Time: 41:37
Size: 95.3 MB
Styles: Electric blues, R&B
Year: 2015
Art: Front
[3:35] 1. My Man Called Me
[3:53] 2. Why Does A Woman Need A Bass Guitar
[4:11] 3. Rockin' Chair
[3:18] 4. Clarksdale Shuffle
[3:48] 5. Hurryin' Up To Relax
[4:46] 6. Walkin' In Their Shoes
[4:21] 7. Damn Your Eyes
[3:42] 8. Steppin' Up Strong
[3:24] 9. Bad Boy Kiss
[3:13] 10. Call On Me
[3:21] 11. You Don't Move Me No More
A lot of today's emerging blues artists serve up the music with a healthy side order of rock. Heather Crosse is different. As a singer, songwriter and bass player, she still believes in the power of old-school blues and R&B.
"Blues and soul just speak to me the loudest," says Crosse, who's spent the past two decades paying her dues at festivals, clubs and honky tonks across the American South. Originally from Louisiana, she's now an in-demand player in her chosen hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she and her band have backed blues heavyweights including Bob Margolin, Guitar Shorty, Jody Williams and James "Super Chikan" Johnson. For years, Crosse has appeared regularly at the world-famous Ground Zero Blues Club. Early in 2015, she toured Europe and the UK as a member of the Blues Caravan 2015 "Girls With Guitars" tour and was also part of the Jim Gaines-produced album of the same name. But the rock-oriented slant of that project wasn't really her thing.
Her solo debut Groovin' At The Crosse Roads shows what she's really about. It's all blues ? with a soul twist. "I grew up singing Motown and a couple of my blues mentors did a lot of 70s soul. So that tends to come out in the songs that I'm writing," explains Crosse, who co-wrote five of the album's eleven tracks while also paying tribute to heroes such as Etta James and Big Mama Thornton. It's the kind of mix she relies on to get Mississippi crowds dancing on a Saturday night. Though it's her name on the cover, Crosse chose to record Groovin' At The Crosse Roads with the same band she's been fronting for the past eight years: Heavy Suga' & the SweeTones. The current line-up includes Crosse's songwriting partner and significant other, drummer Lee Williams (B.B. King, Big Jack Johnson), keyboard wizard Mark Yacovone (Kenny Brown, Maria Muldaur) and guitarist Dan Smith (Anson Funderburgh, Smokin' Joe Kubek). The songs convey the comfortable feeling you'd expect from four friends making music together. "Our band is a unique thing. We're very tight and close, like a family band," says Crosse about choosing her own musicians over session players.
With the help of Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines ? who's worked with everyone from Carlos Santana to Stevie Ray Vaughan during his illustrious career ? Crosse and her comrades turn in a collection of first-rate performances. At the soul end of the spectrum, there's the laid-back musician's anthem "Hurryin' Up To Relax" and a cover of the 1975 top ten hit "Rockin' Chair," originally recorded by Gwen McCrae. Crosse felt a little intimidated doing this well-known tune, but likes what Gaines and her "guys" were able to conjure up. "Besides, I think it's kind of interesting to have a white girl bass player resurrect a 70s soul classic," she grins. At the blues end, she offers "Walkin' In Their Shoes" as a loving remembrance of the elders who schooled her in the ways of the blues, as well as "Clarksdale Shuffle," dedicated to the city that has become her own ground zero. "It's been a big part of my life," she says of her adopted home in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. "I was there as an 18-year-old, just out of high school, and that's when I fell in love with the blues. I went back every year for the Sunflower Blues Festival, no matter where I lived, and that's how I ended up moving there".
"Blues and soul just speak to me the loudest," says Crosse, who's spent the past two decades paying her dues at festivals, clubs and honky tonks across the American South. Originally from Louisiana, she's now an in-demand player in her chosen hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where she and her band have backed blues heavyweights including Bob Margolin, Guitar Shorty, Jody Williams and James "Super Chikan" Johnson. For years, Crosse has appeared regularly at the world-famous Ground Zero Blues Club. Early in 2015, she toured Europe and the UK as a member of the Blues Caravan 2015 "Girls With Guitars" tour and was also part of the Jim Gaines-produced album of the same name. But the rock-oriented slant of that project wasn't really her thing.
Her solo debut Groovin' At The Crosse Roads shows what she's really about. It's all blues ? with a soul twist. "I grew up singing Motown and a couple of my blues mentors did a lot of 70s soul. So that tends to come out in the songs that I'm writing," explains Crosse, who co-wrote five of the album's eleven tracks while also paying tribute to heroes such as Etta James and Big Mama Thornton. It's the kind of mix she relies on to get Mississippi crowds dancing on a Saturday night. Though it's her name on the cover, Crosse chose to record Groovin' At The Crosse Roads with the same band she's been fronting for the past eight years: Heavy Suga' & the SweeTones. The current line-up includes Crosse's songwriting partner and significant other, drummer Lee Williams (B.B. King, Big Jack Johnson), keyboard wizard Mark Yacovone (Kenny Brown, Maria Muldaur) and guitarist Dan Smith (Anson Funderburgh, Smokin' Joe Kubek). The songs convey the comfortable feeling you'd expect from four friends making music together. "Our band is a unique thing. We're very tight and close, like a family band," says Crosse about choosing her own musicians over session players.
With the help of Grammy-winning producer Jim Gaines ? who's worked with everyone from Carlos Santana to Stevie Ray Vaughan during his illustrious career ? Crosse and her comrades turn in a collection of first-rate performances. At the soul end of the spectrum, there's the laid-back musician's anthem "Hurryin' Up To Relax" and a cover of the 1975 top ten hit "Rockin' Chair," originally recorded by Gwen McCrae. Crosse felt a little intimidated doing this well-known tune, but likes what Gaines and her "guys" were able to conjure up. "Besides, I think it's kind of interesting to have a white girl bass player resurrect a 70s soul classic," she grins. At the blues end, she offers "Walkin' In Their Shoes" as a loving remembrance of the elders who schooled her in the ways of the blues, as well as "Clarksdale Shuffle," dedicated to the city that has become her own ground zero. "It's been a big part of my life," she says of her adopted home in the heart of the Mississippi Delta. "I was there as an 18-year-old, just out of high school, and that's when I fell in love with the blues. I went back every year for the Sunflower Blues Festival, no matter where I lived, and that's how I ended up moving there".
Groovin' At The Crosse Roads mc
Groovin' At The Crosse Roads zippy
2 comments:
BDaD in your spare time can you re-up this cd. TIA
New links for this post can be found below.
Heather Crosse - Groovin' At The Crosse Roads (2015) [320]
MC: https://www.mirrored.to/files/YBS5NT05/HC-GATCR.rar_links
Zippy: https://www105.zippyshare.com/v/DDBRcjx8/file.html
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