Emerson Hart co-founded Tonic in 1993 and is their lead vocalist and plays rhythm guitar. The band has received two Grammy award nominations and has a Platinum album to their credit. Tonic’s latest release is a single titled “To Be Loved.” On the solo front, Emerson has released 3 solo albums. His latest single is “I Look For You.” Reaching back in our archives, multi-award winning program director Ray White caught up with Emerson in May of 2015 before his solo performance in Myrtle Beach, SC to talk about the transition from the band to his solo work, differances between his music with Tonic and his solo work, his Beauty In Dispair solo album, the latest with Tonic and much, much more. In our showcase segment we feature Toad The Wet Sprockett’s front man Glen Phillips whose latest release is There Is So Much Here. We cover the newer “classic” artists on this epiosde of The CAT!
Ray's passion for music and the musicians, started as a youth listening to transistor radios under the covers at bedtime. The bands and performers he liked, he followed throughout their career. In 2005 he was fed up with the evolution of a majority of the music the radio stations were playing and began investigating the bands he grew up listening to in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. Radio wasn't playing any of those band's "new" songs, just the "classic" hits. Researching the industry for a year, Ray launched Classic Artists Today syndicated radio show - featuring "new" songs by "classic" artists and included interviews and classic tracks too. The show was carried by several dozen radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. Featuring Rock/Pop musicians and bands, Ray and the show won several awards from New Music Weekly magazine. With the success of these shows, he launched Coool CAT syndicated radio show, 5 years later, featuring Soul/R&B/Smooth Jazz/Blues performers and bands. In 2017, Ray starting producing his show in a 30-minute podcast format. Today, you can hear his work at Sittin' In With The CAT and Sittin' In With The Coool CAT. The legacy continues!
