In construction, a plumbline is a weight suspended from a string used as a tool to find the true reference line. A plumbline will always find the vertical axis pointing to the center of gravity, ensuring everything is right, justified, and centered. Pulling from a library of more than 3,000 shows from his storied career in broadcasting, Shelley's Plumbline leads us in a search for the truth, opening the channels of communication and understanding on tough social topics that are as relevant ...
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The Immigration Story of George Sarris
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Send us a text Today, Shelley shares an interview from 1991 with George Sarris. Mr. Sarris was an immigrant from Greece who eventually developed a small empire of seafood restaurants in and around the Birmingham, Alabama, area. He discusses how the Greek community worked together to help each other grow and prosper. Follow us and continue the conve…
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Charles Gray and the Re-Education of Our Children
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Send us a text This week, Shelley once again shines the light on the importance of education as he shares a recording from 1991 of a speech given by Charles Gray on the Re-Education of our Children. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Bubba's Sacrifice, Georgia Price and Voting Rights
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Send us a text As election week finally rolls around, Shelley recalls the ultimate sacrifice that was made by his bother Jerome in Korea. He also talks about Georgia Price and others who, in the late 50s and mid-60s, paved the way for the movement toward equality and human rights in the United States. Follow us and continue the conversation on Face…
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Shelley Stirs the Pot in the 60s
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, Shelley explains the real meaning behind equality. Plus, he shares some stores from early in his career, including an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan. Stay tuned. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Shelley Gets Arrested in Jackson, Mississippi
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Send us a text Today, Shelley continues sharing anecdotes from his life. This week, he tells us about the time he was arrested when he took a job in Jackson, Mississippi. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, Shelley recalls how he evolved from his role beyond an on-air personality, developing the key relationships that set the foundation for his future as a businessman. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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"The Playboy" Fights for Human Rights
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Send us a text This week, Shelley expands on the story of his growing popularity as a radio personality. He fought for equality in access and pay at the radio stations where he worked. And he shares stories about meeting and working with Dr King well before he was well-known. Stay tuned and learn more about Shelley’s ongoing struggle for equality a…
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Send us a text Shelley's popularity is growing in strength and numbers as his fresh style and approach pays off as begins to dominate the airwaves in Birmingham, Alabama in the mid-1950s. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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The Birth of Shelley "The Playboy"
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Send us a text As we celebrate Shelley’s 90th birthday this week, Shelley shares an episode in his life that marks the birth of Shelley “The Playboy.” It was while he was in the Air Force that Shelley first began to develop his well-known radio persona. Stay tuned. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, Shelley talks about a daring escape where Shelley recused his brothers Sam and Dave from a plantation in Mississippi. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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A Reunion with Bubba and Some Trouble With A Gun
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Send us a text As we continue our march towards Shelley’s 90th birthday, Shelley shares some stories about his first experience with journalism, public speaking and broadcasting. He shares how he ran into some trouble with one of the gangs at high school and how he had a second reunion with his oldest brother, Bubba. Follow us and continue the conv…
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Shelley Heads to High School
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Send us a text As we enter September and get closer to Shelley’s 90th birthday celebration, we explore the ironic challenges Shelley faced. He lived with an aunt and uncle who continually tried to discourage him from getting an education. Stay tuned and learn how he persevered. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Lin…
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Shelley's Life: Shelley Learns His Name is Shelley
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Send us a text Did you know when Shelley was growing up, he thought his name was Shurley? Stay tuned and learn how Shelley learned his name was Shelley. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Shelley's Life: Back with Aunt Mamie
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Send us a text We continue sharing the story of Shelley’s life as we get closer to the celebration of his 90th birthday in September. In this week’s episode, Shelley describes life after he is taken back to his Aunt Mamie and Uncle Henry’s house. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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1947: The Year Everything Changed for Shelley
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Send us a text So far, we’ve followed Shelley from living on a screened-in porch to living in a horse stable with his brother Bubba and then to the basement of Clyde Smith’s home. In today’s episode, Shelley talks about the year 1947 and how it changed everything. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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Shelley Learns About Black and White Cultures in the 1940s
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, Shelley discusses how there were two curriculums. The one he was taught in the negro school, and the one he shared with Mary Sue Smith, Clyde Smith’s daughter. Even though she was a polio victim she somehow got a hold of books and magazines from the white school and shared them with Shelley. Listen to find out…
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A Decade at a Time: The Last Words of Mattie C. Stewart
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners. Yes, we received all your texts and emails telling us that we missed an episode last Wednesday. Thanks for noticing. You’re right. We didn’t publish last Wednesday, but that’s because we held off this week’s episode to release a very special edition of Shelley’s Plumbline. Today is Sunday, August 4, 2024. It is exac…
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A Decade at a Time: Shelley Learns About Life from Clyde Smith
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Send us a text In this episode, Shelley continues sharing the profound influence that Clyde Smith had on his life while he was growing up in segregated Birmingham. Mr. Smith, a white man, took Shelley into his home when he was a young child. Mr. Smith taught Shelley some key secrets to life and that to be respected, one had to give respect first. F…
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A Decade at a Time: More About the Smith Family
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, we continue sharing Shelley’s life story a decade at a time leading up to his 90th birthday. Today, Shelley tells us about his life with the Smith family, how he lived in a basement and continued his studies at Irondale Elementary. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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A Decade at a Time: Shelley leaves the Stables
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Send us a text Today we continue telling Shelley’s life story, one decade at a time. Let’s head out to the back porch and head back to the 1930s and 40s in Birmingham, Alabama and talk about Shelley’s life with the Smith family. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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A Decade at a Time: Shelley's Life in the 1930s
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Send us a text Hello, Plumbliners, and welcome to Season 7 of Shelley’s Plumbline. So Shelley and I looked at the calendar, and we realized that by the time we finish this season, we will be close to Shelley’s 90th birthday. So, in season seven, we will take you to the back porch and take you through Shelley’s life, one decade at a time. Today, we’…
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A. H. Parker High School 100th Anniversary Dedication Speech
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners. In the year 2000, Shelley gave a speech at AH Parker High School in Birmingham, Alabama, on the occasion of the school’s 100th anniversary. This is the very same school that Shelley graduated from. This is the school where Shelley began his career in journalism, broadcasting, and performing. Today we feature a recor…
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A meeting with a Grand Knight of the KKK, A Minister of the Nation of Islam and the Executive Director of the National Conference of Christians and Jews
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Send us a text In 1993, Shelley hosted the Shelley Stewart Show, Survival in the 90s. It was a talk show on television that ran for 13 episodes. Today, we feature the audio from an extraordinary episode that featured a conversation with three very different people on the same stage. The discussion featured Lamarse Washington, Executive Director of …
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Back Porch: Race, Racism and Happiness
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners. This is Mark Jamroz, producer of Sheley’s Plumbline. Today, Shelley and I sit down for another edition of the “Back Porch.” Think of it as “Shelley Unplugged” as we discuss a few of our experiences learning about race and racism. Then we touch upon the topic of happiness. Stayed tuned. I think you’re really going to…
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Send us a text Today, Shelley takes on the tough topic of black participation in politics as he interviews Raynard Jackson. At the time of the interview in 1998, Mr Jackson was Chairman of the Americans for a Brighter Future and an outspoken black Republican. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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Freeborn Slave: Diary of a Black Man in the South
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Send us a text Today, Shelley shares an interview with Birmingham resident Karen Ameen. The interview took place in 1996, shortly after Ms. Ameen published the book Freeborn Slave, Diary of a Black Man in the South. The book is a collection of memoirs dictated by her great-grandfather, Jasper Rastus Nall, an individual who was born at the end of th…
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Internalized Racism (Rebroadcast)
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners... Shelley was feeling a bit under the weather this week, so he asked me to find one of your favorite episodes of Shelley's Plumbline and rebroadcast it. Well, it turns out our very first episode was one of the most popular, and we released it a little over one year ago. Happy Anniversary to us! Please enjoy -- and b…
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An Interview with Fred Shuttlesworth
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Send us a text Today, Shelley shares a very special interview from 1991 with the one-and-only Fred Shuttlesworth. Reverend Shuttlesworth co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and was instrumental in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign with Martin Luther King. Shuttlesworth participated in the sit-ins against segregated lunch counters in …
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The Genocide of Black Culture
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Send us a text This week’s episode draws on an interview from 1991 with playwright Edward McRay. He goes deep into the finer points of African culture, history, and the limits of the American educational system. Cultures must share their histories to increase understanding. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedI…
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Excerpts from the InsideOut Documentary
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Send us a text Today we have a very special edition of Shelley’s Plumbline. In 2002, Shelley visited two prisons in Alabama and spoke with inmates about their stories and turned it into the documentary Inside Out. And those stories speak for themselves. They are powerful. They are moving. They are profound. Stay tuned. Follow us and continue the co…
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The Back Porch: Instinct and the Inner Voice
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Send us a text Hello, Plumbliners, and welcome to Season 6 of Shelley’s Plumbline. Shelley and I have been talking about changing the format of the Plumbline for some time, so we thought today we would give that a try. We call this format The Back Porch. Think of it as “Shelley Unplugged.” Today, Shelley and I are going to discuss instinct and the …
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Your Vote is Your Voice. Are You A Republican or a Democrat?
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Send us a text So here we are – another major election is just half a year away. Today’s podcast features a show from 1996. Stay tuned as Shelley explores the questions that remain the same then as they are today: What do you believe? Who do you support? Who will you vote for? Your vote is your voice. If you do not speak, someone else will. Follow …
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An interview with Park Scott on the Bahai Faith
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Send us a text Today, Shelley shares an interview from 1991 with Park Scott, Senior. He discusses the Bahai Faith and how it seeks the oneness of humanity, the elimination of prejudice and a harmony between science and religion. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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Send us a text By popular demand, Shelley and Teddy Pendergrass continue to share the message: Wake Up, Everybody. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Send us a text Today, Shelley shares a simple message. Wake up everybody. It’s time to think ahead. Wake Up, Everybody. The time is now. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Did Malcolm X Teach Us Something or Are We Doing the Same Thing Now?
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Send us a text Today, we share Malcolm X's famous Ballots or Bullets address. The message rings true: The key to freedom lies in economic prosperity. Economic opportunity for all is the tide that will lift all boats. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.Par Shelley Stewart
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Shelley's Plumbline: Celebrating Powerful Women
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Send us a text Today Shelley celebrates National Women’s Month with some personal reflections on the strong women he has known in his life, from his mother Mattie C whom he saw murdered when he was five years old, to Oprah and Kamala Harris. Stay tuned as we celebrate the power of women. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagra…
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners… Shelley has been in the hospital the past couple of weeks, so he asked me to rebroadcast a previous episode. I looked back in the archives at one of my favorites. It’s from episode 5 of season 1 and it features an interview with attorney Rodney Max discussing Hate Crimes. Please enjoy. And if you’re so inclined send…
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Shelley's Plumbline: Shelley Reflects on Black History Month and Racism in America
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Send us a text As we come to the end of Black History Month, Shelley looks back on the last three episodes and shares his personal insights on the overt and not so overt signs that racism are still evident in America today. Stay tuned as the plumbline seeks the truth. Follow us and continue the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.…
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Shelley's Plumbline: Excerpts from "Remembering Slavery"
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Send us a text Today we continue telling more stories of Black history, as we share an excerpt from the recording, “Remembering Slavery: African Americans Talk About Their Personal Experiences of Slavery and Emancipation,” published by The New Press, in conjunction with the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. Stay tuned and you’ll …
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Shelley's Plumbline: Early Slave Rebellions
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Send us a text Hey, Plumbliners. Before we begin with this week’s episode, we’d like to thank you for the emails! We received an email from a teacher in Washington state. She says, … My class has been learning about the Children's March recently, and one student asked whatever happened to Shelley the Playboy after watching the documentary "Mighty T…
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Shelley's Plumbline: Horace Huntley and the Dangers of Cultural Annihilation
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Send us a text Here at the beginning of Black History Month, we welcome you to season 5 of Shelley’s Plumbline. Since it is Black History Month, Shelley and I did some research. According to a recent article in Axios, “…lawmakers in 30 states have proposed new restrictions during the past year on what schools can teach about the nation's racial his…
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Shelley's Life in Music: Stories About The Godfather of Soul, James Brown
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Send us a text Today we bring Season 4 to an end as we shine the spotlight on the Godfather of Soul, James Brown. James was a controversial character to be sure, but he became good friends with Shelley and always admired Shelley’s belief in the power of education. When James released the song Don’t Be A Dropout, he couldn’t wait to play it for Shel…
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Shelley's Life In Music: Stories About...Guess who?
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Send us a text Since Shelley was a DJ and radio personality, he was instrumental in helping grow the careers of numerous well-known talented singers and musicians. During Season 4 we have covered stories about many of these musical giants who started as business associates of Shelley’s and blossomed into deep friendships. We shared stories about BB…
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Shelley's Life in Music: "The Big O," Otis Redding.
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Send us a text On today’s episode we continue sharing stories from Shelley’s fascinating life in music as he tells us about his personal and professional relationship with Otis Redding. Otis was a chauffeur for another band when he was discovered during a break at the recording studio in Muscle Shoals. Shelley was fortunate enough to be the first D…
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Hosea Williams: Did the Dream of Dr. King Become A Nightmare?
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Send us a text Hey Plumbliners. The theme of Season 4 has been about Shelley’s life in music. But this week, to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, we’re going to rebroadcast our podcast from Season 1 on Hosea Williams. Hosea Williams was a very close friend and associate of Dr King and was instrumental in organizing the Movement. Please enjo…
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Shelley's Plumbline: Shelley's Reflections on Rosa Parks and the Rosa Parks Day Award.
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Send us a text On December 1, 2023, Shelley received the Rosa Parks Day Award for Leadership, Commitment to Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Civic Service. Rosa Parks Day is December 1st because that was the day, in 1955, when Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus. In today’s podcast, Shelley reflects on the a…
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Shelley's Life in Music: Bobby "Blue" Bland
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Send us a text In this week’s episode, we continue exploring Shelley’s friendship with another major blues artist – Bobby “Blue” Bland, or “Blue” as Shelley called him. Like many blues, soul and R&B artists, Shelley traces Blue’s work back to his Gospel roots. In fact, there are hints of those notes in many of his most popular songs. Stay tuned and…
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Shelley's Life in Music: Lou Rawls, Did You Pray Today?
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Send us a text Today we continue to explore Shelley’s life in the music world as we take a look at Lou Rawls. Lou, like Sam Cooke, was born and raised in the Chicago area and crossed paths with Sam Cooke as they sang in gospel groups before moving into R&B, Jazz, and Soul. Since Shelley was a popular radio personality, he had a hand in promoting th…
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Shelley's Life in Music: A Slice of Soul Heaven with Johnnie Taylor
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Send us a text Today, Shelley talks about his personal and professional friendship with the Philosopher of Soul, otherwise known as Johnnie Taylor. As the PR director for Redwal Music Company, Shelley had the opportunity to spend time with Johnnie, as well as other music greats on that label, including Otis Redding. We’ll get to Otis in a future po…
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