Echo

Hometown -- Baltimore Current members --Nelson Emokpae Founded in --2004 Style --acoustic soul Influenced by --Motown, ABBA, Boyz to Men, Luther Vandross, Norah Jones Notable --Emokpae has yet to release a debut CD because, he said, he's a perfectionist. His first album must perfectly re-create the sound he hears in his head, he said. Until he finds the right people to record him properly, he'll keep using rough-made demos, he said. Quotable --"`Nelly' is myself, and whenever I sing or perform it's usually the reaction of the crowd I base my performance on. Whatever they `echo' back.

Forty-one years ago, Maryland Gov. Marvin Mandel pulled off a series of staggering triumphs that The Sun compared to winning the Triple Crown: Maryland's first gun-control law; a unique, state-run auto insurance agency; and a higher gasoline tax to support Baltimore's first rapid rail line. He achieved this in the face of ferocious opposition from the National Rifle Association and the insurance and trucking industries. It took Mr. Mandel's enormous persuasive skills - including arm-twisting and deal-making - to win those monumental battles.

I was fresh out of high school and in France on the Fourth of July 1985. I was touring Europe with a group of other graduates. We were singing our way through historic cathedrals, parks and town squares, performing in a crooked path from Stuttgart, Germany, to London in the summer. But on that day -- Independence Day -- we were homesick. We wanted to go to a picnic, to watch fireworks, to celebrate something together as a group. Even in the midst of the crowds of Paris, we felt a little lonely and uprooted.

Subscribers and friends of Compass Rose Theater Company had major cause for celebration last month with the opening of the troupe's new theater home in the Annapolis Arts District. The redeveloped 2,900-square-foot space at 49 Spa Road now has a full lobby, classroom, library and a large backstage area for performers and dressing rooms, with a ceiling height of 25 feet and a 10-by-25-foot stage. Designed by Severna Park-based theater architect Gary Martinez, the theater comfortably seats 70. Martinez described it as "a dynamic space for a dynamic company," and Lucinda Merry-Browne, founder and artistic director of Compass Rose, called the theater "the realization of the dream of a lifetime.

The Housing Authority of Baltimore City expanded its maintenance and security sweeps beyond Flag House Courts yesterday, tackling another public housing complex, Lafayette Courts in East Baltimore.For the fourth time in two months, about 350 maintenance workers, counselors and police were dispatched to a Housing Authority high-rise as part of the Extraordinary Comprehensive Housekeeping Operation (ECHO). Yesterday, they converged on an 11-story building at 125 N. Colvin St. in Lafayette Courts, the city's oldest public housing complex.

To Americans, there is no personality trait more noble or admirable than rugged individualism.Other cultures may prize conformity and warn that the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, but here in the U.S. of A., we value those who march to the beat of a different drummer. We see the ability to stand one's ground as a true test of moral fiber.Tom Petty is a case in point. Not only has he maintained a remarkably unique voice as a musician, resisting the tides of fashion and answering only to his own muse, but he takes an equally uncompromising stance toward the business side of rock and roll.

Tiny Echo organizer can get in sync with PC applications Oregon Scientific has packed a lot into a very small package with the Echo personal digital assistant. The $79.95 Echo is billed as the smallest synchronizable PDA. About the length and width of a business card and a mere quarter-inch thick, the Echo weighs less than 2 ounces. Its size may draw users in, but its features will keep them happy. The Echo comes with a PC docking cradle and Companion Link software to synchronize data with Microsoft Outlook, Act!

Today: Believe I Wood, unbeaten in two starts at Laurel, heads the field in the fourth running of the Bobby Hale Stakes, the opening-day feature at Timonium Race Course.Ten 2-year-old colts and geldings passed the entry box for the 6 1/2 -furlong event, which carries a $30,000 purse.Serious challenges are expected from Enchanted Ghost, a son of Silver Ghost, who won his debut at Laurel earlier this month. Wild Explo, who returned with an excuse in the Primer Stakes, should also be respected in the wagering.

Mounted on the back wall of the set for Fell's Point Corner Theatre's production of "Eleemosynary" are two white, fabric-covered trapezoidal shapes. They turn out to be wings, created by an eccentric character named Dorothea, who is convinced that man can fly."The secret of flight lies in the assurance that we are worthy of flying," Dorothea says. Heavily weighted with metaphor, it's a typical line in Lee Blessing's feminist play about three generations of women in an intellectually gifted but emotionally challenged family.

Subscribers and friends of Compass Rose Theater Company had major cause for celebration last month with the opening of the troupe's new theater home in the Annapolis Arts District. The redeveloped 2,900-square-foot space at 49 Spa Road now has a full lobby, classroom, library and a large backstage area for performers and dressing rooms, with a ceiling height of 25 feet and a 10-by-25-foot stage. Designed by Severna Park-based theater architect Gary Martinez, the theater comfortably seats 70. Martinez described it as "a dynamic space for a dynamic company," and Lucinda Merry-Browne, founder and artistic director of Compass Rose, called the theater "the realization of the dream of a lifetime.

For more than a decade, Priscilla Lollar struggled to face the realization that her son had been killed in a brawl outside an Atlanta nightclub. But these days, her emotions are raw again, as one of the men charged in the slaying - Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis - attracts national attention for his impending retirement and the team's playoff run. The brawl in the early morning hours of Jan. 31, 2000, left two young men from Akron, Ohio, dead...

Baltimore's Nelly's Echo made his second - and unfortunately last - appearance on NBC's “The Voice” Monday night, as contestants entered into the battle rounds and some, sadly, went home. TEAM CHRISTINA   Nelly's Echo - Nelson Emokpae, for us local fans - was pitted against Chicago's De'Borah, and NBC has garnered my wrath for unfairly pairing MY TWO FAVORITES AND FORCING ONE OF THEM TO LEAVE. Coach Christina Aguilera had the two taking on The Police's “Message in a Bottle,” and frankly, during rehearsals, De'Borah was a mess, while Nelson seemingly had the win already in hand.

Mitt Romney wants to open up more federal lands and waters to drilling for oil and natural gas. His party is pushing, in the name of freedom and economic opportunity, to roll back a variety of environmental protections. Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, are seeking to ease pesticide regulations; some are even questioning the Environmental Protection Agency's ban on DDT, reopening a controversy that stretches back half a century. Fifty years ago this month, Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring.

The biggest thing to hit NBC's "The Voice" tonight was Baltimore's Nelly's Echo, a Nigerian refugee who wowed the judges with his rendition of Bill Wither's "Ain't No Sunshine," and who found a place on Christina Aguilera's team. Nelly's Echo -- the band and stage name of Nigerian native Nelson Emokpae --prompted both Christina and Adam Levine to spin their chairs with his oh-so-groovy take on the soulful classic, and undoubtedly won the audience's heart with his story. "We left Nigeria because of the political unrest," Nelson, 32, told host Carson Daly before performing.

It thoroughly confounds the pundits that the Baltimore Orioles, separated by 15 years from their last winning season, and with a roster dominated by the young and unknown, would host the New York Yankees in a September series with first place on the line. But anyone who knows history and baseball understands that, in certain times - when the stars align in favor of those determined to extract every shred of excellence from themselves; when the parts of a group undergo the chemical bonding that produces the sum of a team; and when accountability breeds the confidence to do great things - the improbable can become the possible.

Ravens cornerback Lardarius Webb boasted during the offseason that the Ravens have the best secondary in the NFL, and he isn't backing off that claim today. Many of his buddies in the secondary, including cornerback Cary Williams and strong safety Bernard Pollard, have gotten his back, too, when asked for a reaction to Webb's comments. “If I wasn't to piggyback that, I would be wrong," Pollard said. "I think we have a really, really good secondary. We have a Hall-of-Famer at free safety, really good guys on the outside and I'm kind of a piece of the puzzle.

Municipal and Housing Authority workers and police swept through another East Baltimore public housing high-rise building yesterday in an effort to rid the residence of grime and crime.Wearing white hard hats, about 350 workers from 10 city agencies descended on the 12-story building at 26 S. Exeter St. at 9 a.m. and started hammering, sawing, painting and landscaping the grounds under the Extraordinary Comprehensive Housekeeping Operation, or ECHO.The Housing Authority of Baltimore City has now conducted ECHO sweeps at all three high-rise buildings at the Flag House Courts public housing complex at a cost of $200,000 for each sweep.

They come from six countries and speak limited English, but 10 Old Mill High School students hope that won't keep them from sharing their thoughts and cultures with their American classmates.The students, members of the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class, are reaching out through their four-page newspaper, Voice of ESOL."These ESOL students are really interested in sharing information about themselves and their home countries and this has given them an opportunity to do so," said Cathy M. Nelson, their teacher and adviser.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's strong pro-Israel statements over the weekend, including his endorsement of Jerusalem as Israel's capital (a reversal of long-standing U.S. policy), increases the pressure on President Barack Obama to prove that he is an equally strong backer of Israel. The key question is whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak will interpret the presidential campaign rhetoric as an open invitation to provoke hostilities with Iran, in the expectation that President Obama will feel forced to jump in with both feet in support of our "ally" Israel.

Those who have followed the years-long saga of the Gateway School site in Clarksville might be experiencing deja vu after County Executive Ken Ulman's announcement last week that the county had reached a deal to sell the 7.8-acre parcel for $5 million to a developer for a commercial project that would stand out for its environment- and pedestrian-friendly design. If the statement had a familiar ring, it's because the county made essentially the same announcement in May 2010 - the same price, the same land on Clarksville Pike across from the River Hill village center, the same developer and the same celebration of the promise of the project.