| Conrad Reeder | |
| Birth Name: | Connie S. Reeder |
| Alias: | Fugitive Blonde |
| Birth Date: | 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
| Genre: | Rock, folk, pop, others |
| Occupation: | Recording artist, singer, songwriter, playwright, professor |
| Years Active: | 1974–present |
| Associated Acts: | John Denver, Fugitive Blonde |
Conrad Reeder (born 1954) (also known as Connie Reeder Nichols) is an American singer, songwriter, writer and college professor. She was married to the late producer and recording engineer Roger Nichols for over thirty years.
She was born in Columbus, Ohio, United States.[1] Reeder sang for fifteen years with John Denver in live concerts, on television and recordings including Dreamland Express and It's About Time. She sang live duets with Denver as well as performing as a background singer and stayed in contact with Denver's mother after he died in a plane crash.[2]
She also co-wrote the Denver song "Thanks to You."[3]
Reeder is credited as a writer or co-writer on all tracks of her husband's release, The Roger Nichols Project.[4] She was signed to Motown's Morocco Records in the early 1980s, but the label folded before her first album was released. Reeder led her own band called Fugitive Blonde in Nashville, Tennessee the 1980s and 1990s, with an earlier Los Angeles version titled Big Blonde.[5]
She was a featured columnist and article writer at EQ Magazine [6] in the 1990s, writing as C. Reeder. The column, The Demo Queen, often lampooned the trials involved in the process of recording demo tapes in quest of a record deal.[7] Her writing sometimes takes a serious view of life and love,[8] and a book, Memory Clouds: Good Grief Bad Grief, is available on Amazon.[9] Her plays have been staged in Florida and California (Graffiti).[10]
Reeder graduated in 2008 from the University of New Orleans with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing/Playwrighting. Her thesis, Jack is Dead, was inspired by Denver's accidental death. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Palm Beach State College in Florida.[11] Reeder is currently a Doctoral candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, and is also a lecturing professor at the Maui campus of the University of Hawaii.