She’s a diamond in the rough

Covelli Centre has seen its share of repeat performers, but nothing like Diamond Nicole.

The R&B singer from Warren will make her third appearance in six months Friday when she’ll serve as one of the openers for Rick Ross.

She also warmed up the stage for Soulja Boy in December and Wiz Khalifa in August.

The budding singer and songwriter is best-known for her single “Only In My Dreams,” which is available on iTunes. The video, featuring Yung Monsta, as well as a “making of the video” video, are on YouTube,

Singing for large crowds has been a priceless experience for Diamond Nicole.

“It’s a wonderful feeling seeing all those people out there, and the energy,” she said.

Not to mention the backstage time. That’s when the opening acts do some career networking with each other. And of course, they get to meet the stars.

Diamond Nicole, a Warren G. Harding High School graduate, is studying mass communications and public relations in an online studies program through Liberty University.

She put out a demo in December, and is working on her first full-length album, which is being recorded at Destiny Studios in Warren. It’s due this summer.

In addition to singing, Diamond Nicole also does some modeling and acting.

But songwriting might be her strong suit, and that’s what she’s focusing on now as she tries to push her career to the next level.

“I’m always writing,” she said. “I’ll wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning with an idea and grab a notebook and write it down. I get in these creative moods sometimes at the most random times.”

Working with her producer, K-Town, Diamond Nicole has written all 12 tracks on her upcoming CD.

Music is in her DNA — her mother is a singer, and most members of her family are musically inclined.

But it was DJ T-Luv of Youngstown radio station JAMZ-101.9 who first noticed Diamond Nicole’s talent while she was an intern at the station not so long ago.

“I was in the studio alone, singing along to whatever song was on, when T-Luv [aka, Tiffany Allen] heard me and asked me if I wanted to do anything with my singing,” she said.

Allen began shepherding Diamond Nicole’s career — which includes all those Covelli Centre slots.

JD EICHER RELEASES VIDEO, WORKS ON NEXT ALBUM

After a successful online fundraising effort, JD Eicher and the Goodnights is wasting no time in preparing its next album.

The band raised 115 percent of its $7,800 goal through Kickstarter, an online fundraising kit for bands.

The band just finished recording at a Maryland studio, and the project is now in the editing phase. A late-April release is planned.

In the meantime, the band released its first official music video, a track from its first record called “Level Out.” Check it out on YouTube.

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE, MAYFIELD IN KENT CONCERT

Tuesday night’s concert by Justin Townes Earle and Jessica Lea Mayfield at The Kent Stage showcased two artists who eventually will join the pantheon of America’s greatest musical voices.

Mayfield is a 21-year-old Kent native and a musical phenom — an old soul who plays slowly and melodically beneath intuitive lyrics.

She’s touring with Earle and said Tuesday’s hometown stop felt weird to her because it comes midtour; she won’t be able to spend any time with her family.

Mayfield’s new album, “Tell Me,” has been leaving critics in awe.

Chris Talbott of the Associated Press describes it as “enchanting and mesmerizing.”

In his review, Talbott writes, “‘Tell Me’ is the portrait of a precocious girl growing into self-assured womanhood. ... It is a dark and moody album, full of delights throughout, and if it doesn’t make Mayfield a star, that ... will be heartbreaking.”

What really made the night a legend in the making, though, was Earle, the hard-living (and quite talkative) folk-Americana singer with a Texas drawl.

Earle is already something of a national treasure.

Backed by a fiddler and an upright bass, he created a sound that was absolutely timeless.

Between songs, he kept the audience rapt with stories of his sordid drug-fueled past, delivered with the charm of a Southern gentleman.

Like the final chapter of a classic novel, Earle closed the night by drawing on two others who hold loftier perches in American music.

He dismissed his bandmates and played sad-eyed solo versions of Bruce Springsteen’s “Racing In the Street” and Paul Westerberg’s (of The Replacements) “Can’t Hardly Wait.”