RIp Denise Lasalle

Denise Lasalle at Lamont's in Indian Head, Maryland, August 13, 2005. Photo © Ron Weinstock.

Soul-Blues Queen Denise Lasalle passed away on Monday Night, January 8, 2018 at the age of 83 (some reports have her 78). According to The Boogie Report (from which some of this information is taken), she passed away from complications from recent surgery.

Born near Sidon, Misssisppi, Lasalle was not simply a terrific blues singer, but also a songwriter and producer. She had a minor hit on Chess before she founded were her then husband, Bill Jones," independent production company, Crajon, with her then husband Bill Jones. Her song "Trapped By A Thing Called Love" (1971) was released on Detroit-based Westbound Records. This was a number 1 Rhythm & Blues hit, charted on the pop charts and certified as a gold record. She had more recordings for Westbound and then ABC Records while her songs were recorded by otghers including country singer Barbara Mandrell.

In the 1980s she recorded a number of acclaimed albums for Malaco Records that established her as a prominent singer on the southern soul and blues circles particularly and her comments about being ignored by some blues circles led the Blues Foundation in a Living Blues interview led to the creation of the soul-blues category in the W.C. Handy Awards (now the Blues Music Awards). After recording for Malaco for years, she recorded three albums for Ecko Records before returning to Malaco in 2010.

Denise was inducted to the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 and was inducted on 2015 into the Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame. In recent years, she had been living with her husband James E. Wolfe, in Jackson, Tennessee. 

Here is Denise LaSalle performing a medley of "Give Me Yo' Strongest Whiskey" and "The Blues Is Alright."
  

Here she sings a medley of "Someone Else Is Steppin' In" and "Down Home Blues."

A Playlist of Christmas Blues Recordings

Blues (and Jazz) artists have been recording blues about the holidays almost as long as such music has been recorded. Here are a few gems to help celebrate the holiday. Here Blind Lemon Jefferson sings Christmas Eve Blues.

Here is Charlie Jordan singing Christmas Christmas Blues and that is (unless I am deaf) the Devil's Son-in-Law, Peetie Wheatstraw on piano.

And now the great Blind Blake singing Lonesome Christmas Blues.

Moving a head a few decades we get the second Sonny Boy Williamson's, Sonny Boy's Christmas Blues.

Lightnin' Hopkins gives his take on Merry Christmas.

Now Freddie King has Christmas Tears.

But Eddie C. Campbell has found out that Santa's Messin' With the Kid.

But Denise Lasalle says that Santa's Got the Christmas Blues.

This is my favorite Louis Armstrong Christmas song, 'Zat You, Santa Claus?

No Charles Brown today (I will hold his holiday songs for Christmas Day itself. As Marvn Sease say, may you have  a Funky Christmas.

Denise Lasalle's Regal Soul-Blues

After years recording for Malaco, Denise LaSalle has a new album on Ecko titled Still theQueen. On the opening title track, I’m Still the Queen, she tells the pretenders to the soul-blues throne that she is back, “I’m the Queen,you are not even in the game,” and to the young blues mamas trying to take her place, “give it up,you’re not even in the race.”

Her fans will know what to expect as she is not only a strong confident singer but a terrific songwriter who contributed most of the songs. Whether singing about leaving the party cause she’s got a Dirty, Freaky Man waiting for her, or telling another woman that she shouldn’t have bragged about her good her lover was if she did not want anyone else know cause she’s the best man Denise has ever had on You Should Have Kept It in the Bedroom, she certainly takes command of the listener’s attention.

At the same time, she can sing about the heartbreak of some relationships as on What Kind of Man is This, where the man she loves is running around with others and yet she loves him and can’t leave him despite the pain he causes her. This is one several tracks that make real good use of backing vocals and employs a solid rhythm section which includes guitarist Michael Toles. If the horn sounds are produced by synthesized keyboards, then whoever did it did a real fine job of having his keyboards mimic horn players.

Unlovable Habits has a terrific lyric as Denise tells her man if she wants to leave her for the woman from better side of the tracks that she won’t get in his way but will she put up with his unlovable promises, the funky smelly feet, will she wait when he doesn’t come home at all, the way he puts his clothes on the floor.The album closes with There’s No Separation, a plea to have Christian prayer mandated in public schools, that I find simple minded and wrong. Fortunately it is the last track so one can skip it easily. Whether Denise Lasalle is Still the Queen or not, this is a nicely done disc.

This review appeared in the April 2003 DC Blues Calendar, then the DC Blues Society’s newsletter. I may have purchased this CD.

Charles Wilson's Classy Soul-Blues

Charles Wilson is among the best of the soul-blues singers to come along in the past few decades and after a pretty straight urban blues CD for Delmark, Severn put him in the studio for Troubled Child, released in Spring 2009 and my review here originally appeared in the June 2009 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 317 -p.13) downloadable at www.jazz-blues.com.

Nephew of the late Little Milton, vocalist Charles Wilson has an extensive discography for a variety of labels including Ichiban, Ecko, his own Wilson label, Delmark, and CDS with Severn just having issued his latest entry, “Troubled Child.” Its a surprising disc coming from Severn.

One might have thought this might have been more of a blues feel to it , but its a stone-sold soul disc that has a feel of a session from thirty years ago with a full horn section and strings and no sign of synthesizers. It doesn’t hurt to have a studio band of Mike Welch on keyboards, Benji Porecki on keyboards, Steve Gomes on bass and Robb Stupka on drums, or having Willie Henderson handling the horn and string arrangements. There is an interesting mix of songs here from the Don Robey tune, “Where My Baby Went,” to Ronnie Earl’s “I Want to Shout About.” The blues makes its most visible appearance on strong on Denise LaSalle’s “Somebody’s Tears,” done as a tribute to his uncle that is wonderfully sung and has some fine guitar from Welch. The Sam Dees tune that gives the album its title is marvelously reworked with its lyric of a child growing up in the mean world of the ghetto brought to life by Wilson’s impassioned vocal who recognizes some of himself in the troubled child. On Bob Marley’s “Is This Love,” Wilson clearly sings yes about sharing his home and life with his women. Nice also is the remake of the George Jackson song, “I Don’t Want to Take a Chance,” about getting back with the woman who broke his heart before. I have not heard Wee Willie Walker’s original Goldwax recording that has been reissued by the English Kent label. Steve Gomes contributed the closing “Put Something In It,” a solid mid-tempo soul burner.

This is a handsomely produced disc (one cites the cliche that no expense was spared to produce it) that shows how good a singer Wilson is and certainly fans of soul, southern or otherwise will find much to enjoy here.

For FTC regulation purposes, the review copy was sent from Severn Records.