Donnie sang his way into the hearts of many an underground soul music fan with his 2002 release "The Colored Section." With a voice reminiscent of Stevie Wonder and a talent that showed clear potential to join the ranks of great vocalists and songwriters like Donnie Hathaway and Curtis Mayfield, Donnie's was a welcome presence in the booming "nu-soul" movement. Last year, I had the pleasure of seeing him live at London's Jazz Cafe and his was a performance that took me out of that fast-paced multinational metropolis to a spine-tingling, soul-stirring Sunday morning pulpit. Donnie emerges now with a new record label for his latest full-length release, "The Daily News."
Donnie: I grew up in church. I come from that,
you know what I mean, so it all comes naturally. My
parents are preachers. My grandmother and my
great-grandfather were preachers.
Emmerald: What religious tradition were they or are
they in?
Donnie: They're Hebrew
Pentecostal, which is a mixture of Judaism and
Pentecostalism.
Emmerald: That's hardcore.
Donnie: Very hardcore, yes (laughs).
Emmerald: Where is your family from. Are y'all
Georgians?
Donnie: No, we're Kentuckians---all the way back to
slavery, so yes.
Emmerald: Wow. So you've got some deep history
there. Are you still religious? Do you still
practice in the Pentecostal tradition or are you
affiliated with another tradition or doing your own
thing?
Donnie: Well, I do it how I see fit, you know what
I mean. I don't forget the traditions of my people.
That's my family, but I just do it how I want to do
it, as far as how I see God and how I see the Creator.
Emmerald: How is your family with that? Are they
cool? Do they tell you that you should be going to
church every Sunday?
Donnie: I come from the type of family that's not
really mean and forceful like that. They just have
common sense. My mother and father and brother just
want me to have some type of spiritual life. Even if
I was a Buddhist, I don't think they would really have
a problem with that. I think they would prefer that I
was in the church, but they don't give me trouble
about it at all.
Emmerald: Growing up in the church, did you sing in
church as well?
Donnie: I did it all-- junior deacon, singing,
choir director and all of that kind of stuff.
Emmerald: Did you ever think to pursue or did you
ever pursue a straight ahead gospel path with your
singing?
Donnie: You know what, nobody's ever asked me that
question and I never have.
Emmerald: You've got to be kidding.
Donnie: (laughs) Really, nobody has ever asked me
that question, and it's the first time I'm thinking
about it. I've never ever thought about singing
gospel professionally, even though I started off doing
plays and, you know, studio work within gospel, I've
never thought about that.
Emmerald: Well… (laughs)
Donnie: Wow. I'll say though, I think my message
is for the people that don't believe necessarily in
going to church or don't go to church anymore, or who
weren't raised in church. They can still feel that
power. Everybody goes through pain whether you go to
church or not, you know, and everybody needs to be
delivered from pain.
Emmerald: Yes, definitely. So, from Kentucky, when
did you move to Atlanta?
Donnie: In 1983, I was a child. I was going on
nine years old.
Emmerald: You were a big part of the Atlanta soul
scene in the late 1990's-- the Ying-Yang days, and all
of that. I know you travel around a lot, and things
in Atlanta have changed, but are you still pretty
involved in that soul scene?
Donnie: I'm more involved on a level of guiding or
giving advice to the new artists who have come in on
the scene. Telling them what to do and what not to
do. I want to take it further just like India [Arie]
did, you know what I mean. I want the Atlanta sound
and the Atlanta family to move to the next level.
Emmerald: Sure. Who are some of your favorite new
artists on the Atlanta scene?
Donnie: Rahbi, not only because he's my friend and
he sings background but I love his music. I think
he's hot. And I really love PJ Morton; I love his
music. Lizz Wright was on the scene for a minute.
I'd love to hear her second album.
Emmerald: The creative energy in Atlanta is amazing.
Atlanta is one of the few places where you really
have a collective creative, primarily black musical
energy. Of course, there's Philly and Detroit but
Atlanta's got its own unique thing and it's really
cool.
Donnie: I think it's because it's a southern city,
and everybody comes through Atlanta. So we have a lot
of different energy. A lot of people dis' the south,
but without if, you wouldn't have no jazz or blues. A
lot of good music comes from the south.
Emmerald: That's very, very true. Let's talk about
your new album, "The Daily News" a little bit.
Actually, I'd like to go back a little before that to
the time between "The Colored Section" and "The Daily
News." What was going on with you personally in that
four to five years between those two records?
Donnie: I was taking care of my life, you know.
When you make an album or when people see your video,
they don't always look at you as a person. They just
look at you as if that's what you do and you do that
all the time. I am a person. I have problems and I
have a past and I have different things that I have to
settle within myself like everybody else. And I just
want folks to know that. I've been working on myself.
