Stream: Ricky Reed, Terrace Martin & St. Panther, ‘Real Magic’

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Ricky Reed (Photo by Chantal Anderson)

Except for a couple of singles in 2016 and ’17, Ricky Reed has been the man behind the controls — a Grammy-winning producer who has worked with Lizzo, Maggie Rogers, Twenty One Pilots, Halsey, Leon Bridges and more.

On Aug. 28, though, Reed will release his debut album, “The Room,” via his own Nice Life Recording Co., and we have the COVID-19 pandemic to thank for it.

In mid-March, responding to the stay-at-home order, Reed began doing remote collaborations, work that spawned a twice-weekly series of live streams he titled “NICE LIVE,” which pull back the curtain on the creative process (and, apparently, deplete the producer’s stock of wine). The room-warmer of a new single, “Real Magic,” a collaboration with Terrace Martin and rising singer-songwriter-producer St. Panther, emerged from those.

“When my live-stream collaboration experiment resulted in a song that brought me to tears mid-broadcast, I realized there might be some real magic to be found by simply connecting people who wouldn’t otherwise make music together,” Reed says. “The result is ‘The Room,’ a running record of me trying to stay connected with my community, cope with the terror of pandemic and supply love and energy for the revolution while spending a lot of time looking inward. For me, the music is a warmly lit healing place for us all to gather, zoom out and work through the strangest time of our lives, together.”

The process behind “Real Magic” (see below) speaks to the very existence of real magic. The song even got its title during the live stream after Reed and St. Panther bandied around some ideas and the fans on the chat chimed in. It’s a bear hug of a soul song, and in the absence of many physical ones, it’s sorely needed.

Other collaborators on “The Room” include Leon Bridges, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Lido Pimienta, Duendita, Kiana Ledé and John-Robert.

St Panther, by the way, recently released her second single in as many months, “These Days,” Mad with Mate Mercereau.

||| Watch: The video for “Real Magic”

||| Watch: Nice Live 10 (or how the real magic happened)