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Since their first recorded steps as a band in November 2017, four-piece Americana outfit Elonzo Wesley have lulled Charlotte audiences into a beautifully poignant dance of Appalachian strings and soul.

The hills are alive with the sound of music: not just from Perry Fowler's mountain music band Sinners & Saints, but also from Fowler's locally-owned and operated venue Petra's.

Charlotte has a rich history of funk music. Back in 1965, the "Grandmaster of Funk" himself Mr. James Brown recorded his single “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” right here in the Queen City. As one of Charlotte’s longest-running jazz-funk collectives, Groove 8 has its own Charlotte soul story to share.

The past few years have shown that nerd culture is the new cool, with "Black Panther" becoming the first comic book film to score a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, "Game of Thrones" becoming a cultural phenomenon and even Walt Disney World opening up its first official Star Wars-themed hotel in Florida. Which makes it the perfect time to be GameBreax, a North Carolina “nerdcore” duo who stand proudly at the intersection of geek culture and hip-hop.

If you lived in Charlotte in the early 2000’s, you lived through the golden age of Rock En Español in the Queen City. Latin reggae band Bakalao Stars (led by Christian Anzola) took root during this fertile musical period, a time of locally-produced and supported Latin music which was heralded as “the soundtrack of Charlotte’s racial and cultural evolution.”So what happened to those bands in this city? And what is happening now with Bakalao Stars, one of the remaining Rock En Español acts from that generation?

Some may recognize jazz as being the lifeblood of New Orleans, but what of Charlotte? President and CEO of the Jazz Arts Initiative Lonnie Davis shares what it takes to sustain (and evolve) "America's Classical Music" in the Queen City.

"You'd be really hard-pressed to listen to something today and not be able to at least find four bars of it that's completely derivative of something else." So says super music producer Mark Ronson, and so agrees Charlotte electronic act Dirty Art Club, who samples thousands of songs, sounds and pop culture snippets in his music.

This week on SouthBound, we talk to Kentucky poet Ada Limón about poetry in the pandemic, radical hope, and watching fellow poet Amanda Gorman become a star on Inauguration Day.

Tony Arreaza had every intention of becoming the Freddie Mercury of North Carolina. But after emigrating from Venezuela to Charlotte in 1994, his plans changed. Nearly 30 years later, Arreaza has helped create a flourishing Latin music community organizing concerts through Carlotan Talents, performing guitar with his long-standing Latin band UltimaNota and even having the opportunity to channel his '80s rock icon on MTV Latino.

At a time when bicycling is on the rise because of the pandemic, find out the history and future of lanes, routes and cycling infrastructure in the Queen City.

This SouthBound is a replay of a conversation Tommy Tomlinson had with musician Rhiannon Giddens back in October of 2019, on the morning of a concert she’d perform that night in Charlotte. Remember live music?

SouthBound host Tommy Tomlinson interviews Adrian Miller, James Beard Award-winning food writer and author of the new book "Black Smoke," about Black barbecue pioneers.

Sharon Road, Sharon Lane, Sharon Amity, Sharon Woods Lane, Sharon Township Lane, Sharon Avenue, Sharon Chase Drive, and ... well you get the point. With so many roads named after her, it's no wonder Charlotteans are curious to know who is Sharon.

On the latest FAQ City, take a trip back to an important year in Charlotte’s history — 1910.

In this episode of SouthBound, Tommy talks to Tennessee comedian Nate Bargatze, whose new Netflix special is "The Greatest Average American."

If you travel past schools in Charlotte, you’ve seen the giant decorated rocks outside. But why, exactly, are they there?

There are some restaurants from years past that are part of the city's past, present and, hopefully, future.

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic and stay-at-home orders, remote education and virtual programs have seen a massive uptick in recent months. That includes virtual music lessons from organizations like Charlotte's Bold Music Lessons, which brings music to homes and creates teaching jobs for musicians who’ve lost work as a result of the pandemic.

"Jah" is more than a shortened form of Jehovah. For Charlotte artist Joel Aloise, founding member and guitarist for the Latin reggae band JAHlistic, the word "Jah" is a mantra to be fully, transparently and wholeheartedly authentic in both life, love and music.

For the past five years, singer-songwriter Jim Sharkey has taken the 200-year-old lilt of traditional Irish folk music and placed it in a 21st-century context (with contemporary references to Facebook, Whitney Houston and even the 2019 Women’s World Cup). On his 2019 full-length release "A Lovely Day," Sharkey sings to the theme of home: of finding home, of feeling at home with loved ones, of the nostalgia of remembering his home in Ireland and of making a new one here in North Carolina.