Rika Fanning: Gospel Soul Series at Natalie's Grandview

The Gospel Soul Series continues on the Music Hall Stage at Natalie's Grandview on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at 6:00 p.m., with Rika D. Fanning as featured artist. Host Debra James Tucker coordinates the series each month.

Fanning was raised in Columbus in a family of church musicians and started writing her own songs as a teenager. She has picked up five Kingdom Image Awards across 2020, 2023 and 2025 in album, artist, instrumentalist and producer categories, and leads her own band, SOUL N~ER~G, pronounced soul energy. She is also a working bassist, currently playing for Grace Apostolic Church and for choirs, schools and groups around the country. Her latest single, "Don't You Ever Cry the Blues," came out in December 2025.

Tucker brings serious credentials of her own: training in jazz, classical and gospel, an Ohio Arts Council award for her one-woman show Survival of the Boulevard Singer, and time teaching African American gospel history at Denison University.