Homemade Jamz Blues Band

Homemade Jamz Blues Band, the youngest blues band in America, recently released its third album, The Game, sharing a new generation of blues music with listeners. The group consists of three siblings: lead guitarist and vocalist Ryan Perry, 18, bass guitarist Kyle Perry, 16, and drummer Taya Perry, 12. Inspired by musicians such as B.B. King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Muddy Waters, these young artists are making their mark.

"I had the love of blues at a young age," said Perry, citing his dad's influence. "I picked up a guitar and naturally blues is what I wanted to go into."

Homemade Jamz Blues Band has performed in Europe and in the Caribbean. Perry enjoys the adventure.

"I love the feeling of letting other people listen to our music and seeing their reaction," he said. "I love experiencing different things, tasting new food, traveling as a tourist - all is an education within itself."

The band was named winner of the Blues Music Award for best band/combo this year.

Perry said the group's latest album "has lots of hip country music, old school sounds, new style blues, nice upbeat tracks; young or old audiences will find something to enjoy about this music."

Perry hopes this album will travel further than the first two albums, Pay Me No Mind and I Got Blues For Ya. He also hopes for a steadier lineup of tour dates to promote the album. For now, Perry and the band are focusing on a fourth album, to be released in 2011.

As far as the music industry, Perry hopes to reach as many people as he can. The group will continue releasing albums and collaborating with fellow artists, keeping the blues and African- American heritage alive.

Fans can find more information about the band at www.hmjamzbluesband.com.

Up 'til Dawn Presents: Poetry for Kids

Jackson State University’s “Up ‘til Dawn” fundraising program along with the Delta Phi chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. hosted an event for St. Judes Children’s Research Hospital called “Poetry for Kids” last Thursday at Koinonia coffee house. Koinonia, which is located on 136 S. Adams Street, brought in many JSU students as well as campus organizations such as the poetry group “Outspoken.” During the event, audience members read poems that patients had written and Outspoken performed original pieces.

Up ‘til Dawn’s assistant director Jermaine Jones is senior computer engineering major from Jackson, Miss. This 21-year-old says that Up ‘til Dawn is active in at least 100 schools across the nation, ten of them being HBCU’s. Jones spoke about how the program raises money.

“Our main way of fundraising is the letter writing campaign,” said Jones. “We send those letters out at the end of the year asking for donations.”

Prior to the event, Up ‘til Dawn had went to Memphis for a retreat and visited St. Judes. There, they found the patient’s poems from A-Z on a wall. Jones talked about the significance of these poems.

“The poems were so powerful,” said Jones. “They were a true testament to feelings and emotions of the kids.”

Jones believes that the Poetry for Kids event was definitely a learning experience, giving attendees a first hand view from the patients and how they feel about the hospital. He believes that these are real positive kids even though they had catastrophic diseases. More needs to be done about the awareness of St. Judes events. So I am writing a story on this event for the C.L. to be published soon. JSU students, as well as Jackson citizens should live by one word-give, give, give! Make donations and give what you can.

Twista-The Perfect Storm

This past week at the Clarion Ledger was very rough. The managing editor, Don Hudson, was fired, along with other employees because of budget cuts. On a brighter note, I got back to my regularly routine, went to hiphoppress.com, called some HR people, and set up an interview with the fastest rapper alive-Twista.

Twista is releasing a new album entitled "The Perfect Storm" which will be released November 9th. This album features the hit song "Make a Movie" featuring R & B superstar Chris Brown. Twista is known for making highly anticipated albums and delivering a monster-like flow in his raps.

The interview went well. I am working on the story now. Will "The Perfect Storm" album live up to the success of  Twista's previous albums? Well, I guess his fans will be the judge of that.

Oct. 25th-Lil' Wayne "I am not a human being" album review

This week at the Clarion Ledger was not as productive as I thought it would be. I had a very hard time trying to come up with more story ideas. So I decided to just to another album review. What better artist is there to review an album for other than rapper Lil' Wayne and his recent release "I am not a human being?'

This album I plan to approach it differently than the Trey Songs album review. I plan to put more of myself and my thoughts/opinions about the album rather than stating the obvious. I also plan to compare this album to Wayne's previous albums. I  will compare the variety of artists used in this album compared to previous albums as well as the lyrical content of the tracks that stand out the most. When reading the review, I want to make the reader feel as if they had listened to the whole album and have a clear understanding of what it entails. I want the review to stand out so much that even non-Lil' Wayne fans would want to read it and buy an album. Words definitely have the power to persuade.

"Right Above it" is a track on the album featuring rapper Drake and is frequently being played on the radio. Hopefully I make this album review a well written album review. Below is the album's tracklist

1. “Gonorrhea” feat. Drake
2. “Hold Up” feat. T-Streets
3. “With You” feat. Drake
4. “I Am Not a Human Being”
5. “I’m Single” feat. Drake
6. “What’s Wrong With Them” feat. Nicki Minaj
7. “Right Above It” feat. Drake
8. “Popular” feat. Lil Twist
9. “That Ain’t Me” feat. Jay Sean
10. “Bill Gates”
11. “YM Banger” feat. Jae Millz, Gudda Gudda, and Tyga
12. “YM Salute” feat. Lil Twist, Lil Chuckee, Gudda Gudda, Jae Millz, and Nicki Minaj

Oct. 16th-Trey Songz "Passion, Pain, and Pleasure" Album Review

My fourth week at the Clarion Ledger went well. After I finished the Lou Writer spotlight, I began looking at album reviews. I looked online at a site called "HipHopDX" and looked at some album reviews there. They had a great variety of artists from "John Legend" to "The Roots" to "Lil' Wayne." An employee there named Nickalaus Lovelady gave me some advice about writing album reviews.

Lovelady said to never begin an album review with a quote or a lyric from a song. He also said to never describe the songs in order. Mix the songs up. Chances are the most hype song is not the number one song on the album.

01. Here We Go Again (Interlude)
02. Love Faces
03. Massage
04. Alone
05. Bottoms Up (Feat. Nicki Minaj) | MUSIC VIDEO
06. Pain (Interlude)
07. Can’t Be Friends | MUSIC VIDEO
08. Please Return My Call
09. Made To Be Together
10. Pleasure (Interlude)
11. Red Lipstick
12. The Usual (Feat. Drake)
13. Doorbell
14. Passion (Interlude)
15. Unfortunate
16. Blind
17. You Just Need Me

Lovelady also said to put yourself into the review, meaning put your thoughts into it. Say what tracks you like and say what tracks you don't like. He said to NEVER review ALL of the songs on the album. A good album review is one that you could read about an artist you've never heard of and it makes you want to buy their album.

This advice gave me the stepping stone I needed to start my album review. Overall, the album deserves an A grade. The album is split into three sections-Passion, Pain, and Pleasure, and features artists such as "Drake," and "Nicki Minaj." My favorite song on the track is 'Unusual,' featuring Drake. I have listened to the entire album and I am ready to begin reviewing. I hope Lovelady's advice come's in handy.

Spotlight on Lou Writer-"A Writer's Dream"

My third week at the Clarion Ledger was not as productive as I hoped it would be. I kept looking for possible story ideas. I contacted Ice Cube's PR person to schedule an interview regarding his new CD release "I am the West," but they did not reply back yet. However, I just found out that rappers Bun B and Trina will be in Jackson, Miss., at the AAC at Jackson State University for a concert. My plan is to cover the concert and interview both of them. In the meantime, since I could not find a story, I gave the Clarion Ledger a story I had already written for the Blue and White Flash Newspaper, which was a spotlight on JSU student/artist Lou Writer. Writer has appeared on 106 and Park for Wild Out Wednesday's and won Best Male R & B performer. He is making his name known in Jackson as well as the rest of the world; to his university, he leaves his legacy.

               Harmonies and the melodies in the church are what inspired Writer to sing around the age of nine. Writer claims when he grew older he fell in love with singing when he saw the ladies’ reactions. He looked up to R & B singers such as Luther Vandross, Sam Cook, The Temptations, Michael Jackson, and Prince.

               

While in grade school, Writer’s father was shot 21 times and almost died. Writer said that the shooting was very detrimental to his family. “The shooting was a kind of thing that no one could be prepared for.” said Writer. “It made my family fearful; the reason is still undetermined. The way I got passed it was through my writing.”

Writer said he remembers having a low self esteem because of the tragic incident. He brought his insecurities along with his talent to Jackson State University and particularly to an acting organization on campus called Maddrama Performance Troupe. Writer said that Dr. Henderson, creator of Maddrama, helped him to channel his emotions.

"I was broken in high school and going into college," said Writer. "Maddrama was that difference in my life."

                Little did Writer know that he would need all of that confidence to show off his skills in New York at 106 and Park’s “Wild Out Wednesday’s” on July 14th, 2010. Writer said he was nervous and scared the first time he traveled to New York. However, he came out on top by being named the Male R & B All-Star Winner with 45 percent of the world’s votes.

Hard work does pay off, and Writer knows this from experience preparing for his first performance. Writer and backup dancers 'XXXplicit' practiced night after night. "Sometimes we would practice three to five hours straight and try to get the moves down to a science," said Writer. "It was hard and time consuming, but we were dedicated." Second time around, which was August 4th, Writer’s experience was rougher; him and his team were sleeping on the floor and in the back seat of a rental car. However, Writer remained determined. He proved this by coming out as the Male R & B All Star winner again with 48 percent of the world’s votes.

Writer is currently on Acerock Entertainment, which is run by the brothers of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated Alpha Beta Chapter; the manager and CEO is Delshon Harris, the Co-manager is Chris Davis, and Jeakorie Peace. 

Writer has a lot to say about his plans for the next five years in the music industry.

“I hope to have at least one grammy under my belt.” said Writer. “I’m also trying to open up a school of academics and performing arts in Jackson, MS., that will cover dance, vocal performance, dramatic arts, and instrumentation so we can compete in bigger cities.” Writer also plans to act in movies. His advice to upcoming artists/singers is to make sure that singing is what you really want to do. Fans that would like to hear more of Writer’s music should follow him on twitter @louwriter, his myspace which is myspace.com/lou_writer, and even youtube at youtube.com/louwriter. 

Oct. 2nd-Ladies Night Out Tour Concert feat. Jagged Edge, Avant, and Ginuwine

My second week at the Clarion Ledger went well. My supervisor Sherry Lucas sent me on an assignment to cover the Ladies Night Out tour concert starring Jagged Edge, Avant, and Ginuwine at the Jackson Convention Complex at 8 p.m. last night. I called the general manager Linda McCarthy and she assisted me with a free ticket and a press pass to the concert. I thought everything would go smooth, but it was far from that.

When I got to the concert, I met McCarthy and she gave me the ticket and the press pass. The concert was held in exhibit hall B of the complex. There was a huge crowd of about 20 thousand people. Jagged Edge had performed around 8:30 and I went backstage at 9:15 to interview them. However, Jagged Edge had to do a meet and greet at the same time; by the time they finished the meet and greet, it was time for them to leave. So I didn't get the interview.

 Fortunately, another superstar came in right after they left-Avant.
I interviewed Avant and asked him about his opinions towards the return of 90's music and if he has any upcoming albums or concerts.

"90's music, I call it good music," said Avant. "This new generation of R & B is a beautiful thing; Chris Brown and Trey Songz are holding it down."

Avant said he gives a big-ups to every one doing there thing in the music industry. He says that people respect what they do. Fans can expect an upcoming album from Avant in December called "The Letter."

"I named it 'The Letter' because you put juicy details in a letter," said Avant.

Fans can be updated on Avant's concerts and other news by following him on twitter @avantmusic. After Avant came Ginuwine. Giuwine had most of the girls going crazy for him. He even took pictures with some of the audience members after the concert. I tried to get an interview with Ginuwine but his manager turned me down. So I decided to interview some people in the crowd and asked them what they thought about the concert.

Waynesboro, Miss., native Annita Bonner says that 90's music had a meaning.

"I've always loved Ginuwine," said Bonner. "He's always been a great performer and he has a timeless sound."

Bonner also talked about the concert.

"This is what Jackson needs," said Bonner. "This is a great atmosphere."

The crowd was very hectic. Fans were screaming and yelling as the superstars walked by. I was running from place to place trying to get an interview. Unfortuantely I only got one. I am in the production of writing the story now. Hopefully it turns out good. Kevin Hart the comedian is coming to Jackson this month. I'm thinking that could be my next story.