|
(return
to part 3)
Let's talk about where
you stand today. Is owning your own label the wave of the future
for artists whose style of work places them outside the mainstream?
I'm the only artist who has the luxury of
owning her entire major-label catalog, and catalog is the thing
that keeps you liquid during hard times - after terrorist attacks,
or when retail goes into a nosedive. I hope that, after me, artists
will see it's possible to go into the major-label system and
come out intact. Having done that is a wonderful foundation to
build a label on.
What major labels love to do is take young
phenoms and throw them into the system ... and by the time I
got into the system, they had fine-tuned that machine. The labels
told me to my face, "Go as far as you can on your first
album, because it's all downhill from there." And that went
against what all my instincts were telling me, which was that
I was getting better as I get older.
The reason they do that is because as an artist
gets older and learns how to have a little more control over
the business, the label profits less. Then they just move on
and recycle another young phenom.
One of the most intense
blues songs on your new record is "Little Billie," which tells of life
and death in New Orleans. It's a true story, correct?
It's part of why I'm unkeen to romanticize
the "living blues." Her real name is Lois, and they
had a jazz funeral for one of her sons, a trombone player who
was killed by crossfire in the streets. The first line was the
family, and everyone from the neighborhood joined in behind the
band. We carried his coffin to the projects.
When they got to the spot where he had been
shot, it was an epiphany: They lifted Lois onto his coffin, and
she danced. She danced. Can you imagine? Your whole life
as a mother has prepared you for this moment - you've raised
him, protected him, and now you have to dance the truth that
you profess, which is that he has gone on to a better place where
kids don't get shot by crossfire. And you have to dance it with
a joy and a grief that expresses all that - and do it while the
whole community is watching you.
(continue
to part 5)
1 2 3
4 5
Send a comment
to Blues Revue.
|