about stuff they’ve already tried to tell you but you wouldn’t listen before is the epitome of Beauty By God.

When I think about the sacrifices this lady made, I also think about the millions of other women who make similar sacrifices everyday and never have this beauty celebrated. This thought pressed even harder on my mind recently after hearing of the death of Ruby Dee and that of Maya Angelou a few days earlier. These beautiful women spent much of their lives working to make the beauty in others known through their art and their activism. I had been trying to decide when and how to release this song. Should I try to get a producer to spruce up the music (which would take awhile) or should I go ahead and release it as is?

For me the matter was settled when I learned of Ruby Dee’s passing. You see earlier that day  I was in a store where the salesperson pulled up my customer information and found that it erroneously listed me as having been born in 1922. We laughed about it and then I went home. At home, I checked Facebook messages and discovered the news. In one of the bios that was posted it stated that Ruby Dee was born in 1922. Coincidence? Maybe. At any rate, I offer you Beauty By God in hopes that our definition and understanding of beauty will be enlarged. When you hear the phrase Beauty By God, who do you think of? Tell me in a comment below!

BBG Cover

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