“God, music and sports have been the tip of the spear that has brought people together across the world. It is also the most polarizing of things also. If you think about civil rights, spiritual effect on the human soul, the general consensus on current politics and the woes of the human existence, it's all expressed through music. Music was the vehicle for the civil rights movement. It carried out to the people what was in the church. Music can either quiet your soul or erupt it.”

Kamel L. King:

The Emerald Music of Jacktown, USA

Two years in the making, Jacktown USA, a comprehensive look at nine prominent Mississippi blues and southern soul artists and the state’s prolific history of Grammy® awards and nominations, has just been released by Republic Books of Jackson and now it’s partner CD has been released by Mija Records, LLC (Orchard/Sony) as a soundtrack to the book. “Mississippi is the birthplace of America’s music, and Jackson is the capital city of American music,” said co-author Kamel King, a practicing attorney at Frascogna Law Group. He heads up Emerald Tiger Artist Management, which represents the artists in the book — Bobby Rush, 3 Time GRAMMY Award Winning Blues artist — Bobby Rush, 3 Time GRAMMY Award Winning Blues artist and on this mind blowing compilation CD. Each artist featured in the Jacktown USA book (Dexter Allen, Eddie Cotton, Zac Harmon, Stevie J. Blues, Rashad the Blues Kid, Chad Wesley, Jacktown Sons and Four Washington) has an original song, music video and lyric video as a backdrop to their chapter. Enjoy this diverse mix of ultra-talented artists who demonstrate why Mississippi is “The Birthplace of America’s Music”.

(Photo: Kamel L. King, Managing Director of Emerald Tiger Artist Management)

Kamel L. King, born and raised in Jackson, MS, is a veteran entertainment attorney with a law degree from Mississippi College School of Law and a Political Science/International Relations degree from Tougaloo College. He has over a decade of experience in music law, booking, and event production, including serving as Attorney on the Road for a 5-time GRAMMY-nominated group and Director of Operations for both Blackberry Records and GRAMMY-winning Terminal Recording Studios. Kamel co-produced the Recording Academy-endorsed “Mississippi Celebrates Its GRAMMY Legacy” events, contributed to the ABA’s Entertainment Law: For the General Practitioner, and has taught Entertainment Law as an adjunct professor. He has served on the Governor’s Arts Awards Voting Committee and currently sits on the boards of GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, The Blues Foundation, and other nonprofits. For eight years, he led cultural tourism at Visit Mississippi, managing the state’s iconic music and heritage trails. Today, he is the proud Managing Director of Emerald Tiger Artist Management, a rising agency representing top new talent.

Interview by Michael Limnios                   Special Thanks: Frank Roszak Promotions

How has the Black American music influenced your views of the world? What moment changed your life the most?

Black American music has greatly influenced my life and views of the world. Because it has increasingly become the heartbeat of contemporary culture worldwide for over 60 years, it's hard for it not to influence one's ideologies. From fashion to politics, it has often shifted the trajectory of my life and the lives of the multitudes way of thinking. The moment that changed my life the most was listening to my dad tell the many stories of the years he worked for James Brown. About his work ethic, genius musical mind, political stances, his staunchness on being a proud black man and the respect/perfection he demanded from everyone who worked for him. To see hium perform and know that's where my hero (my father Lee King) got his start from, it changed my life and set a bar of excellence very early in my life.

“They miss true showmanship, true emotions that resonate with what people are going through, it lacks humbleness and it lacks wild authentencity. My fear is that all genres will mesh together with no clear boundaries for listeners and thus, eroding the power of American music to move the worldwide culture positively in its evolution. It is symtomatic and parallel of America’s loosening grip as the #1 world power and litmus test of what a moral society is.“ (Photos: Lee King, Dexter Allen, Stevie J Blues, Eddie Cotton)

What characterize Emerald Tiger Artist Management philosophy and mission? Currently you’ve one release (and book) titled “Jacktown USA”. How did that idea come about?

Mike Frascogna jr., senior partner at Frascogna Law Group, talks often about the importance of Mississippi leading the country in both Grammy awards and Grammy nominations—by a wide margin—since the Recording Academy began handing out Grammy awards in 1959. He also talks often of the sizable influence that Jackson, our state's capital and a rather small capital city, has had on both the national and international music scene. Emerald Tiger, which I head up, manages most of the artists in Jacktown USA, and Mike, Joe (Lee), and I all felt that a book about the artists we profiled would not only make for fascinating reading, but it would preserve what we all feel is a very important part of our state's prolific musical legacy.

Why do you think the Mississippi (Blues, Soul, R&B) music scene continues to create such a dedicated audience?

The legends in the book—Zac Harmon, Eddie Cotton, and Dexter Allen in particular—talk often about the legends they learned from. Musicians like B.B. King, Howlin’ Wolf, and many others who mentored them. Eddie Cotton will take your whole afternoon talking about what he learned from King Edward Antoine about how to carry himself as a bluesman. Zac does the same thing about Sam Myers. All of the artists in this book revere those who came before them and want to be sure the next generation of bluesmen know exactly who they are and why they're important.

If you could change one thing in the musical world and it would become a reality, what would that be?

The complete seperation of ai being injected into music. It's a slippery slope down a razor into an alcohol pool.

“Many of the artists in the book, including Eddie and Dexter in particular, talk of having much larger followings abroad—in Europe, especially—than they have in Mississippi. This is one more reason why it was important to Joe (Lee) and I to get these artists and their stories of grit and perseverance and love of their craft out to as wide an audience as possible.“ (Photo: Kamel L. King & Joe Lee)

What do you miss most nowadays from the music of the past? What are your hopes and fears for the future of?

They miss true showmanship, true emotions that resonate with what people are going through, it lacks humbleness and it lacks wild authentencity. My fear is that all genres will mesh together with no clear boundaries for listeners and thus, eroding the power of American music to move the worldwide culture positively in its evolution. It is symtomatic and parallel of America’s loosening grip as the #1 world power and litmus test of what a moral society is.

What is the impact of music on the socio-cultural implications (human rights, civil rights, spiritual, political)?  How do you want the music to affect people?

God, music and sports have been the tip of the spear that has brought people together across the world. It is also the most polarizing of things also. If you think about civil rights, spiritual effect on the human soul, the general consensus on current politics and the woes of the human existence, it's all expressed through music. Music was the vehicle for the civil rights movement. It carried out to the people what was in the church. Music can either quiet your soul or erupt it.

What are some of the most important lessons you have learned from your experience in the music paths?

Many of the artists in the book, including Eddie and Dexter in particular, talk of having much larger followings abroad—in Europe, especially—than they have in Mississippi. This is one more reason why it was important to Joe and I to get these artists and their stories of grit and perseverance and love of their craft out to as wide an audience as possible.

“Black American music has greatly influenced my life and views of the world. Because it has increasingly become the heartbeat of contemporary culture worldwide for over 60 years, it's hard for it not to influence one's ideologies. From fashion to politics, it has often shifted the trajectory of my life and the lives of the multitudes way of thinking.”

(Photo: Kamel L. King)

How can a musician truly turn the blues/soul into a popular genre of music for the today's audience? What are you doing to keep the music relevant today, to develop it and present it to the new generation?

Both Ra’Shad "The blues kid" McGill and Dexter Allen spend a lot of time in schools across the region with youngsters, teaching them about the blues and hoping to cultivate in them a love of music. Dexter makes the point that blues isn't only about pain and suffering, and that the image of a bluesman many has is that of an old man wearing a straw hat, sitting on a stool with his old guitar. In Jacktown USA, he talks about writing blues songs about real people going through adult situations and points out that there can be humor and good times in those songs as well as hardship—such as the lyrics to his song "Hooked". One song he plays for kids in elementary school classrooms is, "I got them old math test blues." All of this makes the blues relevant, which is a big key to continuing to build on the genre's fan base.

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