There’s not many who would venture so boldly into the unknown. But Houston’s Bertell Young, Capitol Records’ rising R&B voice, has a habit of navigating unchartered territory. A veteran of six, count ‘em six, high schools around Houston, Bertell is no stranger to instability. Prior to that, he’d split his childhood between Melville, Louisiana and the Longhorn State. Hotly recruited for his hoop game, Bertell was the toast of Texas, winning the state championship his senior year. He then enrolled at Howard College in West Texas on a basketball scholarship. It was there that his musical muse, sparked by an impromptu grade school ditty about a classmate’s runny nose, matured.