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Sometimes a personal tragedy can be turned into a creative triumph. Such is the case with “Run Your Race,” the new song and album from jazz/soul diva and Nashville native Kandace Springs. She wrote the song as a tribute to her late father Kenneth “Scat” Springs, a great singer in his own right who passed away in 2021. “My dad was a track star in college. But he spent the last two years of his life in a wheelchair. After he passed away, I was inspired to write this song, to tell him that I know that he is free now, to run like he used to.” The resulting song is the most personal and heartfelt of Springs’ career, and a fitting centerpiece to her new album Run Your Race, which she says is “absolutely the most personal record I’ve ever made, or ever will make.”

Just a few short years ago, creating music was the furthest thing from Kandace’s mind. Her third album, The Women Who Raised Me – which featured contributions from friends Norah Jones and David Sanborn – was released on March 13, 2020, the very day most of America went on lockdown. While the album won praise from The New Yorker, NPR, DownBeat and numerous other outlets, she was unable to tour behind the album due to the pandemic restrictions. Out of a well-honed sense of survival, she turned to her second passion: cars.

“I’ve always made my own way since getting out of high school,” Kandace says. “I used to park cars for a living, and then I started buying them, fixing them up and selling them. When my career took off, I kept doing it for fun. So when the gigs went away, I just went into flipping cars full time.”

What turned Kandace back to music was her father’s passing.

It all started when Kandace attracted the attention of Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, hitmaking songwriters and producers who had just years before discovered a 15-year-old Rihanna, signed her to their production company, and shepherded her rise to stardom. Within days of hearing Kandace’s demo, Evan was in Nashville meeting her and her family, and a partnership was born that continues to this day.

Kandace moved to New York City so Sturken and Rogers could fully mentor and bring out her talent. One of their first writing collaborations was “Chasing Shadows,” which is brought to life on this album with a simmering groove provided by her long-time rhythm section of drummer Camille Gainer-Jones and bassist Caylen Bryant, and with added spice from flutist Elena Pinder-Hughes (Herbie Hancock).

After being signed to Blue Note Records by chairman Don Was, she appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Kandace could hardly have imagined the next person who would become part of her musical journey: Prince. He saw a video of Kandace covering Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me” and messaged her directly. A week later, she found herself performing with him at Paisley Park for the 30th anniversary of the album Purple Rain. Thus began a close mentorship between Kandace and the “Purple One,” as she still refers to him. They wrote songs and shared thoughts on all things musical.

“Prince told me that I needed to be more true to myself, don’t listen to anybody else, just my own heart. That really stuck with me, and I’ve followed that advice ever since, especially with this new album,” she says. His influence can be heard most clearly with “Closer To Me,” a classic R&B love ballad that brings to mind such Prince classics as “The Beautiful Ones.”

Kandace found herself in front of audiences around the world, in such storied venues as London’s Royal Albert Hall, and at legendary festivals including Newport and Monterey. An appearance with Christian McBride at the Istanbul Jazz Festival led to his appearance on her previous album, The Women Who Raised Me.

The concept and title for “Run Your Race” came to Kandace one day while she was working on one of her classic cars. “All of a sudden I knew what I had to do – write a song for my dad. He was such a huge influence on me, I needed to thank him for it in the only way I could now,” she says. The words and music came tumbling out, and the song was finished in a day. She went right into the studio with her band. Shortly thereafter, the song got its debut in front of a live audience, and the response was immediate and overwhelming. “Literally after every performance, people come up to me with tears in their eyes and tell me how they relate to what the song’s about; often they’ve also lost a family member,” Kandace says. “I guess that means they’re feeling what I feel when I sing it.”

“Citing Nina Simone as her inspiration, Springs evinces a similarly powerful beauty, a satin ‘n sinew verve, though her soul-infused sound more strongly suggests Cassandra Wilson by way of Whitney Houston.” - JazzTimes