Speaking to My Soul

My D.C. roots foretold the foundational love I have for funk, soul, R&B and other expressions of Black music culture. I remember how as kids we gravitated toward the music that spoke to our souls long before we really understood the political and commercial realities driving what was available to us. In the D.C. suburbs of my youth, we had basically two radio station choices for contemporary music -- if you chose WEAM broadcasting from VA, you were choosing the country-tinged white pop music of the day, but if, like me, you listened to WPGC, broadcasting from the south-eastern suburbs of Prince Georges County MD, you grew up steeped in national soul music as well as the local DC variants like Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers. (BeatConscious.org for more...)

If that’s the path you ended up on, the greatest treat for your ears these days is to find the modern practitioners of these arts, carrying on the tradition with nu-soul / R&B flavored releases. This show’s for you.