Blues From The Heart

ilentertainer | June 28, 2007

“I love singing the real, old-school blues. It gives me a feeling to sing them type of blues. That’s old school. That’s me.”
â€“ Koko Taylor

Old School (Alligator) is Queen Of The Blues Koko Taylor’s first album in seven years! Taylor roars and growls her way through five originals and six cover tunes from a diverse group of artists including mentor Willie Dixon, protÃ©gÃ© E.G. Knight, Memphis Minnie, Magic Sam, and Lefty Dizz. Old School finds Taylor at the height of her vocal, songwriting, and arranging powers. She revisits the old stuff, but comes up with a contemporary twist to keep it fresh and exciting.

Taylor was down for a while, but not out. In 2003, she was sidelined by complications from emergency gastrointestinal surgery â€“ placed on a ventilator, she could barely breathe let alone sing. A seemingly strong constitution, coupled with the will to live and perform, saw her through her illness and she was back onstage the following year.

Since first seeing Taylor in the early ’80s, I have often thought she deserves the title of “Hardest Working Woman In Show Business.” Taylor lived life on the road for years, promoting her records worldwide and establishing herself as the blues queen. Unlike other female singers, Taylor derived much of her inspiration from the men â€“ Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, and others. Her blues are raw, powerful, lusty, and down-in-the basement. Taylor is one of the few blues women who can hang with the guys on their turf.

In her self-penned liner notes to Old School, Taylor touches on her early life down South and in Chicago, shedding light on what has kept her strong and focused. “The South was rough and it was tough, we was rough and tough too,” she writes. “I was picking cotton, chopping cotton, milking cows, feeding hogs, and chickens. And going out catching rabbits.” Echoing Tina Turner in “Rollin’ On The River,” Taylor says, “It wasn’t nothing nice, and it wasn’t nothing easy that I had to go through down South.” Arriving in Chicago with her soon-to-be husband Robert “Pops” Taylor with 35 cents and a box of Ritz crackers, Taylor found work as a maid, cleaning white families’ homes, taking care of their children, and earning the grand sum of $5 per day. Coming up the way she did no doubt prepared her for survival in the music business.

Old School is the blues at its very best. Taylor kicks things off with an original, “Piece Of Man,” about a ramblin’ man who does come home on occasion, which is reason enough to keep him around: “A piece of man is better than no man at all.” Eek! Taylor redeems herself to us wimin’s libbers with “You Ain’t Worth A Good Woman.” “Better Watch Your Step” is an original with a nod to Hound Dog Taylor, and her “Hard Pill To Swallow” is a cheating song with an unmistakable Willie Dixon groove. Other highlights include the deep, slow blues of “Money Is The Name Of The Game” and Dixon’s midtempo “Don’t Go No Further.” Special guests include slide guitarist Bob Margolin and harp master Billy Branch. Taylor stalwart Criss Johnson is the lead guitarist and co-producer along with Taylor and Bruce Iglauer. Funky drummer Willie Hayes appears throughout. Her live live band, including guitarists Vino Loudon and Shun Kikuta, pianist Stanley Banks, bassist Melvin Smith, and drummer Ricky Nelson, is featured on the final track, “Young Fashioned Ways.”

NEW RELEASES: Pay Before You Pump is the latest from the “Queen Of Soul Blues”/singer-songwriter Denise LaSalle. Unlike many of Ecko Records’ recent releases, Pay Before You Pump does not rely on electronics or synthesizers. It’s real music played by living, breathing musicians. LaSalle, a legendary singer and songwriter has produced a funky, soulful, and bluesy CD in the best Southern soul tradition. Included on Pay Before You Pump are two versions of LaSalle’s original “It’s Going Down” â€“ the raunchy one, in which she tells a female rival to “Give your heart to God girl, because your ass is gonna be mine,” and “Radio Version-Clean,” in which she politely says, “Give your heart to God girl, because your butt is gonna be mine.” There are also two versions of a song entitled “Mississippi Woman,” about a woman who wants to connect to her rural roots. The first is an uptempo, horn-driven jam on which LaSalle pays tribute to Koko Taylor with the “Wang Dang Doodle” refrain, “All night long, all night long.” In the second version, subtitled “Delta Blues Mix,” harmonica and slide guitar replace the horns . . . I’ve never seen zaftig blues mama Candye Kane live, but I like her latest CD, Guitar’d & Feathered (Ruf). A mix of retro roots music, from Texas swing to country blues to rockabilly, jazz, and rock, Kane makes it work with her voice, her delivery, and her genuine feel for the music. She is especially passionate on the original “Goodbye My Heart” . . . The Way It Feels (Ruf) is a rootsy outing by Canadian singer-songwriter/guitarist Roxanne Potvin. Produced by Grammy winner Colin Linden, the 23-year-old Potvin is joined by special guests John Hiatt, Richard Bell, Daniel Lanois, Bruce Cockburn, and Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns on a variety of musical styles from R&B, blues, country, and folk music . . . Potvin is also featured on Time Bomb (Ruf) along with Sue Foley and Deborah Coleman. Time Bomb opens with the title track, an instrumental that features explosive solos by the guitar-playing divas. The ladies divide the rest of the 10 tunes between them, exploring blues, rockabilly, R&B, and funk.