Conya Doss As mainstream R&B becomes progressively more processed, where vocalist and robot android are interchangeable, Conya Doss continues to revel in the organic qualities of her voice, which needs no studio filters or digital trickery to shine. She is clearly of sound mind at a time when more famous colleagues, like Lauryn Hill — with whom she’s often compared, both sonically and visually — may not be. Heck, with her beauty and obvious glow, she doesn’t even need any PhotoShop rehaul.

Yet the accomplished Ms. Doss — a teacher of special-needs children — is still shamefully one of the area’s best-kept soul secrets. Check out last year’s album Love Rain Down for a reaffirmation that the best music doesn’t always get the platform it deserves. Even tunes like the minor-key masterpiece “Nevermind” are gorgeous and hopeful, when they could be downtrodden and tragic in the hands of some bumbling diva.

She may be our star, Cleveland, but she should be everyone else’s too.

This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2007.