This week’s Spotlight is on Maurice Daniels, an up-and-coming country artist known as CBR, Country Boy Reese. CBR grew up in Springtown SC, son of Ernestine Daniels who goes by Cookie. He has two sisters, Latrell Daniels and Kimberly Daniels. He went to school in Ruffin, Smoaks, North Side and Bells. CBR graduated from Collison County High as a Cougar. Reese was never really into sports but really enjoyed music as a youth. He says, “A lot of my musical talent comes from my mom, as a kid, I was a part of the choir, at Springtown United Methodist Church. I was part of the singing choir, as well as the praise team. Later me and a bunch of my cousins put together a small rap group. We were young at the time but felt that we had the talent and the creativity.”
After high school, CBR went to serve his country in the United States Marine Corp. Training at Parris Island, he said, “I did four years. I went in at 18, two weeks after I graduated, I enlisted, and I was off to Parris Island. Upon completing all my training, I went overseas to Japan to my first duty station where I stayed a year and a half. I traveled a lot while over there. When I came back stateside for a while then went to Afghanistan, and finished out in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. My primary MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) when I enlisted in the Marine Corps, was food service. I went to culinary training schools and did extra training to learn how to deal with working in the field.”
After his four years of services CBR returned home. He says, “When I first came back home, I took on some cooking jobs, at one point I was working three jobs at once. Then I realized that I had some talent and decided to do something with it. A couple buddies of mine were still in the area that I used to do music with, so we linked up and got back together and started creating more music. We did the whole rap, hip hop and even experimented with Battle Rap. A lot of those guys were better at it than I was. It was just something to experiment and try. I just always had a passion for music and was just trying to be able to create a sound that people would be willing to listen to.”
After trying various forms of music, CBR has found his passion in county music. He says, “So the transition for me into country music was just me wanting to try something different. I wanted to kind of harmonize and play with my voice a little bit more to give it that more creative feel. One of my singles “To Whom It May Concern”, came to me naturally. A voice went off in my head, I heard it, and I just went and started searching for beats. Once I find that beat, I kind of allow the beat to talk for itself, especially if it's a nice beat and it has a nice melody. I like to hear what the beat is saying. So that way, once I add my lyrics on top, they can work together and make a masterpiece.”
CBR is a fan of story songs, “I love stories, I love to be able to tell not only my story, but a story. One of the great things that I did learn from the military was in boot camp, we always had to speak in third person. You're no longer me or I. You know, you have to refer to yourself in third person, Sir. This recruit is hungry, this recruit is thirsty, and it gave me an insight on taking myself out of the equation. I don't want to make it all about me anymore, so I want to be able to tell my story, but in a way, anybody that ever had any glimpse of what I'm speaking on is going to be able to relate, and what I want to do is not only to relate, but to give you that sense of relief to where you know you're not alone. Whether it's the loss of a loved one, a pet, a job, everyone's taken a loss. I wanted to be able to pull on everybody heartstrings.”
This is not CBR’s first video, he says, “I had a few music videos that I've shot in the past, nothing of this magnitude. This one was different because it was more mellow and laid back. One of the things that we knew was the visual had to be able to match with what I was saying. We needed that story to just flow. So what we thought of when we were constructing it was, let’s make it as simple as possible, and with the simplicity of what we're doing, we were aiming to grab everybody's attention. We started working probably, like a little bit before noon, and we didn't end till, you know, the sun was going down. We put in a full day's work.” The work paid off with an impressive video. The link is at the end of the story.
Reese is working on an album, “I have an album in mind. I have a substantial body of work to where I can compose an album. I'm not too eager to run out and do it. It's something that's actually in the works and that I'm working on right now. I just want to give a taste of myself and just let everybody warm up to what's going on with the new sound.” CBR not only gets his sound from artist such as Morgan Wallen and Teddy Schwimm but also steps back to the influence of Marvin Gaye, Al Greene, and Otis Redding.
He does play locally, “I've done a few local shows, and I have a few more that's in the works right now. A lot of people can see my music, you can check me out on Facebook. You can look me up, Maurice Daniels, and find my page, and you can find all of the other links to all of my other social media platforms, but mostly right now, you definitely can find all of the music on Facebook and on YouTube.”
Reese says his family is really supportive of his music, “The family loves it. My youngest nephew knows my songs in and out. I know my mother is very thrilled and it makes me happy that I'm able to give her that. I have five kids and they love the music when I rap, because even when I rapped, I had a positive message. When I was doing the rap and hip hop, my kids and nephews all knew my songs.”
We asked CBR what he would say to the youth of Colleton County, he said, “I would tell them to be patient and trust the process. I was one of those people at one point in time. I used to talk trash about Colleton County. “I can't wait to get out of Walterboro and then I realized that I was just as much a part of the problem. Because you need to acknowledge that there is a problem. So to be able to break that generational curse and cycle, that’s one of my main goals, to try and give back to the youth. Especially the misguided youth, and let them know, you know, just be patient and trust the process.”
I asked CBR where he would like to see himself in 10 years, he took a moment and said, “I definitely want to see myself in a position to do great things. It's been a long time coming, and I know 10 years is a long time to go, but one thing that I know for certain is that I've already got more years behind me than in front of me. I hope that I’m in a position to where I can have a following, especially youth, believing in what I have to say. I want them to understand that you can get there.”
You can check out CBR’s new video, “To Whom It May Concern” on his Facebook Page.
https://youtu.be/bdNXPlwcoKY?si=P04qRcObmkwNvwqu
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=30891286557121772&set=pcb.30891391920444569
