BIO
Raised in Walker, Louisiana near Baton Rouge, Ronnie Bell grew up singing in church choirs, performing with George Perkins & The Voices of Harmony and Kenneth Mitchell & The Voices of Praise as a teen, then attending Delta State University and Southern University, where he sang in the Concert Choir. Bell’s first, self-titled, three-song R&B EP was released in 2012, followed by a mixtape, “In My Feelings,” in 2014 and an 8- song, indie R&B EP featuring the title cut “#BBMyself”, in 2015. None of these releases were of interest to southern soul fans.
Meanwhile, as early as 2013, Bell recorded a southern soul single—a smooth, mid-tempo offering—entitled “Cotton Candy,” and it was this tune, not the mainline R&B, that first drew serious audience recognition. A club-jock named DJ Willis from Buddy’s, a small club in Marrero, Louisiana, who did live remotes aired in New Orleans, picked up the song and played it with a vengeance, giving Ronnie his first taste of success in the local Louisiana market. The original YouTube page for “Cotton Candy” went on to accumulate over 14 million page views.
Bell started working on his signature single and masterpiece, “I’ll Pay The Shipping Cost,” in the aftermath of “Cotton Candy’s” new visibility, although he had also recorded versions of it as far back as 2014. Bell’s producer and southern soul mentor, Kim Frost, who in an interview with WMPR Jackson’s DJ Ragman in 2021 Bell called “a genius,” cautioned patience, and “Shipping Cost” was recorded in sections, with Bell admittedly “in the “dark” at times as to how the finished product would sound.
But his faith in Frost was justified. In particular, the introductory and concluding monologues “made” the record, with Bell’s modest, slightlynasal asides to the “ladies” giving it a unique and contemporary relevance in the hashtag era of women’s enpowerment. The womenʼs-powerenhancing “Iʼll Pay The Shipping Cost” became a sensation in the Mobile/Pensacola area, where it topped radio charts for months. “I’ll Pay The Shipping Cost” brought unexpected respect and accolades to the artist, culminating in Ronnie Bell securing a smattering of gigs (mostly Gulf Coast-based) in the prestigious Blues Is Alright Tour along with the top-producing headliners and revenue-producers in the genre.
Covid-19 wiped out those appearances in 2020, and this at a time when Bell had still not published an album of southern soul material. To add to the adversity, Ronnie’s producer Kim Frost had died a little over a year before. As Covid-19 persisted, Ronnie debated delaying his album debut. We talked shortly after and Bell sent me the album. He then thought better of it, and at last, in May of 2020, after almost a decade of paying dues as a fledgling artist, Ronnie Bell released his debut album, 365, later amended to Ronnie Bell 365. The album title comes from a line in Bell’s first southern soul single, “Cotton Candy.”
