Raymond “K.I.” Nicholas may well be the only bluesman to come out of Grenada. He was born in the village of Prospects in the parish of St. Patrick in the West Indian tropical island country of Grenada. He was one of thirteen children. He grew up listening to reggae, calypso and soca and the Caribbean sound of steel drums.
He taught himself guitar as a kid and built upon the music he grew-up listing to. In the mid-1990′s K.I. traveled to Canada where he played with several African and African Jazz Fusion bands. In twenty years of playing he has soaked up a lot of different kinds of music, but it was when he first found the blues clubs in Toronto that he found the music that would chart his musical course.
Having found his voice in the blues K.I. also found the vision that would chart his musical career. In 2005 after years of traveling, touring, playing backup and lead guitar in bands, and doing solo performances in every size venue throughout Grenada, the Caribbean, and Canada Nicholas launched his recording career in December of 2005 with the release of his first CD entitled Caribbean Vision. The CD represents a blending of his history of musical styles that have brought his vision of the blues to life. All songs were written and composed by KI. He played electric, acoustic and slide guitar, bass and keyboards, as well as singing lead and background vocals.
Nicholas has been steadily building his abilities. He plays electric, acoustic, slide, and bass guitars, drums, piano and more. He has been focusing on writing his own material and is currently working on his next CD, which will be all blues.
