Tom Joyner's Classic Soul Tour

Surely you must know about Tom Joyner, the hardest-working disc jockey there ever was (and not just because a radio gig once had him flying from Dallas to Chicago and back every freakin' day; his frequent flyer miles have dwindled since he got syndicated on ABC radio). If you've never heard his morning show on Majic 102, you may have seen him in those silly McDonald's commercials. Or you may have flipped through his line of Old School Mix CDs from Rhino at the record store. Hell, even as you're reading this you may be eating one of those Ben & Jerry's flavors (Island Paradise, Butter Pecan and Apple Crumble -- very delicious, by the way) that help fund his Tom Joyner Foundation for financially strapped black college students.

He's omnipresent, all right, and what's more, he's trusted. Not since the days of Venus Flytrap on WKRP in Cincinnati has there been a broadcaster in which black America has placed more faith. He's like some alternate-universe Walter Cronkite, one who would rather tell you about Bootsy Collins or the Ohio Players than the Ayatollah Khomeini and the gas crunch.

Which brings us to Joyner's latest venture, the Classic Soul Tour. The lineup will consist of the O'Jays, with Eddie Levert leading the band as they drop cuts from both their latest, last year's For the Love…, and the Gamble and Huff classics; the Dramatics, whose street-cred tank got a fill-up not too long ago when they sang backup on Snoop Dogg's "Doggy Dogg World"; and the Temptations Review, in which Dennis Edwards will attempt to re-create the Motown sound with some dudes who aren't the Temps. Come to think of it, do you really need Tom Joyner's seal of approval to know this will be a satisfying evening of soul? To be honest, they had me at the O'Jays.