If you talk soul to kids today, they’ll talk about Janet Jackson, TLC and Boyz ll Men. Somehow they've missed out on a whole chuck of recent history starting with the great jazz men and the gospel powerhouse singers like Sam Cooke, Al Green , Aretha Franklin, and all the other giants who put the jellyroll into rock 'n' roll.

But if you know what soul is all about, you should have discovered The Holmes Brothers. This is a tough, incredibly musical trio of players who are a throwback to the days when rhythm and blues wore its heart on it's sleeve and sang the words of the flesh, the heart and the spirit with equal conviction.

With the release of their fifth album, Lotto Land a whole new dimension of the band's ongoing career was opened up. For starters the album was the first that consisted of original material; second, it's the soundtrack from a stirring motion picture that tells a story that tells the story of an older couple, the romantic liaisons of their children and a missing lottery ticket worth a lot of money. thirdly, Wendell Holmes, appears in the film, playing the part of a street musician with a drinking problem and turns in a performance that proves he's as good an actor as he is a musician.

Sherman and Wendell Holmes were born and raised in Virginia. Their early interest in music, traditional Baptist hymns, anthems and spirituals was fostered by their parents, who were both schoolteachers. Growing up they heard Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker and B.B. king on the radio and after high school Sherman went to Virginia State to study composition and music theory.

In 1959, he dropped out and headed for New York planning to stay for a semester that turned into well over thirty decades, touring with his brother Wendell and the likes of John Hammond. In the early '70s Wendell met with "Popsy" Dixon, a drummer and soon they were playing as a trio in small East Village clubs. It wasn't long before Popsy started singing and the trios voices blended perfectly, but it took nearly a decade before they recorded their first album.

1989's In The Spirit was a revelation. Billboard called it "utterly astounding", Rolling Stone gushed about the way they brought "renewed urgency and energy to classic blues and r&b" and People Magazine raved about "raw -boned virtuosity" and music that was "round, real and ecstatic".

Similar praise came in for the second album called Where It's At and 1993's Soul Street, a stunning collection of originals and classics. An album of traditional gospel material, Jubilation, was recorded by Peter Gabriel in England, using African, Scandinavian and Chinese players from the world music circuit.

And now the band tours tirelessly, festivals, clubs and concert halls all over North America, Europe and Africa. They've done Letterman and recorded a Japanese television special. Each year they do hundreds of concert and club dates, from Tallahassee to Turkey, Montreal to Monterey and from Berkeley to Belgium.

This is new music, but in reality it's as old, experienced and exultant as you want it to be.