Connie Mims: Press

Neighbors: Mims releases first album in 23 years

After a successful career with seventies phenoms Wheatfield and St. Elmo’s Fire, now comes the long-awaited solo project from Connie Mims. A respected icon in the Houston music scene, and a talented performer, Connie Mims brings her seasoned skills to GO DEEP, a ten-cut collection of her recognizable progressive style. Blending influences from folk, rock, pop, and country, Mims pens the majority of the album and delivers in memorable fashion. Connie Mims has been known for her chameleonic voice, but she stays true to her own sound on this recording, letting fans quite easily fall in love with her artistic side. The opening cut is destined to be a fan favorite. Two-steppers will enjoy the empowering “Cowgirl Up” and lovers will be dedicating “That’s The Way My Love Is” (co-write with Mark Beets) for a long time to come. The title cut exemplifies life as we should all know it, as Mims writes introspectively about finding the higher purpose in all of us. This is the album Connie Mims has always wanted to make. It is an intimate visit between performer and listener and may quickly become your favorite album. It will certainly stay in this reviewer’s player for many more rounds.

By John Parks, Southwest Airlines’ SPIRIT Magazine, December 2007, Eight Diversions, Page 157-8

THE CONCEPT
Longtime Texas singer-songwriter Connie Mims displays her impressive pop/rock chops on her first solo album since 1983.

THE BACKSTORY
Mims wowed audiences throughout the 1970s as a member of such seminal Lone Star State bands as the acoustic Wheatfield and the electrified St. Elmo’s Fire. Both groups enjoyed broad exposure through extensive American touring, highlighted by gigs at L.A.’s Troubadour and performances on the PBS series Austin City Limits. But neither ever achieved the success of other country crossover groups of the time like the Eagles and Poco.

WHAT TO EXPECT
A smooth blend of pop/rock with a light country groove. With help from legendary Texas keyboardist Riley Osbourne, Mims serves up ten songs, mostly self-composed, that range from bluesy ballad “That’s the Way My Love Is” to the high-energy rock of “Anywhere My Heart Goes” to the ethereal, Joni Mitchell-inspired title track, “Go Deep”. For Mims, accessibility matters most in modern music. “I wanted to produce memorable songs that people didn’t have to struggle to understand,” she says. “I just want them to be able to sing along”.

SWEET SOUNDS
Even if you missed her at the Kerrville Folk Festival and other venues around the Southwest, you might have heard her singing the praises of Blue Bell Ice Cream in the company’s classic commercials.

GET IT
December 12th, Canela Records

FACES IN THE CROWD
Woodlands woman brings back the music

“Miss Mims’ voice was as rich and full-perhaps even more so- than in the band’s heyday (Wheatfield, which started in 1973, morphed into St. Elmo’s Fire and was over in 1979). Her covers of Joni Mitchell songs such as “Carey” and “Conversation” were her own, full-bodied and mature”

“When she lets loose, she is a singer to take note of, sounding like nobody’s copy”

“Connie mesmerizes an audience..so much so, in fact, she could sing all night and nobody would mind”.

“Connie Mims’ brilliant vocals in “Miranda” and “Lady Has No Heart” were peaks in the evening”

“She sings with mountain spring clarity-pure and sweet-yet with enough emotional intensity to raise the hair on the back of your neck”