Queen Esther – Blackbirding

By Alex Nudd

Published March 16, 2026 at 2:40 PM EDT

We kicked off Black History Month with this powerful one from Queen Esther, who was raised in Atlanta and Charleston. Blackbirding is a reclamation-driven Black country soul album that roams the Gettysburg battlefield to create songs that dismantle myths and assumptions about what happened there -- and to explore the reasons why, like slavery, the Civil War has never really ended. Blackbirding -- the lucrative 19th-century practice of kidnapping free Black folk to enslave them–– can be seen continuing in assorted ways today. This album centers Queen Esther's Black feminist perspective as it encompasses different aspects of the conflict, churning lost history into music that blends country, jazz, soul, R&B, and pop, reflecting the unbridled chaotic melange of the battlefield – with women in and out of uniform on both sides of the conflict.

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Alex Nudd

Alex has been a fan of radio since childhood and jumped at the chance to get involved with college radio in the late 90's. He served as marketing director and program director at WAQU before taking a job with Clearchannel Broadcasting around the turn of the century. After becoming disenchanted with commercial radio, he moved to Asheville in 2006 and soon became acquainted with WNCW as a listener, supporter, and volunteer. In the meantime, he has operated a small home improvement business in Western North Carolina, where he enjoys life with his wife, Darlene, and Son, James, and has enjoyed public radio all the while. It wasn't until 2023 that he knocked on the door at WNCW and said, "I would like to get in on this action." Program director, Joe Kendrick noticed that Alex has a face for radio and Alex explained that it was because he had some radio experience in decades past and it is hard to get the radio off once you really get all into it. After hosting over 100 hours of ARC overnight, Alex signed on as a staff member, and now hosts and produces radio programs for WNCW. You can hear him on WNCW Remixed and ARC Overnight, and as an occasional fill-in host.

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