The Perfect Song

Kam Talbert is a singer, songwriter, producer and curator. He is known in the R&B and soul stratospheres.

His Mama carried him around the world while pregnant with Kam with the Smokie Robinson music concerts. He aspired to go into acting but music enveloped him totally.

Kam shares how he thought he would go into acting, but the air he breathed was all music. He grew up with some talented young singers and artists and seeks his own greater fame. But mostly, he just loves music and doing the work to create music. A bit of a perfectionist, he holds onto his songs a little too long. His wife encourages him to release his music. He seeks to model the man he wants his daughters to find as their life partners.

Among his mystical moments, Kam shares his journey across the country - on foot! He and his friends literally walked across the country. He found his own truth - despite the warnings from others.

As a singer, he recognizes those moments when God is palpable in his singing moments and allows himself to be carried away by those mystic moments!

Find Kam on Facebook. And, if you're game, see him at "Celebrating Our Soul" at Unity Village, a hop, skip and a jump from Kansas City - August 13-16.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:18

You're listening to Mystic Magic, Exploring Our Spirit to Understand Our Lives. I'm Celeste Frazier, your hostess. I'm an ordained God minister who embraces all faiths. I've pastored a few spiritual communities, written a few books, performed in various media. I write, produce, and perform. I'm a visioning facilitator, a diversity, equity, and inclusion facilitator. And with mystic magic, we explore amazing guests to find out what the divine reveals through us and how we may benefit from this magnificent day two of this is Mystic Magic. Exploring our spirit to understand our lives. Hey, hey, Mystic Magic Podcast fans. We are in for a good time today because today my guest is Cam Halbert. Cam is a creative being. He's a singer, he's a songwriter, and he is an interesting person. So I wanted to um let you know that he is one of the performers at Celebrating Our Soul 2026. Claiming our sacred power. Welcome to Mystic Magic Camp. Well, thank you for having me. So tell me how did you get to know about uh celebrating our soul? Was it through Reverend Sherry?

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Uh yes, yes, it was through Reverend Sherry. Uh she she called me and told me about it, and uh she uh said she she was recommending me and she she told me a little bit about it, and uh yeah, I was very uh excited and intrigued to be uh to be considered.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

So, so what's going on with your music career? What what's it been like? How did you how'd you get started? Why'd you get started? What brought you into music and what keeps you there?

SPEAKER_01 2:23

Okay, well, um I come from a musical family. I know a lot of the people have that type of story. My mother's a singer. Uh she was a background singer with Smokey Robinson for um most of my life growing up, uh as a kid, uh, years before I was born, and she had me on stage in her womb. And uh she used to take me all over the world with her on tour with Smokey, and my uncles also are singers, and my father's a songwriter, so it was sort of the family business. And uh I actually was uh going in another direction. I wanted to be uh, you know, more acting and do things like that, and uh, but I was always around it, and I was, you know, unconsciously getting lessons, voice lessons, and music lessons all the time. And uh yeah, I came up in uh this family and I took piano and I didn't really actually get serious about singing and doing music until I was well into high school. But uh I uh I went to a performing arts I'm sorry? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I just said what changed?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Oh yeah, um yeah, I mean I went to a performing arts high school. A lot of my friends uh were were doing music, and I I got into it in that way. I did uh I went to a school that did musicals and plays and things like that. I had a lot of music classes, and uh, and it just I started to go more in that direction. And then a friend of mine had a uh a group and uh and he was writing songs. I actually was uh good friends with uh Omarion, the singer Omarion, when we were in high school, we started writing songs, we were like writing partners, and uh he was a lot further on and more serious about singing, and I was just kind of really getting, I started writing my own songs. He heard one of my songs and said, Oh, we should write together and start doing some music. And I got a lot more serious, and yeah, I joined a group, a band in high school. Uh and the musicians in the and in that band were really, really talented as like younger kids, and like they just and they continue now to still do more music as very, very uh well-known uh musicians out here in Los Angeles, a drummer named Ronald Bruner, Cameron Graves, and Taylor Graves, the Graves brothers, and uh and uh we uh had a development deal with MCA, and you know, I just uh I really started to want to do music more and more, and I wanted to do my own solo music and things like that.

SPEAKER_02 4:58

Great. Now, what is it that makes you happy other than music?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

Wow, uh, I mean, I'm in I'm an entertainer at heart. I really enjoy being on stage. I love to uh, you know, give people a good feeling, make people laugh. Stand-up comedy was a big thing for me at one point. I was really, really looking at doing stand-up and making people laugh all the time, but uh I also just enjoyed performing and being on stage. I love being in plays and musicals, and that was another thing that really pushed me in the direction of uh embracing my voice when I would do some of these plays and these musicals, and I had to join, you know, sing in the in the uh the ensemble and sing leads for some of these parts, and uh just develop my voice a little more and gave me a little more confidence behind my voice.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Did you choose to um stick with this career because it brings you joy, or do you just feel like you got so much invested in it that you'll keep at it?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Uh huh. Yeah, it definitely brings me joy. I I I can say I I'm an entertainer, so all aspects of entertainment, I like being on stage. And uh I can't I can't up front, you know, at first I didn't want to do singing or music or anything because my uncles and my mother is just really good, and it was a high bar, you know, to try to reach. And so I I didn't really jump at it right away. It it took me a while to really, like I said, embrace my own voice and and try to develop what I actually had. And uh once I started like writing my own songs and collaborating with other friends and other musicians is when I really started to grow more into wanting to do music because uh, like I said, I've I've dabbled in all aspects of it. I've done rapping, singing, you know, I used to dance a little bit in school, so all of it was uh was a part of what I wanted to do, and that's why I'm really still pushing now because I have been doing it for so long at this point that uh yeah, it's in me. And I mean I do it, I do it as a as a profession. I I sing these days for uh various companies that send us out for corporate events or weddings, and uh that's just my day job uh a little bit now these days.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

So are you doing any other kind of performing like acting or anything like that?

SPEAKER_01 7:34

No, not right now. No acting. I haven't been pursuing, let's say, trying to get any parts or do any acting. Um mostly my own creative endeavors, uh coming up with skits and trying to write things. Um I'm a bit of a I'm a bit of a perfectionist, like a lot of artists are, you know, so I have a lot of ideas and a lot of things that I've done that I I tend to keep close and don't want to release. And my project that I'm working on in music right now is actually uh an effort to release more. The the project is called The Art of Letting Go. And a lot of the songs are kind of geared towards that idea of perfectionism and just trying to get everything so perfect and so right and and never letting it out. And I know there's a lot of artists out there that deal with that same type of thing. So that's my my motivation these days, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

So what about Upchurch? What how did you get to Upchurch?

SPEAKER_01 8:38

Uh Upchurch, yeah. My mother, uh, I've been going to Upchurch since I was very young. Um my mother started going there. My uncles, they all uh connected with Della. Yeah, my uh my mother uh and my uncles they came out from Chicago and they met with Della and uh they did a they did a play with her called The Messages in the Music back uh in the like the mid-80s, and uh and they were involved, they started getting involved with the church. Like I said, I was very young, so I've I I've been going to Up Church since I was maybe five or six or so, uh maybe seven or so. So it's been my church since I was a child.

SPEAKER_02 9:19

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

I didn't know you had Chicago roots. I'm in Chicago and that's my hometown. I just got back here. So um tell me about what it what it's like to um uh be a musician who does a lot of work in the church, but also does music in the more commercial realm. Like like how does that bridge happen other than your connections? Like, do you find a certain kind of feeling when you're in the church that you don't find in the studio, and vice versa?

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yes. Uh since I since I've been doing gigs for weddings and corporate events with these companies, uh I've I've been able to get myself into other uh music endeavors to keep you know keep that always in my in my environment, in my circumference. You know, uh my friend uh Jametta Rose, she has a choir called The Voices of Creation that she developed, and they got a deal with a company out in Europe, and uh they were able to get a tour, and we've gone out to Europe a few times. So that's like another choir that I'm in, aside from the choir at church. And uh it's very uplifting, positive music. It's not necessarily like a denominational church choir, it's kind of like a uh a positive message uh jazz ensemble choir, you know, uh mission statement for Voices of Creation as we make music to heal ourselves and others. And uh Jametta Rose, she just released a new project that she debuted uh actually on Saturday. And uh yeah, it's it's that. It's uh it's my church. You know, I'm one of the main singers at my church, so we'll have a rehearsal. I have to have to try to figure out how to get to two rehearsals on Saturday at once. Um and then my my main job during the week now is also uh I work for a company that does backline that supplies instruments and support for artists. We have a rehearsal uh spaces and we rent out all kinds of instruments, and so I'm constantly surrounded by music even more than I ever was because I'm all day at work delivering keyboards and drums, and then on the weekends I'll go do a gig and a wedding or some type of show with the voices of creation, and almost every Sunday I'm singing at church.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

What keeps you in a spiritual environment?

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Um, you know, honestly, the um the understandings that I've gained in through the years from understanding principles, I really do have a core of positive and you know uh new thought principles that are embedded that I that are sometimes uh unconscious, you know, that I don't even realize that, oh, yeah, I'm being positive about that. Like just the way that some somebody would speak, I might say, hey, don't say that about yourself, or you know, whatever it is. And it's just something that's uh been in me for a long time. A lot of my peers that were my age, we all we've all grown up, and we have I remember having conversations with them, and we're all realizing, yeah, you know, we we really have this, like it's in us, you know, and it's a beautiful thing. Um so yeah, the the environments that I came up in uh definitely helped form you know my perspective on a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

So we're we're getting ready for celebrating our soul, and uh you're on the music team and I'm producing. And so what is it that you think this experience is gonna be like for you?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

You know, that's a very good question because I'm very intrigued by this uh entire thing. And uh I'm I'm expecting it to be uh like a uh a great seminar, a music festival, uh, you know, uh one of the big church events that we've all been to many, many through the years, and you know, I'm excited for that. Uh and and a great uh opportunity to perform um and show some of these newer songs that I have, and uh and to just you know help drive the message that we're that we're getting across uh on this whole event.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

It's a pretty special event.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

The um the different new thought teachings come together, whether they're unity, whether they're science of mind, you know, whether they're independence, you know, we're coming from all over the world, um, as far as Africa to Jamaica through the United States. And so it's it's pretty special. Um I've been producing all three over the years. We started um back in 2000 with our first conference in 22. And some of the most prominent new thought speakers and and uh musicians and teachers come and really present a lot of different aspects of uh spirituality and uh spiritual principles that help people have better lives. And so what I know is that um these are the kinds of things that do transform people's lives. And being a part of this music team, I know you're just kind of getting a little bit uh introduced to to some of the team, but really outstanding talent that would that we gather. And so it's it's such a uh a reunion for us to come together. And so I was just wondering um when you think about your life including music but also beyond music, here's a central question that I ask every guest who comes on Mystic Magic. Can you think of a mystical moment that changed your life?

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Hmm Mystical moment ah there's there's there's some there's a few to touch on.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

Uh yeah, changed my life. Well, honestly, I huh what'd you say? Pick one. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Pick one so let's see. Uh there was a time in my life uh back in 200 and 6 where me and a group of friends of mine, we all uh walked from Los Angeles to New York. We walked across the country. And uh Yes, yeah, we're uh some some buddies of mine, you know, we were young, I was 25 back then, and uh a buddy of mine said, Yeah, I always had this idea to walk across the country. And I said, What? That would be cool. Now, when someone says something like that, you're not really thinking that's gonna happen, you know. Uh it just sounds like a great idea, and it sounds like something we would work towards, and you don't really know how exactly you're supposed to do something like that. But um everyone was uh very, very uh into the idea and pushed, and especially my my good friend Kevin, who uh who really had the organization understanding on how to make it work. And so come the time, April 1st, 2006, we left Venice Beach, California, and we took a full year to walk across the country all the way to New York, to Manhattan. That was my first time ever getting to New York, and I mean there's countless things that you could say, but God, uh, throughout that entire trip. I mean, we went to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, we walked through hell, sleet, stone, snow, every extreme. So that whole experience in that year was a great step on faith and understanding how how your energy projects when you project positive energy. Because every spot that people would say, oh, when you get to this part of the country, watch out because this or that, or these people are crazy, or these people are racist, or whatever, every single time we got to one of those spots, it was the complete opposite thing. And it taught me a big lesson on what's actually happening out in the country, opposed to what we might hear on the news or what we see online. When you see people face to face, it's different.

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah, so when you think of all of those those moments, I'm sure there were times when you were very surprised by things that happened.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Was there anything that stands out for you? Uh I'm trying to pinpoint one of these stories. I guess I could say, yeah, I mean, we um We went down to the Grand the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

Uh it took us about six or so hours to get down. But it took us almost twelve hours to get back up the next day because of the heat and all of these things and just the perseverance that we had to have, you know, as people were passing us by saying, Yeah, you know, people don't make it up this up this hill. And we're like, What? Okay. But we still pushed through and we were able to make it, you know, the the uh camaraderie that we had, the uh the support that we gave each other. It was a it was a great lesson and just pushing through, persevering, praying, and uh and getting there.

SPEAKER_00 19:14

Let's drill down a little bit more into the praying part because um when you think about having a connection with God, has there ever been a time when you felt that the presence of God was palpable? And have you ever tried to explain it? And if so, what did you say?

SPEAKER_01 19:40

You know, I've I've sang at funerals and things like that, and yeah, when you've when you know that you can feel the presence of God uh in this moment that you're having. Uh I know I felt uh it's it's I'm singing a song and you can feel a touch and it just breaks you down and and you have to release. Uh I definitely know that those are those are real moments. And yeah, yeah, that that's that's a that's definitely a situation, yeah, where you can you can really feel the it's palpable, you know, it's it's there. There's a presence in the undeniable thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

And do you notice anything different about you after that happens?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah, it's it helps to strengthen the walk, it helps to it helps with your faith because you know that you've gotten an experience to to pinpoint where you can say, now I know that this happened and this is this was a real feeling, and it gives you more confirmation uh for your faith, you know. It helps your faith grow because you know what that presence feels like.

SPEAKER_02 20:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

And so um we've got a really special team, um, you know, of of uh um Bukeka Blake Moore and um music director Angela Ward and the James Ward band, and we've got um you know some some just really uh really good folks who are participating on the music team and of course a dedicated um planning team and a program team. And and the magic of Unity Village is pretty special in and of itself. Have you been there before?

SPEAKER_01 21:35

No, no, I've never been out there. I'm excited to see it.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Oh, okay. Yeah, good. You got something to look forward to.

SPEAKER_02 21:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

And so I'm sure that uh your your mom and your family are proud that you're gonna be part of this event. Um and that uh you're getting support from your wife and and The rest of your family to to be a part of this special time.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Yes, indeed.

SPEAKER_00 22:05

So tell me about what your aspirations are, whether it's musical or spiritual or personal. What are your aspirations?

SPEAKER_01 22:26

In all those areas. In my personal life, in my spiritual life, my family life. Got two daughters. And uh, you know, being able to to be the man that I would eventually want them to see uh to be with, let's say, type of the type of man that they want to be with. And uh and just also show them, you know, in real time how I worked to get to a goal and to succeed in that goal. Um me and my wife have a beautiful marriage and a beautiful relationship, and we just continue to hold hold the line and maintain that. And uh today is actually our uh 13-year wedding anniversary. Um and uh we're gonna be so good. Thank you, thank you. And uh, yeah, you know, I mean, uh I'm working on my my album project. You know, I have a lot of friends growing up in Los Angeles, California. You you tend to grow up with people that gain some uh public and you know fame and success. And so I s I have a lot of friends that are, you know, successful industry people and all this kind of stuff. And you know, I definitely like to be up here uh in that realm uh as as as well as a friend, you know, and so I'm still trying to uh complete my my music project and uh make more and more music projects. My wife tells me all the time, just release your music, you know, release it, you know, because I like I said I I like to hold on to it and say, Well, let me fix this and put one more thing on there and make it perfect and all of this. And uh and I'm and I'm working on not overthinking things and uh and not being so you know perfectionist when it comes to that, so that I can actually allow the world to hear, you know, these ideas and these uh and these songs and these messages that I want to wanna give people.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

And she's and she's right. I mean, you know, you know, you're never gonna be finished with with the script, with the song, with with the production. It's always gonna be better. The thing is, once you get used to having that success, the the the more willing you're willing to be the more you're willing to do more projects. So I'm sure that you know I'm looking forward to that as well. I'm sure that you have the talent and and the ambition and the intelligence to succeed. And um I want to say thanks for coming on Mystic Magic and uh look forward to seeing you at Unity Village and that is August 13th through 16th, 2026, at Unity Village in Missouri. Flying in to Kansas City Airport for those of you who want to come. And for those of you who want more information, you can go to our website, PadNtg.org. Thanks so much for coming to Mystic Magic today, Cam. Much blessings.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yes, indeed. Thank you so much for having me as well. All right.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

Rudy New Bunny. It's Wahili for Come Home. The people of African Descent New Thought Group invite you to follow your ancestral call to attend Celebrating Our Soul, claiming our sacred power at Unity Village from August 13th through 16th, 2026. This special time calls you to awaken. Remember your sacred power. Take the journey to transform challenge into conquest, where you depart from your former self, to embrace your genuine power. Our music will inspire you. Our singers will awaken you. Reverend Michael Beckwith will have you on your feet, either praising God or getting down from your inner spirit to the top of your crown chakra. The African drummers from the traditional music society and the It's Okay dancers will have you dancing with your ancestors. And the brilliant masterclass presenters will open your minds and hearts in miraculous ways. Energy healing workers will restore your body so that it is in alignment with your newly revived spirit. You can do Reiki and Massage, cranial sacral therapy, or do daily Qikong with Baiji Daniels. There are many activities on the program and a couple of off-site trips. But you can stay on the grounds and chill if you'd like. Enjoy the fountains or labyrinth or peaceful trails, or simply chill with your friends. If you can't be there in person, don't fret. Our virtual option is now available. Virtual registrants will be able to access the Zoom recordings two weeks after the conference ends, Monday, August 31st. The recordings will be available for one month through September 30th. To be there virtually on Zoom, go to PADNTG.com slash form slash cos virtual 2026. Again, that's P-A-D-N-T-G dot breathe chms.com slash form slash C O S D-I-R-T-U-A-L 2026. It's up to you how you celebrate your soul. But whatever you do, please celebrate you and get your ticket today at padntg.org. See you there. Thank you for tuning in today. Be sure to check out our show notes for more information about today's episode. You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, and all of your favorite podcast venues. This is Mystic Magic, exploring our spirit to understand our lives.