Valerie Simpson, Roberta Flack, Deniece Williams, Tawatha Agee and Klymaxx will all be members of the Women Songwriters Hall Of Fame inaugural class this year. Jeri Keever “Bunny” Hull, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Veryl Howard and two more women are also part of the list of inductees. The WSHOF’s mission is to “Honor women whose work represents the heritage and legacy of the world’s music songbook.” The induction ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C. at the National Museum Of Women In The Arts on June 25th. Tickets are on sale to attend the event in person as well as virtually and can be purchased here. 

Terri Lyne Carrington releases her cover of Ashford and Simpson’s “Somebody Told A Lie” from her Mosaic Project: Love And Soul album for Women’s History Month. Carrington created her own arrangement of the song from Ashford and Simpson’s Come As You Are album and was able to collaborate with Valerie Simpson on her version.  Simpson sang on the song and gave her approval: “She gave it another treatment and that’s what a songwriter wants—you want a new treatment, it already exist in its old form, so why do that again.  She took it to a whole new place, I love it.”

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Kindred The Family Soul and Valerie Simpson share “A Couple Friends” in the mode of a moving photo album that never ends.