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Regardless of where you are, the temperatures are dropping and there is a crisp in the air announcing the change in season. But in the music world, SPRING is helping listeners avoid the seasonal swing with the entry of his fourth CD titled "Spring is Here." SPRING was the son of a sax player that started teaching him at an early age. By the time he was twelve, SPRING became a professional sax performer. He is a versatile musician, having played keyboards, synthesizers, saxophones and percussions on his latest release. M. Francis Solomon of Frost Illustrated says, "Have no doubts…he's one of the most skillful and soulful singers you've heard in a long time. This guy can sing!" His career speaks for itself. SPRING has provided vocals for The Drifters; toured or opened for The Spinners, Melba Moore, Pete Fountain, New Birth, Clarence Carter, The Neville Brothers, Funkadelic and many others.

December Cover Story

Back stage, on stage, in the corridors or in the parking lot… Bobby Rush is still the most gracious entertainer - an opinion shared by many in and out of the enterainment and music industry. He's been in the business forever, literally 50+ years and it would be conceivable to think that maybe he would just "settle down." Not the case here. Bobby Rush has won just about every award known to man. This past summer he was named International Entertainer of the Year at the 32nd Annual Cingular Jackson Music Awards and The Best Blues Band at the Jus' Blues Awards. One might consider all the recognition and awards enough to "rest on his laurels." Not the case with Bobby Rush.
Rush continues to be one of the most exciting and creative artists. His popularity as a live performer has never stopped growing and expanding. Just in the last decade, Rush has gained new audiences through performances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall and on festival stages in Europe and Japan.

* Listen to the complete 1 hour Chittlin Circuit interview with Bobby Rush *

Honey Blo plays Funky Bagpipe Blues

Bagpipe Blues? Strange title for a song. Even stranger, the artist also is playing a Bagpipe. The Bagpipe is an musical instrument, played today in Scotland and the player usually wears a Kilt which Honey Blo tells the Chittlin Circuit, that won't happen with him.
Born and raised in Chicago, Honey Blo also plays the Sax (alto and Tenor) and the Flute.
Honey Blo's latest CD Love and Alcohol Don't Mix has it's title track on the Chittlin Circuit Internet Radio Top 10.
The video of Honey Blo playing the Bagpipes can be seen on the next page of this story.

Kenny Neal Releases New Christmas CD

The Chittlin Circuit spoke the Brother Kenny Neal a few days ago and we are pleased to report that Kenny is doing very well and his treatments are are right on track.
When we spoke to Kenny last summer, he mentioned that he would be relaesing a new Christmas CD in November. The new CD I'll Be Home For Christmas is now ready for purchase on Kenny's website:
kennyneal.net
Kenny does an excellent job with Charles Borwn's Christmas Classic Merry Christmas Baby and daughter Syreeta handles Winter Wonderland and Silent Night like a well seasoned star. This is a must have CD for your Christmas Holidays.
This special Christmas CD also features other Neal family members:
Son Kenny Neal Jr., daughter Syreeta Neal, brothers Darnell Neal and Frederick Neal.

Ruth Brown, R&B legend dies at 78

Ruth Brown, the pioneering singer whose 1950s hits such as Teardrops From My Eyes and (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean helped establish both the rhythm-and-blues form and Atlantic Records as the genre's pre- eminent record label, died Friday, November 17, 2006 in a Las Vegas area hospital from complications following a heart attack and stroke last week. She was 78.
Brown, a Grammy and Tony award winner, was working recently with director John Sayles on a film about black musicians of the South.

Much of her work in the past two decades had been as a driving force of efforts to get unpaid royalties and musical credit for R&B and blues musicians, many of whom had failed to be adequately compensated early in their careers.

To that end, she had helped create the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in Philadelphia in 1988, which was financed by a settlement with Atlantic Records, not just over Brown's back royalties but also for those of almost three dozen other R&B performers.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

GERALD LEVERT: Dead At 40

Chittlin Circuit Sources confirmed that Gerald Levert is dead of an apparent heart attack.

Immediate details on the death of the beloved R&B singer were not known at this time however, it appears that he died in his sleep according to his family.

He turned 40 years old in July.

One of several from the musical Levert family --his father, Eddie Levert, is the lead singer of the legendary soul group The O'Jays, he was a founding member and the lead singer of the 1990's R&B trio LeVert, who scored big hits with "Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop (Goes My Mind)", "Casanova", and "ABC-123."

Levert, born in Cleveland, Ohio, was also apart of R&B supergroup LSG, comprised of platinum selling R&B crooners Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill.

As a solo artist, Levert garnered a cult following with a string of R&B ballads ("I'd Give Anything (to Fall in Love)", "You Got That Love") from his numerous album projects on East West/Elektra Records.

Over the years, the vocal powerhouse has collaborated with Patti LaBelle, Miki Howard, Kelly Price, Teena Marie, Chris Rock and with his father on many different occasions.

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