Hometown Sounds

There’s something special about music videos filmed during the song’s recording, a crackle that’s visible in the collaboration between musicians as they focus not on pleasing the crowd but in perfecting the sound for the studio engineer. Instrumental soul ensemble Backbeat Underground brought in the heavyweights for their new single “She Don’t Love Me (Like I Do)”, with a brass section including DC jazz greats Joe Herrera, Matt Rippetoe, Kirsten Warfield and Daniel Wallace, and vocals from Aaron Abernathy, whose 2017 album Dialogue is one of the highlights of the year. Now signed to the venerable DC electronic funk label Fort Knox Recordings, Backbeat Underground continues the legacy of brass-led jazz and funk that’s crucial to DC music’s identity.