(October 29, 2021) - "I'm a smorgasbord of influences," said Shanachie Entertainment Gospel artist Gene Hoskins about growing-up around music. "As I grew older...I searched out artists that spoke to me, like Mary Mary...Brandy, Tank, Anita Baker...as I got older Ella, even Country music. You may even hear a little Rock because I love Journey ("Open Arms"). They made me want to write."

Gene's mother and grandfather were Pastors. His father was lead singer in a group signed by Vanilla Ice.

"They broke up... I remember going to his rehearsals," Hoskins added about his father.

Signed himself now to Shanachie - one of the finest record labels in the country and home to Jeff Lorber, Pieces of a Dream, Kim Water, Najee, Will Downing and Silk - the Billboard Chart-topper has an October 29, 2021 release of a Deluxe version of his album "Home Coming." The Deluxe version offers three new tracks. Originally released independently in 2020, "Home Coming" reached #14 on Billboard's Gospel Chart with the single "Make It with Jesus."

"I love being a songwriter...and how it comes to me. Sometimes we conform to what is popular," he said about his songwriting process when I asked if being a Psychotherapist helped. "It really does (help)...I'm sensitive to the human condition...what people go through and apply it creatively."

The Charlotte, NC native who owns a Psychotherapist company in Durham, NC released an EP in 2019 titled "Undefeated" which reached #7 on Billboards' Gospel Chart. That EP offered the "Jesus We Love You" single that reached #14 on Billboard. He has toured, as backup singer, for Jonathan Nelson and Maranda Curtis. Gene Hoskins has also appeared as a featured artist on Curtis' "Nobody Like You Lord (Reprised)," Nelson's "I Agree," and Pastor John P. Kee's "I Made it Out (4 Kings Remix)" and "The Lost Song."

"I've been an independent artist for a minute. Shanachie allows me to be creative," he pointed out when asked if there was big label interference in the creative process. Then he laughed a little and said, "But there ‘are' certain things I have to do." www.Shanachie.com www.GeneHoskins.com