The “One Nation Under The Soul Shack” Story

Do you know the herstory of ONUTSS? Some may know the inside story and others may have heard me talk about ONUTSS but not quite sure of the details.

Detrel Howell and Pamela Nichols (that’s me) co-founded ONUTSS late one night in the summer months of 2006 while comparing our calendar of planned outdoor events. Events were surely plentiful back then, up until a few years ago–sad. I will get into that in another post.

Detrel and I have a special and true passion for good music, as I am sure many of you do. However, the love we had for a particular artist, Rahsaan Patterson, brought us together in music and friendship.

BB King’s 2005 – Aqeel’s head sticking up behind the Back Row- Yolanda, Rahsaan, Marcus Middle Row -Dianne, Dana, Detrel, (not sure who this young man is) me in front of Detrel where we saw Rahsaan (this was my first time. The show I was looking forward to seeing was canceled the year before at the World Trade Center)

I joined a few online forums where I saw a post by Rahsaan’s sister on Giant Step that said there was a Yahoo group for him, which is where I met Detrel and the rest of the folks
<—pictured here.

We were all in the front row taking it all in

Rahsaan chilling with us after the show. He’s happily receiving gifts from the Rahsaaniacs

From there, Detrel invited me over to MySpace where everybody hung out–long before Facebook! This is also where all of the musicans, singers, bands, etc. had a place to share their music with folks who visited their page (I miss this feature not being available over at FB). Detrel and I knew of some of the same artists’ music and some we would turn each other on to. This exchange of music and the artists who possessed it made us discuss why there weren’t more people who knew about them and the great music they were making. It’s the same old song on the radio, then and now–that’s the reason.

We talked about the Sista Factory which was a female indie soul promotion company that produced shows at Joes Pub, NYC. Most of their focus was on female performances which is where I remember around 2004 Kelli Sae, Karen Bernod, and I believe Ledisi and Conya Doss performing. I think the Soul Factory’s events had begun to die down not long before Detrel and I met.
We thought why don’t we find a way to inform more people of all of this good stuff we were coming in contact with; we just couldn’t keep it to ourselves.

Hence Detrel and I gave birth to ONUTSS, One Nation Under The Soul Shack. We had no idea of exactly what to do with this baby but we knew something good would come of it. In August of 2006 ONUTSS scheduled a meet and greet and invited our music, mutual, personal and some new friends from MySpace.

The announcement of ONUTSS at our first event; Meet and Greet at Mocha’s – Harlem, NYC

Greg Soundz and Detrel

The Soul Brotha and Sister (Chris and Georgette Whaley l&r) from Houston visiting New York and just in time for the ONUTSS intro, with singer, Traciana Graves (middle)

Georgette, Me, Elsa, and Detrel

Carmen Michael and Bert Caldwell (Ispysoul)

Elsa Lathan (Footprints Communications) and Marko Nobles (InJoy Enterprises &RhythmAndSoulRadio.com )

Super supporters from Day 1, Kevin Harewood, Greg and Bert

George Littlejohn and Kevin Harewood, who believed in the ONUTSS brand from the very beginning imparted upon Detrel and me, sound advice, and their total support and are still our big brothers!

Jeff (Feelin U) was also with us from day 1!

The following month we received a call from our good friend Tracy Freeman and she asked us to host a listening party for singer/songwriter Choklate. And as the saying goes, “The rest is herstory.”

From September 2006 when we hosted Choklate’s listening party, every month after that we hosted parties for indie artists non-stop for almost a year!

Clyde Vanel of Vanel’s on First, ONUTSS’ first home to host our events.

The First Lady of ONUTSS Listening Parties, Choklate

Our brothers in music, Ish (Bondy’s) George Littlejohn (Purpose Records), and Kevin Harewood (EDclectic Entertainment) George and Kevin were and still are two of our greatest supporters and mentors.

Good friends Mika (Singer) and Pat

Detrel and Tom E. Morgan

The Ladies of ONUTSS, Detrel and Pam

Our good Sista friend Tracy, kicked off the ONUTSS phenomenon by introducing us to Choklate

Dexter Myers and DJ Dan CE

Detrel, George and Jeff (FeelinU) who was also a great ONUTSS supporter

That’s Dave Goodson of the NY Amsterdam News hiding behind that cap!

Myspace, word of mouth, and other soul-related outlets were huge supporters of the ONUTSS brand that helped to catapult our company to a well-respected, sought-after indie soul promotion company.

Although ONUTSS’ mission was to help shine some light on underground/indie artists, a few of the artists we worked with were established like Najee, Angie Stone KeKe Wyatt while Elisabeth Withers appeared on Broadway with The Color Purple as Shug Avery. Gordon Chambers is an award-winning/ hit-making songwriter for artists you know well like, The Isley Brothers, Witney Houston, Brownstone, and Anita Baker, to name a few. When he decided to step out on his own, ONUTSS was one of the promotion companies that worked with him on more than one occasion.

I am happy to inform you, that a few of these artists have excelled to unimaginable heights, like working with THE Prince (Liv Warfield), Grammy Award Nominee (Eric Roberson), Maroon 5 (PJ Morton) and although we didn’t work with her, Ledisi is that beauty you have seen on various award shows in the black community, who sings her face off, and grew up in the indie soul movement earned fourteen Grammy Award nominations to date, winning her first for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Anything For You” in 2021!

Highlights from the events we hosted from 2006 – 2010:

Luther Vandross Tribute