Rock star gives students a start
Pop star Richard Marx has just released his fifth album, Flesh and Bone, and is also leading an arts initiative campaign at high schools across the United States.
Run in conjunction with the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Foundation and Apple Computers, it aims to give students the opportunity to explore their creativity and career potential in a variety of artistic fields.
It also provides exposure for their creative endeavours.
From more than 1,000 contributions from high schools, Marx has given 10 students the chance to appear in a booklet, which includes short stories, poems, photographs and artwork.
Another CD and book, showcasing a broader selection of the students' music and art will be released later this year.
Marx will also headline at careers days and donate proceeds from the sales of the first single from Flesh And Bone - Until I Find You Again - to the NARAS Foundation.
In addition, he will produce five songs submitted by students on the Marx/NARAS Foundation project.
It's been three years since Marx's first hit song, Now And Forever, spent 11 weeks at the top of the international charts.
Flesh And Bone was produced by Marx and recorded between late 1995 and December 1996, in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
The album represents a purge for Marx personally and a maturation professionally. He shows a softer, more romantic side on the acoustic pop but also bridges the gap between groove, riff-rock and R 'n' B.
He weaves elements of the passionate and powerful late-1970s and early-1980s urban sound he revered as a teenager into his own singer-songwriter style.
It seems Marx is listening to the beat of his own heart with some of his new songs.
The set features 12 romantic pop ballads including a heart- wrenching torch song, Until I Find You Again and the R 'n' B influenced Fool's Game and, Touch Of Heaven.
There is also You Never Take Me Dancing, a tribute to American disco kings Earth, Wind and Fire.
