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.