Born in Harlem and raised in Brooklyn, Cherokee knew from a very early age that music was a part of every fiber of her being. With a natural affinity for creating and playing music, she began writing poetry and implementing melodies at the early age of 10. By the age of 13 Cherokee had formed her first band, which played a lot of R&B and soul music. By 16 she signed a deal with Morgan Creek Records. But, it certainly didn’t stop there.
Always wanting to take her love of music to the next level, Cherokee moved to Los Angeles where she signed on with manager Herb Trawick, who took Cherokee to RCA in 1999 and landed a production deal. Cherokee was truly on her way to stardom.
Shortly thereafter, her debut album “I Love You…Me” hit the mass market and she was performing on hit shows such as “Soul Train”, “Motown Live”, opening up in Amsterdam for Lauren Hill and Performing in Osaka Japan for the troops. The mainstream media took notice and she was featured in Rolling Stone, Jet, Vogue, Esquire, Billboard, the New York Times and many other media outlets. She even got involved with acting and modeling. She was featured in a large ad campaign for the popular clothing outlet the Gap, which saw her plastered on billboards across nearly a dozen states and a TV commercial for GAP which featured her playing ACDC’s “Back In Black” on guitar.
Her highly anticipated follow up record, “Soul Parade” had her working with a myriad of industry heavyweights including Outkast, Bilal, Jill Scott, Rasaan Patterson, Anthony Hamilton, Floetry and Musiq. This was going to be the record to catapult her into super-stardom.
But, Cherokee was never able to release the album, due to the folding of the division of RCA responsible for the album. She later teamed up with L.A. Reid to complete the project and push the album through Arista Records. But, when that didn’t work out, the completed album was never released and can now be found bootlegged on eBay. It has been sold for as much as $290.00!
Growing tired of the music business and the grind that goes along with it, Cherokee decided to take some time off. She married Grammy Award-winning mix engineer Neal Pogue. Cherokee was determined to focus her time on family and did so for almost 8 years in raising her two children who are now 10 and 8 years old.
But of course, she couldn’t put music down forever. She started using social media outlets such as Myspace.com/face book/Twitter to connect with her audience to get a feel for their interest in a new Cherokee album. What she found was that there was a high interest. She made a return to her passion and has been writing and recording demos. She was introduced to fredCard in 2011 by her husband Neal H. Pogue,
and their mutual love of reggae sowed the seed to form a project “E.D.C” aka “Esprit De Corps”.
Cherokee was lead vocalist/ songwriter (lyrics/melody) and went under the name “Shockmama Cherry” and Card created the music. They began playing local venues and had also played “SXSW” 3 years in a row due to popular demand. However, The pair departed ways within 3 years leaving Cherokee with the realization to focus on her solo career once again.
With many urging her to get back into the studio and record her next album, she wants the music world to know that Cherokee is coming back. And soon. Her goal is for her newest EP to be released in 2015. So, get ready!
