A Band Behind Bars: Soul Incarcerated
Podcast shines a light on creativity and incarceration
In 1979, something extraordinary occurred at the Powhatan Correctional Center outside of Richmond, Virginia.
In mid-September of that year, a handful of talented inmates came together and recorded an eight-song album in about five hours. Their band was called The Edge of Daybreak, and that single-day recording came to be known as Eyes of Love. About a thousand copies of the soul record were pressed, a few lucky Virginians got to hear it on the radio, and it eventually fell into obscurity — at least for people outside of the prison system. End of story, right?
Not so fast. A+E's seven-episode podcast Soul Incarcerated tells the full story of The Edge of Daybreak in rich detail. Hosted by Erie native Jamie Pietras, the show examines how the band came together, how they recorded an album while serving prison time, how the record was rediscovered, and how they got the band back together nearly 40 years later.
Pietras first heard The Edge of Daybreak when their song "Our Love" ended up in a scene from 2016's Oscar-winning film Moonlight. "I vividly remember hearing this song in that film," he says on a Zoom call in late January. "And I made a mental note because it was amazing." About two years later, the seasoned journalist was researching a story about connections between the prison system and hip-hop, hoping to find music written while incarcerated. After "falling down a Google rabbit hole," Pietras discovered The Edge of Daybreak and immediately recognized the song from the movie.
Pietras soon learned that, over the years, Eyes of Love had become a beloved obscurity among the "rare groove" connoisseurs who peruse second-hand shops and thrift stores looking for unsung classics. And for good reason — the record will delight fans of '70s soul icons like the Delfonics or Curtis Mayfield. Buzz about The Edge of Daybreak eventually found its way to the Numero Group, an archival record label that re-releases soul records that are out of print, and a deal was worked out with one of the group's surviving members. After positive press from sources like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, The Edge of Daybreak was back on the radar for a new generation of music lovers. One track from Eyes of Love was even sampled on legendary rap duo Black Star's 2022 reunion album, No Fear of Time.
Soul Incarcerated tells the story of the band's formation, the logistics that went into the recording of the album, its rediscovery, and — perhaps most importantly — how three of the surviving members chose to make music again decades later. The podcast focuses primarily on that trio of bandmates — the philosophical and eccentric vocalist Jamal Jaha Nubi, the tenacious guitarist Cornelius "Neal" Cade, and the flamboyant, gender-non-conforming singer Cupcake Coleman. It shows how music gave them a sense of purpose while incarcerated and how their performances positively impacted their fellow inmates.
But it's not just a story of the past, either. When Pietras first contacted Nubi through Instagram, it led to a wide-ranging conversation. "Jamal and I talked for literally five hours," he says. "We spent a whole day together. We went to the top of Mill Mountain Park in Roanoke, and he just told me his life story." Realizing he was at the start of something fascinating, Pietras ended up traveling back and forth from Brooklyn to Virginia for seven years to fuel the podcast. He had intimate conversations with the band about grief, addiction, and creativity. He spoke to prison wardens about how recording equipment became available at a correctional center. Through Cupcake Coleman, he heard fascinating first-hand accounts of the drag performance scene in late '60s Virginia. And ultimately he was able to document the making of New Horizons, a new four-song EP that The Edge of Daybreak released in late January of this year.
Soul Incarcerated is also punctuated with reflective conversations between Pietras and his main collaborator, DJ and actor Dorian Missick (who you may recognize from TV shows like Luke Cage, Southland, and Six Degrees). Missick helps situate The Edge of Daybreak's music into the larger socio-political landscape of soul, funk, and R&B.
I asked Pietras about what he found most resonant about the story his podcast tells. He said he kept coming back to guitarist Neal Cade, who has been consistently recording music on cassette for about a half century. "Listening to Neal's music on cassette was very moving," says Pietras. "There's something about the rawness and intimacy of someone, whether it was in the prison cell or, years later, in their bedroom with a guitar. I'm not sure it gets more intimate than that. It made me think a lot about — and this may sound cheesy — the nature of expression, art, and creativity. The function that it serves. How we are, or are not, validated. And what defines success."
Episode #1 of A+E's Soul Incarcerated premieres on February 4 wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes will then be released on a weekly basis for the remaining six episodes. Visit: omny.fm/shows/soul-incarcerated/soul-incarcerated
The Edge of Daybreak's 1979 album Eyes of Love is available to purchase here: numerogroup.com/products/edge-of-daybreak-eyes-of-love
The Edge of Daybreak's newest release, New Horizons, can be streamed on a variety of platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, and YouTube.
Dan Schank can be contacted at danschank@gmail.com
