Lara Price I Mean Business

Lara Price
I Mean Business
Price Productions/ Vizztone

Lara Price was born in the war torn country of Vietnam in 1975. Abandoned at birth, Lara became a part of the controversial Operation Baby Lift, the mass evacuation of orphans from South Vietnam to the United States, and was one of the small number who have survived. She has been singing since a youth and in 1997 moved to the San Francisco Bay area where she has been involved in a variety of musical productions. "This"I Mean Business" is her sixth album (the first for this writer) and is an impressive and mature recording by this Bay Area singer whose career has included several genre spanning recordings.

 Recorded at Kid Andersen's Greaseland Studios, Price is supported by an A-List crew of musicians including Jim Pugh (Robert Cray Band), Chris Cain, and fellow VizzTone label-mates Mighty Mike Schermer (Marcia Ball) and Laura Chavez (who plays with Lara frequently when she’s not touring with Candye Kane), along with Andersen and a tight, punchy horn section and backing vocal chorus. Price also wrote, co-wrote and collected songs for this release (some of the collaborations involved Schermer and Chavez) and the overall feel is of the classic soul and blues of the sixties and seventies.

This feel of classic soul and blues is fostered by her solid covers of the Candi Staton recording "Get It Where I Want It," Ann Peebles' "Slipped, Tripped, Fell In Love," both of which were penned by George Jackson. She has a touch of vibrato in her singing and her vocal dynamics helps add to the power of her singing. Also strong is a strong interpretation of Freddie King's "Pack It Up." Her originals certainly are noteworthy as well including her collaboration with Schermer, "Happy Blue Year," with some terrific guitar from him as well as keyboards from Pugh, to enhance her moving vocal on this blues lament. Chavez (who added some terrific guitar to "Pack It Up") collaborated on the deep soul original "Time," probably the best example of Price's use of dynamics in her vocal with the performance's intensity building to its explosive climax (and Chavez is stunning here as well).

There are other delights including the title track with Chris Cain's sharp guitar break and a a strutting groove behind Price's fervent singing and the closing blue lament "Love Lost" with Andersen on lead guitar. Price impressed this writer throughout and sounding convincing whether singing softly or forcefully. With excellent support and Kid Andersen's solid production, Lara Price's "I Mean Business" is a striking recording.

I received a review copy from VizzTone. This review originally appeared in the January-February 2016 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 364). Here is Lara Price performing.

The Terry Hanck Band From Roadhouse To Your House Live!

The Terry Hanck Band
From Roadhouse To Your House Live
Vizztone

Two years after The Terry Hanck Band's last release, VizzTone has issued a new live recording by them "From Roadhouse To Your House Live!," recorded at the California State Fair by Chris 'Kid' Andersen. the band consists of Hanck on saxophone and vocals, guitarist Johnny ‘Cat’ Soubrand, bassist Tim Wager and drummer Butch Cousins, with special guest Jimmy Pugh on keyboards. About their last album, "Gotta Bring It On Home To You," I noted the range of music from lively R&B, straight blues, swamp blues and pop and if anything, they continue in this vein on what must have been quite a performance for those at the Fair that day.

Hanck is quite a congenial vocalist with a bit of grizzle whose robust saxophone with a mix of King Curtis yackety-yak with Junior Walker honking. Wager and Cousins provide a solid foundation with Pugh (who also gets to display his Hammond B-3 sound on the opening track, Hanck's "Good Good Rockin' Going On," an updating of "Good Rockin' Tonight," on which Soubrand tears off one of his blistering solos. Some yackety-yak sax opens the rollicking cover of T.V. Slim's "Flatfoot Sam," with Pugh's boogie-infused piano leading into a crisp guitar break. Hanck's "Junior's Walk," is the leader's tribute to the Motown legend while Soubrand's tremolo on Chuck Willis' "Whatcha Gonna Do When Your Baby Leaves You," gives the performance the feel of some of Little Willie John's recordings. Hanck's "Smilin' Through My Tears," is an appealing swamp pop-styled ballad with a booting sax solo.

The remainder of this performance is equally varied and entertaining including a cover of Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like A Woman," which opens with Hanck playing Cleanhead Vinson's "Kidney Stew" followed by a bit of "Chattanooga Choo Choo," before launching into the Jordan song. This is followed by a cover of Tyrone Davis' classic "Can I Change My Mind" (there is also a nice rendition of "Slip Away" here). Dave Spector's "Octavate'n," is an instrumental with Soubrand featured and pulling out all the stops. Hanck's original, "Peace of Mind," is evocative of some of Magic Sam's recordings and Soubrand's guitar evokes Sam here.

"From Roadhouse To Your House Live!" captures the engaging and strong blues, R&B and rock of the Terry Hanck Band in very strong form.

I received from my review copy from VizzTone. This review originally appeared in the November-December 2016 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 369). Here Terry in performance.

 

Tracy Nelson Superb Retrospective On Some Favorite Blues

The latest release, Victim of the Blues (Delta Groove) by Tracy Nelson serves to illustrate Etta James' appreciative description of Nelson as "… a bad white girl … ." Since her recordings with Mother Earth 40 years ago, Nelson has brought a deep soulful style to whatever she sings, whether blues, country or roots. More recently she has suffered a significant loss when the 100+ year old farmhouse she lived in near Nashville was destroyed by a fire. The firemen told her they could save one room of the house and her personal belongings, and she choose the studio where she recorded this new release.

The release is built around a number of vintage blues and soul performances that represented what she was listening to growing up in Wisconsin and being turned on this great music listening to WLAC out of Nashville. It is a return to her musical roots and what inspired her decades ago. And she realizes the contrast between this music and what is viewed as blues today. As part of a Chicago blues tour that played a variety of festivals she was struck that “The music I heard back in the day in Chicago and what I was hearing from the current crop of blues acts bore little relation to each other.” This led to the recording of the present album.

She is supported by a fine band on this including Jim Pugh on keyboards, guitarist Mike Henderson, bassist Byron House, and drummer John Gardner, with Marcia Ball gusting on piano on one track and Angela Strelhi adding supporting vocals to another. The result is a wonderful collection of performances opening with a marvelous rendition of one of Howlin’ Wolf’s lesser known recordings You’ll Be Mine, with Henderson’s guitar dazzling in its own way as Hubert Sumlin’s was on the original. The one relatively recent songs is Earl Thomas’ Lead a Horse to Water, with some wonderful Pops Staples’ flavored guitar by Henderson with Pugh’s electric piano part of the foundation. Marcia Ball adds some rollicking piano and a second vocal to a lazy Jimmy Reed shuffle Shoot My Baby, while Henderson adds some blistering slide, while another Reed number Its a Sin, slows down the groove for a soulfully sung lament.

There is one actual nod to a classic soul recording, Marcia’s revival of Joe Tex’s The Love You Save, while on the title track, originally recoded in the 1920s by Ma Rainey, Nelson heartfully revives this blues from the “Mother of the Blues” against Henderson’s banjo and Pugh’s spare piano accompaniment. She delivers the vocal as naturally and soulfully with this backing as she does with a hard rocking Chicago blues styled accompaniment. There are also solid renditions of Wolf’s Howlin’ For My Darling, James Cotton’s One More MIle, and Joe Tex’s lesser known soul classic The Love You Save.

The performances of “ Victims of the Blues are inspired by the original recordings, but never come across as copies or imitations. It also is noteworthy that with the exception perhaps of Howlin’ For My Baby and Percy Mayfield’s “Stranger in My Own Hometown, the songs themselves will be new to most listeners. Not only Nelson, but also her band invests plenty of personality that allows her to salute some of the performers and songs that provided inspiration and a musical foundation for her. The result is this stunning recording.

A publicity firm handling this release provided me a download of this release that is being issued on April 19.