Smokie Norful

It's an old adage that where there's smoke, there's fireáand the debut release from EMI Gospel's Smokie Norful, I Need You Now, is proof positive of that. With a voice that both soothes and excites, and a songwriter's pen that runs the gamut of much of modern popular music, Smokie Norful arrives alive and on fire. An incendiary live performer, Smokie has drawn great responses from both churched and unchurched audiences for music he terms "urban/inspirational." "Music is a power - it's a force," he says. By the age of two, Smokie had already begun picking out melodies on a child's toy piano, and by four, he had graduated to a full-fledged upright piano in his father's church. Singing also came readily to Smokie. As he recalls it, "I just opened my mouth and there it was." Smokie was the #1 Gospel Artist of 2003 on the Billboard charts and in October 2004, Smokie's latest release, Nothing Without You, was released on EMI Gospel.