Jamee Cornelia: “Autumn View”
Multi-talented rapper and artist Jamee Cornelia has worn many hats over the years. She’s been part of a local punk band, she’s launched her own line of clothing, and therefore it’s no surprise that she has a tendency toward workaholism. This is something she spoke about at length with her friends and fellow musicians, the Queendom, on that duo’s YouTube channel last year. Now, she recognizes the need to build in the time for rest amid the constant whirl of productivity.
In a 2018 interview with Voyage ATL, Cornelia said, “I am a Queer Black Woman in a male-dominated field in the South. When I started, it was hard for me to get new people to want to work with me because I wasn’t taken seriously. . . . My biggest advice to women or anyone who feels like they are experiencing this feeling is to travel OFTEN even if it’s just a different environment like Marietta Square vs. Little Five Points.”
Check out our previous Atlanta Soundtrack coverage of Cornelia and her vivid lyrical writing style here.
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Eric Nam: “Lost on Me”
One of the brightest stars in the K-pop galaxy happens to hail from the satellite known as ATL. Eric Nam grew up in metro Atlanta playing soccer and simmering a love of music. After graduating from The Lovett School, the Waffle House fan went to college in Boston and soon after landed a job as a consultant at Deloitte. Then he got offered the chance to perform on what Nam described as the South Korean equivalent of U.S. reality talent competitions such as “The Voice” and “American Idol.”
That was 10 years ago, and ever since it has been a nonstop ride on the rocket ship of fame (in in 2016 he was named Man of the Year by GQ Korea) and artistic growth. Now at 33, with the recent independent release of his second English-language album, There and Back Again, he’s making the songs he wants on his own terms. Of the introspective and sometimes melancholy lyrics on songs such as “Lost On Me,” he told online magazine Consequence of Sound, “It was a tough year in many ways, and it all kind of came out into the music.”
Playing a sold-out show in his hometown (at the Eastern on March 5) marked the culmination of a dream he didn’t necessarily think was possible. “I never saw an Asian person doing music growing up and to be able to be on stage in Atlanta, at Music Midtown or at the Tabernacle. . . . It’s really exciting.”
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The Tams: “Hey Girl Don’t Bother Me”
This Atlanta-based quintet started out as the Four Dots in the 1950s. But its signature tam o’shanter hats on stage earned them a special nickname that evolved into the band’s moniker as they made it big.
Probably best known for their 1968 hit “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy,” these 1992 Georgia Music Hall of Fame inductees featured lead vocalist Joe Pope, whose seasoned and soulful voice gives this song more gravitas than it might have otherwise. After all, when you boil it down, our vintage track of the week is kinda just saying over and over, “Hey, this lady’s got lots of red flags.”
Pope, along with his brother Charles, Robert Lee Smith and Horace Kay began singing together when they were still in high school. After adding Floyd Ashton, they got their break with a 1962 demo single that gained enough attention to land a contract with ABC Records. They went on to perform across the country for several decades.
This ditty hit was a particularly big across the pond, charting at No. 1 in the U.K. in 1971. In fact, as a time-capsule bonus, stay tuned to the end of this clip where you’ll hear the show’s host ask a young audience member about Christmas pudding!
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Alexis Hauk has written and edited for numerous newspapers, alt-weeklies, trade publications and national magazines including Time, the Atlantic, Mental Floss, Uproxx and Washingtonian magazine. Having grown up in Decatur, Alexis returned to Atlanta in 2018 after a decade living in Boston, Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles. By day, she works in health communications. By night, she enjoys covering the arts and being Batman.
