This is the memory palace, on Nate D'Ameyo.

Let me walk you through the steps.

I will introduce you to one of the story's two main characters, beginning when he is young

and then take you through his biography, pausing right before a key moment.

I will then switch to the second character and repeat those moves I just laid out.

There will then be a musical interlude of a sort, after which I will return to the alternating

pattern, switching back and forth between the two characters, progressing chronologically

as I do, until pausing briefly to move backwards, then moving toward the end with both men's

stories intertwined.

Okay.

His parents had a piano, made he and his brother take lessons, but before long they were

all in, especially Van.

He fell in love with classical music, the lusher, the more romantic, more bombastic,

the better.

He found his voice and church in the choir, found his rhythm on the radio, especially

Duwa, this was the late 1950s.

He was writing songs by the time he was 12, had his own singing group, the Starlighters,

when he was enrolled at Howard University, but he dropped out to do music full time.

He went to work for his uncle, with his struggling soul label up in Philly.

Van helped him behind the boards, placing microphones just so to make the kick drum boom,

hanging a blanket from the ceiling to make sure the symbols didn't bleed into the piano.

He ran around town hustling singles to radio stations, even cut a couple of his own in the

...