Ellis Hooks is a rarity in 21st century American music: a genuine soul singer. His voice has that wonderful blend of church fervor, blues ache and country sensibility often missing from the vocal styles of many neo-soul types. Unfortunately, what he doesn’t have is an American label deal, something that’s limited his exposure here at home. He’s already a celebrity in England, where his current disc, Undeniable (Zane), and his live shows have led critics to tab him the next great R&B star.

Undeniable spotlights a powerful, distinctive artist, someone deeply influenced by such giants as Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and Hank Sr., but far from a generic imitator. Hooks can ease delicately into a sad tale, rip through an up-tempo track or wail with chilling conviction, as he does on “I Been There” and “Everything’s Falling Around Me.” He demonstrates his fluency in country and rockabilly on “Last Chance,” balancing the track’s jaunty beat with his own whimsical delivery.

Producer Jon Tiven, who recently relocated to Nashville, can certainly recognize a great singer, having produced It’s Harder Now, Wilson Pickett’s best album since his heyday at Atlantic Records. He touts Hooks as a young vocalist with an elder’s edge, smarts and vocal tone. Tiven and his wife Sally have co-written more than 80 songs with Hooks over the last two years. They ably assist him on Undeniable, playing guitar and bass, respectively, while being joined by a superb supporting cast that includes pianist Marvin Floyd and harmonica player Mason Casey.

Hooks’ life story would make a great soul song. The third of 16 children, he was born in Mobile, Ala., to a Cherokee mother and an African American father. As a youth, his talents were so impressive that he was quickly recruited for the church choir in his staunchly Baptist family’s community. But Hooks was more fascinated with blues, soul and country music, and increasingly turned away from traditional gospel. At age 14, he was exiled from his home for neglecting his choral duties; during the next four years, he hitchhiked across the country, eventually ending up in New York, where some of his early auditions were in subway stations and on street corners. After overcoming those obstacles, Hooks seems less concerned with becoming a star than with giving live audiences the urgent performances that make Undeniable such a gem. He plays Feb. 4 at Exit/In as part of the Western Beat anniversary show.

—By Ron Wynn

These tunes were made for you and me

While much of Nashville slipped, spun and skidded through seven inches of snow two weeks ago, students at Stratton Elementary School in Madison were singing along merrily to Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land.” The selection was especially appropriate, given that their music teacher, singer-songwriter Melissa Javors, is serving as the outreach committee co-chair of the Fifth Annual International Folk Alliance Conference, to be held Feb. 6-9 at the Renaissance Hotel and Nashville Convention Center. In conjunction with the private industry confab, Javors and her colleagues are staging a series of concerts Feb. 4-6 at the Nashville Public Library, the Jewish Community Center, the Music School on Music Row and 11 area schools. The concerts, which will be free and open to the public, will not only introduce traditional and contemporary folk music to young audiences; they’ll also give traveling members of the Folk Alliance an opportunity to play for local crowds.

“It’s real easy for kids to get caught up in pop culture,” says co-chair Kathy Hussey, a singer-songwriter and the director of Summersong, a songwriting camp for kids sponsored by The Girl Scout Council of Middle Tennessee. “It’s great if you can expose them to the fundamental principles of music and what’s traditionally inspired people to write and perform.”

“Folk Alliance understands that when people hear the words 'folk music,’ they think it’s old-fashioned,” Javors adds. “Also, a lot of folk clubs and performance venues are disappearing off the map these days, so a lot of top-flight performers are looking for alternative ways to get their music out there”—including the educational arena. “There’s a whole roster of touring artists who [perform in] schools, but musicians have to know the curricula so that they can design programs that really appeal to administrators and teachers.”

As a way to educate instructors and artists, some established children’s acts will perform for more than 50 Metro schoolteachers during a special in-service Feb. 6 at the Country Music Hall of Fame & Museum. During the day of teacher-musician interaction, composer/teacher Paul Reisler—who is currently working with Javors and others to bring his “Kid Pan Alley” program to Nashville schools—will co-write with a group of 20 Granbery Elementary third-graders to demonstrate methods for group songwriting in schools. Steve Seskin will then present the anti-bullying ideas of Operation Respect, an organization founded by Peter, Paul and Mary’s Peter Yarrow. (The curriculum was inspired by the song “Don’t Laugh at Me,” a Seskin tune recorded by the trio in 1999.)

“In the ’60s, it was this type of music that really changed people’s consciousness about issues like peace and brotherhood,” Javors points out.

Ironically, the host city for this year’s Folk Alliance—a town populated with gifted songwriters and musicians—reportedly holds very few music programs of this sort. Javors hopes the outreach concerts and day of in-service training will lead to new opportunities to educate and inspire local schoolchildren through music. “One of my goals is to build better bridges between the music business in this town and the schools,” she says. “Kids who go to school here don’t even know where they’re living. We need to make more of an effort to bring these two groups together.”

—Heather Johnson

Loughran goes prime-time

Nashville rocker Moe Loughran got a taste of stardom earlier this month when she was chosen to perform on the 2003 American Music Awards. A powerhouse vocalist with a strong local following, she beat out more than 1,000 hopefuls to win the Coca-Cola New Music Award, created by the AMA Awards, Coca-Cola, Dick Clark Communications and the CMJ Network to honor “the best unsigned artist or band in America.”

CMJ’s editorial team sifted through mountains of press kits to select 50 finalists, before Clark and CMJ Network CEO Bobby Haber narrowed that list to 10. Two juried showcases—one at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, the other at L.A.’s El Rey Theater—whittled the list down further, which led to Loughran’s win and an appearance on the AMA show. “Other people said they knew we had it from the second we started,” Loughran says, now back home and settling into her routine. “But I didn’t know that. I just thought I’d go and try to have fun, enjoy the free trips to L.A. and New York. But then, when they called our name, I was like, 'Did they just say...?’ ”

Next came a whirlwind of interviews, photo shoots, band rehearsals and a few minutes of downtime to chat with the likes of Missy Elliott and Johnny Resnick of the Goo Goo Dolls. All of that, though, was a prelude to Loughran and her band—Roger Nichols, Cory Siegle and Six—taking the prime-time stage and performing a two-minute version of “Anymore,” a track from The Tulip Tree, her latest album. “You just try to stay calm and hope you don’t leave a puddle on the floor,” she says of her appearance on the AMA show, which she later watched on video. “It looked like a movie because of the quality and the way they did the camera angles. It sounded good, and the band looked good. It was cool to see that. When you’re up there, you never know if you made a weird face.”

—Heather Johnson

Mondo Nashville

Rick Whetsel, who recently reopened the Exit/In, is starting the Music City Burlesque Society, a new monthly variety show similar to the burlesque nights making a comeback around the country. Whetsel and his co-sponsors, Katy Kattelman at Katy K’s Ranch Dressing and Amy Patterson at Venus & Mars, want to hear from anyone interesting in performing—dancers, jugglers, singers, any kind of novelty act, the stranger the better. Doesn’t Nashville need its very own Gong Show? Call 256-9008 or drop materials by the Exit/In.

—Jim Ridley