Tha Artivist Presents...  

Celebrating 3 Years Strong & Still Got It Going On

January 2010 Theme: Living Legacies...

Air Date: Weds. January 27, 2010

E-mail: r2c2h2@gmail.com

Time: 9 PM C/10 PM E/7 PM P

Call-in Number: 646-652-4593

Listen To The Show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/01/28/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Topic: Putting Country Back In The Black: Meet Wild Bill Young...Country Music's Next Superstar...

1.) Bro. Wild Bill Young

2.) Bro. Danny Brown

Can A Black Lawyer Make A Black Singer A Country Music Star – In St. Louis?

By Rebecca S. Rivas Of The St. Louis American

December 10, 2009 4:59 AM CST

The Brain Trust: Attorney Daniel R. Brown, Wild Bill Young & Willie Woods

Willie Woods, music producer with Wristfactor Music, had only heard of one black country singer. It was that one famous guy, he said – “Charley something” (Charley Pride, that is).

His producing career has been devoted to R&B and hip-hop artists, such as Nelly, Nappy Roots and Pretty Willy. He was a co-producer on Nelly’s song “Ride with Me” and Nappy Roots’ “Po’ Folks.”

Then he met Wild Bill Young.

He remembers when a friend brought Young into the studio. Woods was working at the computer with his back turned. But when Young started to sing a few bars, Woods said he stopped and turned around.

“I was amazed at the voice coming out of this guy,” Woods said. “I thought, ‘This guy is the real deal.’”

In his 10 years in the business, Woods never thought he’d be producing country music. But now he finds himself excited to catch the next train to Nashville.

Video: Wild Bill Young~Next Train To Nashville
http://www.youtube.com/v/L8XYcM0_H3A&hl=en_US&fs=1&

Although it’s not common to see an African-American country singer, Woods thinks the market is ready for Wild Bill Young. Already artists such as Darius Rucker, the former front man for Hootie & the Blowfish, and Rissi Palmer are getting black faces in the country music scene. Rucker won the 2009 Country Music Association’s “New Artist of the Year” award.

In the next few weeks, Young, Woods and Daniel R. Brown, an attorney with Bosley and Associates, will all travel to Nashville to test the market with their St. Louis product.

‘Next Train to Nashville’

About two years ago, after Woods and Young had recorded a few songs together, Woods moved to Los Angeles and the two friends lost touch.

In the meantime, former St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley Jr. heard Young’s music and became a big fan. Now in private practice, Bosley knew his new staff attorney, Danny Brown, had interest in combining his legal work with his passion for music.

Brown said Bosley told him, “If you don’t get with Bill, you’re going to miss out on the real deal.”

That was two years ago.

“In terms of business, I can’t think of anyone that I’ve spent more time with,” Brown said. “We’ve spent literally hundreds of hours down here in the office recording music.”

At Bosley and Associates, a tiny closet nestled in between lawyers’ offices has a drum set stacked up in the back and egg crate cushions pinned up on the walls.

Like Woods, Brown never thought he would get so involved in a country music project, but he can’t help it. He believes in Young.

“The first song that Bill and Willie recorded was ‘Next Train to Nashville,’ and now that Nashville has been calling, we’re literally looking to get on the next train to Nashville to make this thing what we all know it can be,” Brown said.

Prison country blues

As a kid, Young, now 45, grew up listening to classic country singers, like Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and George Jones. “I used to sing with my old man on the highway; he was a trucker,” Young said.

His mother influenced him to take guitar lessons. He wrote his first song, “Next Train to Nashville,” in 1995.

But he feels his confidence came from a six-month stint he spent in a Missouri prison.

“I sang every night,” Young said. “Eighteen songs a night, seven days week. The inmates would bang on stuff and create a disturbance until I sang.”

It’s hard to get people in a cheery mood when they are going through some tough times in their lives, Young said.

“We did that through country music,” he said. “I’ve got a lot of guys who are counting on me to continue on.”

Like Young, Brown came up playing music – in his case, jazz drums.

Brown said, “So I’m able to use my natural love for music and combine with my legal career and – with Bill – take this thing to the top.”

Brown tracked down Woods, who had since returned to St. Louis, and offered his law office as a modified studio space.

“Though he was not in the production business, he had such an interest in music that he just rolled up his sleeves and got involved and did what we needed to do to fill the gap,” Young said of Brown.

Universal language

People don’t expect an African American to perform country music. Young said, “You can tell the comments made world-wide. It seems like foreign to nature.”

Yet in a country music encyclopedia, he read that one of the first stars of country music was a black man named DeFord Bailey. He helped name the Grand Ole Opera.

“So when I learned that, all those stereotypes and stigmas that go along with being colored and singing country music – it didn’t matter to me,” Young said.

Growing up, Young didn’t have a lot of black country singers to look up to. A lot of his favorite singers were white.

“To this day, it doesn’t matter to me what color they are,” Young said. “Music is a universal language.”

In the next couple weeks, Young, his producer and his lawyer will head to Nashville, taking a demo CD with them. Young will play in a few venues along the main strip in Nashville.

“We’ll play any opportunity we get,” Young said. “We’re going down there to do it like it used to be done.”

Growing up an ambitious African-American man in St. Louis, Brown found that people often have underestimated him. He said, “If I got upset every time someone underestimated me, I’d walk around angry all the time.”

But in the case of his new country music client, Brown sees that as an advantage.

Brown said, “People assume that because he’s a black man, they don’t expect much. Once they hear, they are convinced Will Young is the authentic thing.”

Visit Wild Bill Young's Official Website:

http://www.wildbillyoung.com/

****

Want More???

Want To Hear More Tha Artivist Presents…W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio??? Click On The Following Link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe

E-mail Us Your Questions And Comments @ r2c2h2@gmail.com

Follow W.E. A.L.L. B.E. On...
Twitter
http://twitter.com/weallbe

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/r2c2h2

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/r2c2h2

As Always Please Spread The Good News!!!

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio

January 2010 Theme: Living Legacies...

Topics:

1st Hour

1.) On Haiti, King, Obama, Race, Religion & Other Matters: A Conversation With The Honorable Rev. C.T. Vivian

***

2nd Hour

2.) 2010: What's Going On? An Open Town Hall Forum

Summary:

 http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/01/1202010-9-pm-c10-pm-e-we-all-be-radio.html

Air Date: Weds. January 20, 2010

E-mail: r2c2h2@gmail.com

Time: 9 PM C/10 PM E/7 PM P

Call-in Number: 646-652-4593

Listen To The Show:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/01/21/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

Topics:

1st Hour

1.) On Haiti, King, Obama, Race, Religion & Other Matters: A Conversation With The Honorable Rev. C.T. Vivian

{Rev. C.T. Vivian }

A Living Legend Of The Civil Rights Movement

Rev. C. T. Vivian is a living legend of the Civil Rights Movement and he continues his activism today, tirelessly working for the progress of African Americans and the civil and political rights of all peoples. An uplifting speaker, he has addressed audiences in 42 states, 10 countries, and on countless campuses nationwide on the issues of civil rights, non-violence, racism and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with whom he worked for many years.

A Baptist minister, his first use of non-violent direct action was in 1947, to end Peoria's segregated lunch counters. Later he founded the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, organizing the first sit-ins there in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. Rev. Vivian was a rider on the first "Freedom Bus" into Jackson, Mississippi, and in 1963 went on to work along-side Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on his Executive Staff in Birmingham, Selma, Chicago, Nashville. the March on Washington; Danville, Virginia; and St. Augustine, Florida. Two years later, in an incident that would make national news, Vivian confronted Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the Selma courthouse during a voter registration drive. After an impassioned speech by Vivian, Clark struck him on the mouth, portraying Clark to the world as a racist. During the summer following the Selma Movement, Rev. Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships. The program later became Upward Bound.

Rev. Vivian has been featured as an activist and an analyst in the civil rights documentary, "Eyes on the Prize," and has been featured in a PBS special, "The Healing Ministry of Dr. C. T. Vivian." He has made numerous appearances on "Oprah" as well as the "Montel Williams Show" and "Donahue." Rev. Vivian is the focus of the biography, Challenge and Change by Lydia Walker and he is author of Black Power and the American Myth, which was an Ebony Book Club Selection.

His leadership positions have included: Chairman of the Southern Organizing Committee Education Fund, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the Black Action Strategies and Information Center (BASIC), and the Center for Democratic Renewal.

Vivian recently launched a new organization (Churches Supporting Churches) in response to the help needed for the victims and churches affected by Hurricane Katrina.

An eloquent and inspiring speaker, Rev. Vivian continues to speak out for racial justice and democracy.

***

2nd Hour

2.) 2010: What's Going On? An Open Town Hall Forum

****

Want More???

Want To Hear More Tha Artivist Presents…W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio??? Click On The Following Link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe

E-mail Us Your Questions And Comments @ r2c2h2@gmail.com

Follow W.E. A.L.L. B.E. On...
Twitter
http://twitter.com/weallbe

Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/r2c2h2

Myspace
http://www.myspace.com/r2c2h2

As Always Please Spread The Good News!!!

W.E. A.L.L. B.E. Radio

Celebrating 3 Years Strong & Still Got It Going On

January 2010 Theme: Living Legacies...

Topic: Continuing The Family Business...Clifford "Brownie" Brown III Speaks

!

Summary:

http://weallbe.blogspot.com/2010/01/weds1132010-9pm-cstwe-all-be-radio.html

Air Date: Weds. January 13, 2010

E-mail: r2c2h2@gmail.com

Time:

9 PM C/10 PM E/7 PM P

Call-in Number: 646-652-4593

Listen To The Show:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/weallbe/2010/01/14/Tha-Artivist-PresentsWE-ALL-BE-News-Radio

About Clifford Brown III:
Clifford Brown III has spent his life worshiping and appreciating the music gods. Carrying on the legacy of his grandfather, jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Clifford Brown Sr., this California bred musician has recognized, acknowledged and demonstrated his role in the global neo-jazz movement. Never bound by the east coast, west coast definitions of horn sounds that have limited previous generations, Clifford has found his unique niche in the movement allowing him to transcend traditional jazz- bebop values and explore new universes of audio amalgamation. Influenced by the generations of trumpet lions like Fats Navaro, Clifford Brown Sr., Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Roy Eldridge, Roy Hargrove and Ingrid Jensen to name a few. Clifford is poised to carry on the traditions of this lineage and the progression of musical identity by working closely with key talent both foreign and domestic. Clifford is a Waves Labs certified mix engineer, professionally trained Propellerhead Reason Producer, DigiDesign ProTools | HD Certified Operator in both music and post production disciplines, and an award winning musician.
http://www.myspace.com/cliffordbrown

The Original Brownie: Jazz Legend Clifford Brown
(10/30/1930-06/26/1956)

About Clifford Brown:
"Clifford was a profound influence on my personal life. He showed me that it was possible to live a good, clean life and still be a good jazz musician."

--Sonny Rollins

Clifford Brown received his first trumpet from his father on entering senior high school in 1945 and joined the school band shortly afterward. It was not until a year or so later that the mysterious world of jazz chord changes and improvisation began to shed its veil for Brownie. A talented musician and jazz enthusiast named Robert Lowery was credited by Brownie for the unveiling.

The teen-aged trumpeter began playing gigs in Philadelphia on graduating in 1948. That same year, he entered the University of Delaware on a music scholarship, but there was one slight snag: the college happened to be momentarily short of a music department.

Brownie remained there a year anyway, majoring in mathematics, and taking up a little spare time by playing some Philadelphia dates with such preeminent bop figures as Kenny Dorham, Max Roach, J.J. Johnson and Fats Navarro. He acquired considerable inspiration and encouragement from Navarro, who was greatly impressed with the youngster's potentialities.

After the year at the University of Delaware, Brownie had a chance to enter a college that did boast a good music department, namely Maryland State. They also had a good 16-piece band, and he learned a lot about both playing and arranging until one evil evening in June 1950 when, on his way home from a gig, he was involved in the first of three automobile accidents, the last of which was to prove fatal.

For a whole year in 1950-51, Clifford Brown had plenty of opportunity for contemplation but precious little for improving his lip. It took just about a year, plus some verbal encouragement from Dizzy Gillespie, to set him back on the path from which he had been so rudely sideswiped.

He had his own group in Philly for a while, then joined the Chris Powell combo, with which he was working at Cafe Society when his first date with Lou Donaldson was cut. There followed a stint with Tadd Dameron in Atlantic city, after which he joined Lionel Hampton, touring Europe with him in the fall of 1953. In 1954 Brownie won the Down Beat critics' poll as the new star of the year. Moving out to California, he formed an alliance with Max Roach that was to last until death broke up the team.

Fortunately, it need not be said that Clifford Brown died unhonored or unsung. during his last two years, he enjoyed a degree of recognition almost commensurate with what he deserved. To point out that this recognition could have brought him to the pinnacle of jazz fame in a few years is to stress the obvious.

--From the liner notes,
Clifford Brown Memorial Album
Blue Note

Celebrating 3 Years Strong & Still Got It Going On

January 2010 Theme: Living Legacies...

Topic:

Mid-South Men's Forum Preview