Jazz/R&B Keyboardist David Garfield Hits the Country Charts

There is no telling where your career will take you when it spans five decades, but jazz/R&B keyboardist David Garfield never imagined that he'd hit the country charts let alone for a song that he wrote with Motown icon Smokey Robinson. "I Lied," the power pop ballad that they penned, has reached No. 60 on the Music Row singles chart and gained New & Active status on the Billboard Indicator chart. The accompanying video for the track featuring vocalist J. Paris has been added to the playlist at the Heartland Network, "the beating pulse of country music for the nation" reaching over 22 million households.

"It's amazing and we are thrilled to be receiving a lot of country airplay. Smokey and I wrote 'I Lied' with a female singer in mind. It was the second tune we wrote together, and it was just sitting in the archives. It hadn't been recorded. When I began work on (my current project) 'Outside the Box,' I went to Nashville to track the song after hearing a country inflection in the singer's voice when she demoed it for me here in LA. It was always an R&B/pop song, a product of my relationship with Smokey. He's a poet, masterful with his lyrics. When we started writing it, it was like a contemporary pop (song) with a little R&B influence. Like all the other stuff we've been working on, very traditional and fresh at the same time, but nothing in the world of country," said Garfield, a St. Louis native who has been long been anchored in Los Angeles. "These songs have stories, that's the thing. 'I Lied' has such an amazing story to it."

Robinson wrote the storied lyrics and sweeping melody lines for "I Lied." "When I write, let me write something that's going to just mean something for as long as there are people. If I can possibly do it, that's what I want to do," said the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Grammy winner and member of theSongwriter's Hall of Fame.

Garfield and Robinson first wrote together when composing "One Like You" for George Benson's 2009 album, "Songs and Stories." That same year, Garfield, who serves as Benson's longtime music director, performed on Robinson's "Time Flies When You're Having Fun" disc.

"I Lied" will also appear on Garfield's "Vox Outside the Box," part of his ambitious multivolume "Outside the Box" collection showcasing the prolific keyboardist's collaborations with jazz, R&B, rock and pop luminaries. The first set, "Jazz Outside the Box," dropped March 23 on Garfield's Creatchy Records imprint and is his first straight-ahead jazz outing. The first two singles from "Jamming Outside the Box" - "Go Home" and "Jamming" - hit the Billboard Smooth Jazz Songs chart with the former peaking at No. 2 and the latter currently climbing the Top 20. "Jamming Outside the Box" is slated for release this summer.

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