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BOB DAVIS (OF SOUL-PATROL.COM) KNOWS HE GOT SOUL: If he didn't he wouldn't be in here!
Read on to learn about Soul-Patrol's new Digital Virtual Album
Part of the evolution of Soul-Patrol has to do with its transition into making music as well. Davis' first venture is called Soul-Patrol: A Digital Virtual Album. Sounds like a mouthful, but it's an earful as well. Nearly 50 songs are included.
*The EURweb is proud to say that is has been a portal for black entertainment news and topic discussion since it's inception in 1996.
Back then the Internet landscape was barren of life that one would deem "urban" or "black", but there we were. But we weren't the only ones carrying the African American cultural flag onto the world wide web. Soul-Patrol was there as well.
Created by self-described technologist Bob Davis, Soul-Patrol was initially envisioned as a depository of sorts for classic soul. Since that time it has grown. Its stated mission is the preservation of black culture.
"Soul-Patrol.com is all about great black music for the future," Davis told our Lee Bailey. "We're interested in promoting black culture, black music, and artists from the past and artists into the future. That's what Soul-Patrol is and we've been around for about 11 years operating on the internet. We have a newsletter, a website and a internet radio show."
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Soul-Patrol.com's Bob Davis
Does Soul-Patrol sound familiar to you? It should. The term has been used in urban pop culture for at least 30 years. Most recently it has been used to describe the fan club of American Idol winner Taylor Hicks. Davis says he's cool with Hicks' et. al. using it. After all, it's not like he came up with the word. In fact, the A.I. winner's celebrity status has helped his site.
"His fan club is called Soul Patrol. When he won on American Idol that actually drove a lot of traffic to our site, so I appreciated that. But the term Soul Patrol has been used a lot of the years. There's lots of radio shows and bands called Soul Patrol as well. I'm sure you remember the old defensive backfield of the Oakland Raiders back in the 1970s used to be called Soul Patrol with Jack Tatum and Willie Brown. The name to us really meant people who were patrolling for good music. As you know, we've been around for awhile. It was 1996 when we first started out website. Back then we had no knowledge of Taylor Hicks and I'm sure he had no knowledge of us as well."
If 1996 sounds like it happened 10 years ago then that's OK, because it did happen 10 years ago. Well actually, 11 to be exact. Despite the eroding of hairlines, and expansion of waistlines, Lee and Davis both are well aware of the techno-evolution, if you will, of their respective endeavors.
"When we started back in the mid-90s the internet landscape was very different than it is today and I wanted to simply put information out there about the favorite artists that I grew up with," Davis remembered. "At the time there were a number of sites out there dealing with rock and roll and a number of sites out there dealing with hip-hop, but there were none that were dealing with classic soul. I remember the EUR being quite instrumental in the rise of Soul Patrol over the years. You named us your website of the week many times."
Part of the evolution of Soul-Patrol has to do with its transition into making music as well. Davis' first venture is called Soul-Patrol: A Digital Virtual Album. Sounds like a mouthful, but it's an earful as well. Nearly 50 songs are included.
"The virtual album is something that's the brainchild of several artist who came to me and said we should take advantage of this new media instead of a traditional CD. Soul-Patrol, because we have so many artists with original material, could put out this virtual compilation. It's a digital compilation album that's comprised of about 50 songs and it contains all of the myriad styles of black music. We have classic soul, we have funk, we've got jazz, southern soul and blues and we have rock and roll. It's a very diverse album. It's full of some great songs from some very famous artists and some artists who may become famous in the future."
"Feature artists include the Mighty, Mighty Dells, the Coasters, Mandrill, Public Enemy, Lester Chambers of the Chambers Brothers, and some undiscovered works from the likes of Maty Soul, a young lady from France. We've got Lockboxx, a jazz funk band from Portland, Oregon. The third is a group of people we discovered on Myspace called Lenny Blocko is a Neo-Soul artist from Plainfield, New Jersey.
"One of the things we will be adding is a downloadble podcast," added Davis. "It will include samples of about 15 of the 50 songs. It will also include an intro from Chuck D of Public Enemy. All of the songs are brand new songs. There are no oldies or remakes. These are all brand new songs produced and composed by the artists themselves. There are no record labels involved. One of the things that people are saying these days is that there is no great black music available these days. We're here to prove that there is and at a very cheap (price). 99 cents for a downloadable song?, I don't think that's reasonable.
"I understand why they're doing it," he continued. "They're assuming some of that middle man cost that is associated with that 99 cent figure. But realistically, if you get it direct from the artist or from someone like us and those costs all go away. You should be able to get new music at a price under 99 cents. You should be able to get new music at a price below 50 cents."
Human beings, being the tactile creatures we are, often need something solid to touch, feel, taste. For some, digital music, because of its lack of form, seems ephemeral. So much so that it drives them away from downloads. Davis believes they're simply going to have to get over that.
"People have come up to me and have said 'Hey, that's a good product you have there. I really like it. Can't you give it to me in hard copy form as a CD?' And I tell them 'Yes, but it would cost me 50 dollars to sell it to you. That's how much it would cost me to print up the liner notes, CD cover art and press up the CDs. You might as well get used to getting music in this form because that's how's it's going to be in the future. The selling of the CD is over with."
For more information on the Digital Virtual Album, go to www.Soul-Patrol.com. And don't forget to put the (slash) between Soul and Patrol. :)
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