|
(return
to part 1)
What artists have you looked
to over the years for inspiration?
That question always throws me for a loop.
There's so many that have influenced me - everyone from Anne
Murray to Led Zeppelin. So as a songwriter and a singer, it's
hard to say. Aretha Franklin was a great inspiration to me, as
was Ella Fitzgerald. And James Brown. As I got into the blues,
I found people like Bonnie Raitt and Lucky Peterson. I got turned
onto Susan Tedeschi, whose voice I love.
You tackle such a wide array
of styles on Ten Dollar Dress. Do you find that audiences
have a hard time getting a handle on exactly what you're trying
to do?
I find that people just dig it. It's really
me that gets a little nervous about switching styles in
a show. One of the hardest things to do is to put my tunes in
an order that doesn't seem too jarring. But I've found that people
love that: They get tired of the same old thing, the same "drinkin'
blues" or "poor me blues." They're open to the
funk and the other stuff. Audiences seem very receptive to what
I do.
You have to shape it to the kind of gig you're
doing. At a jazz show, I can sing three ballads in a row. But
at a blues show, that would bring the energy level down. Blues
people like to party a little more, and jazz people are more
cerebral; they just want to listen and enjoy. But I find that
they each equally like both styles. If I do [the jazz-inflected]
"Rollin' Joe" at a blues show, people love it. If I
play a slow blues at a jazz club, people just eat it up. So I
don't even try to categorize what I do anymore. It's multifaceted,
like myself.
Tell us about your decision
to record "Purple Haze."
The arrangement came before we decided to
record it. We knew we wanted to have [Quebec-based blues guitarist]
Jimmy James play on the album, and he has a lot of Hendrix influence
in his style. We'd been playing the tune live on and off for
four years with that arrangement, and when it came time to choose
material for Ten Dollar Dress, it was a song we decided
to try. And it worked.
(continue
to part 3)
1 2 3
Send a comment
to Blues Revue.
|