BAKED gnocchi served with a rainbow of roasted beetroot and walnut cream alongside butternut squash and almond cream…how delicious does this sound?

Well if you like the sound of the dish, you might just enjoy the music from Lady Nade’s new album: Safe Place.  

After chatting to Lady Nade, who is currently touring the UK, I discovered that she doesn’t only love music – she loves food too. And she creates recipes to eat while listening to certain songs.

So how did this unusual passion begin?

At the age of 14, Lady Nade began a mentoring scheme with Bristol Plays Music. A scheme which gave her a chance to perform as part of a group and to other like-minded musicians.

She said: “The mentoring scheme was a fundamental part of my career. I love writing songs, this is my favourite part of being an artist.”

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One night, Lady Nade took part in Eddie Martin’s Open Mic Night.

“I was so nervous for my first performance, I ran to the bathroom and was sick. But after I performed the room erupted and I realised this was exactly what I wanted to do” she explained.

Today, Lady Nade is an establish Jazz artist who is on a Spring/Summer tour supporting Elles Bailey and Yola. This Bristol based artist is coming to Bridgwater on March 21.

Her career has been incredibly successful. Her first album, Hard to Forget, was released in 2016. This focussed on grief – an emotion linked to the gut, which gave Lady Nade the idea to find recipes to comfort the gut and help the grief.

Lady Nade explained: “I am super excited about this album. My first album came out in 2016 and in 2017 I vowed to write a song a week and I did, pretty much. In 2018, I met with my producer and we chose the best songs to include in my new 2019 album – Safe Place.

“For me, this album is about creating a safe place for people to enjoy music. It is about celebrating the good times and speaks mainly of hope and comfort.”

Recently, Lady Nade sang songs from this album at Spike Island Café in Bristol – it was an “eat my album night” she explained.

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She matched three recipes to the album: An Autumn Daiquiri (Ain’t One Thing), Gnocchi (Safe Place) and Chocolate Honeycombe Mousse (Sweet Honey Bee).

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Guests enjoyed the food while Lady Nade sang songs from her new album – what a wonderful combination!

“I love food, I am a massive foodie” she commented. “I associate gnocchi with the first song, Safe Place, because I think of potatoes as a comfort food. My song sweet honeybee gave me the idea for the dessert: honeycomb mousse.

“I have a dream to be able to cook a meal and then play music for my guests – I think it’s a really good combination.”

One of the main focuses of Lady Nade’s song writing (besides food of course) is focusing on social, cultural and economic ideals when writing and singing. She focuses on charity gigs and workshops to support causes she would like to help, such as breast cancer awareness, dementia charities and even more.

“I find that music is really powerful” she explained. “I have always been involved in charity gigs.

“I believe music is really healing and to be able to contribute to charities gives me a huge amount of purpose.”

Of course, Lady Nade’s future plans involve more charity gigs and albums to raise money. She is thinking about collaborating with someone who designs tattoos for women recovering from breast cancer.

There are also plans for Lady Nade to release and album called Hearts and Minds and all the funds will go directly to helping Dementia patients.

“I find it so rewarding helping people through music” she said.

Lady Nade is performing at Bar Brunel in Bridgwater on March 21. Throughout May, she is then touring with Yola around the UK and will be performing in places such as Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London.