Etta JAMES - Stickin' to My Guns 1990

Etta JAMES - Stickin' to My Guns 1990
S 210715

Blues

Blues belter Etta James came off a long period of drug rehab to make a comeback in 1989 with her first post-Chess album, SEVEN YEAR ITCH, a roots-conscious recording for Island. The follow-up, STICKIN' TO MY GUNS, is quite a different affair. While James's singing style is unchanged, and as ferocious as ever, there's much more of a "contemporary" feel to the production, with aggressive beats, popping bass, digital-sounding recording, and even a guest rap interlude on one track. James would soon depart Island for Elektra.
**
Etta James' cover of Tony Joe White's "Out of the Rain" is, by itself, worth the price of the CD but the rest of the collection is also very fine. This CD is one that I wasn't aware of until I saw the Lawrence Fishburne movie "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned" and the closing theme was "Out of the Rain".
Great song by a great vocalist.
By Ernest Roberts.
**
This was the first etta james album I ever listened to and fell in love with her soulful voice. I have all of her albums now from the 60s to present. Her version of your good thing is about to end has a haunting quality to it. Production on this album is also quite good. I would buy this album for that one song.
**
Etta James- (Vocals);
Gary Burnette, Leo Nocentelli, Reggie Young, Mabon "Teenie" Hodges, Danny Rhodes, Arik Marshall, Josh Sklair- (Guitar);
David L. Patterson- (Tenor & Baritone Sax);
Gene Dinwiddie- (Tenor Saxophone);
Fernando Pullum- (Trumpet);
John Dewey McKnight- (Trombone);
Jimmie Wood- (Harmonica);
Jimmy Pugh- (Piano, Keyboards);
Barry Beckett- (Keyboards);
Mike Lawler- (Synthesizer);
Michael Rhodes, Bobby Vega- (Bass);
Roger Hawkins- (Drums);
Greg "Smacky" Donerson- (Percussion);
Dobie Gray, Def Jef- (Background Vocals).
**
A1. Whatever Gets You Through The Night 3:48
A2. Love To Burn 3:29
A3. The Blues Don't Care 3:44
A4. Your Good Thing (Is About To End) 3:52
A5. Get Funky 4:45
B1. Beware 3:43
B2. Out Of The Rain 4:35
B3. Stolen Affection 3:55
B4. A Fool In Love 3:27
B5. I've Got Dreams To Remember 4:27
** 

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Etta JAMES - Sings Funk 1970

Etta JAMES - Sings Funk 1970
LPS-832

Blues

Etta James Sings Funk..
Seems to be one of the least known of Miss James' records. Why this is so, beats me... This is way up there with 'Tell Mama'.
Although recorded in Chicago, most of the LP breathes that Southern Soul vibe that graced the aformentioned masterpiece Etta recorded in Muscle Shoals in 1967.
"Tighten Up Your Own Thing" has big-voiced Etta in a ferocious funk bag. A mildly political song ("...stop segregatin', do some integratin'!"), this horn riddled, busy 'sock-it-to-me' workout is every bit the equal to James Brown's then current output.
But despite the album's title, there are quite a few beautifully arranged, slow paced gems here as well. Case in point is the lamenting, heavenly cruising "Sweet Memories". Etta's vocal attack is rough as ever, and with those shimmering strings and mourning backing vocals back there, it creates a wonderfully dynamic piece of raw soul testifyin' with a tad of gloss.
The funk returns with a vengeance on "Quick Reaction & Satisfaction", a fatback vamp of Memphis-styled nitty gritty groove, layered in brass and propelled by an incessantly poppin' bass. Etta's on a roll here... her first line, "...You're lower than a snake!", will have the most macho of men fall on their knees and weep.
Miss James heads South even deeper as she belts out the slow burnin' blues-drenched romp "Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing", and really tears it up with the incredibly powerful, superbly arranged "My Man Is Together". Etta's wailin' on the chorus just keeps on goin', hitting home everywhere. A masterful slab of gutbucket, full-throttled Southern Soul. Believe me, this is as good as Aretha's "I Never Loved a Man" or "Dr. Feelgood".
Closing side A is the most haunting track of 'Etta James Sings Funk'. "Are My Thoughts With You" has the same mournful, lamenting groove that carries Mickey Newbury's exquisite "Goodmorning Dear"; a Bacharach-like soul jewel, divinely orchestrated but never over the top, featuring a frenzied ("I done gone crazaaay!") vocal workout. This is one you'll have on repeat during those long, lonely winter nights.
Greasy, well-oiled, brassy full-powered Soul opens the flipside, with Etta churning out another gospelfide vocal on "The Man I Love", after which the more rock-oriented heavy tour de force, "Sound of Love", follows. The latter is lavishly produced: drenched in country church piano ramblings on the verses, it also sports timpani, classy backing vocals, strings and horns. James demonstrates her Italian roots by going off into a operatic-like finish on the finale.
"When I Stop Dreaming", one of those pop-styled ballads originally by the Louvin Brothers that was recorded by vritually everyone and their grandma in those days, really works well when sung by Etta. Through her raw vocal, it's turned into a gospelish, Southern Soul belter that even the at times intrusive arrangements can't drown out.
Things get far sweatier on the last two selections here: the bluesy, persistently slow grooving "What Fools We Mortals Be" (a track Etta had previously recorded for Chess back in 1956) features a dazzling, horn heavy finale, while "The Replacement" closes the album in an apt Southern Soul-styled sermonizing vein.
What's left to say. 'Etta James Sings Funk' is an underrated, sadly forgotten masterpiece.
**
A1. Tighten Up Your Own Thing   2:42
A2. Sweet Memories   3:34
A3. Quick Reaction & Satisfaction   2:37
A4. Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing   3:34
A5. My Man Is Together   4:09
A6. Are My Thoughts With You   3:22
B1. The Man I Love   2:53
B2. Sound of Love   2:49
B3. When I Stop Dreaming   2:35
B4. What Fools We Mortals Be   3:07
B5. Your Replacement   3:07
**

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Etta JAMES - Matriarch of the Blues 2000

Etta JAMES - Matriarch of the Blues 2000

Blues

MATRIARCH OF THE BLUES was nominated for the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album.

Sandwiched between trad jazz excursions BLUE GARDENIA and HEART OF A WOMAN came MATRIARCH OF THE BLUES, a millennial outing featuring Etta James unleashing her powerful growl on a wide-ranging mix of soul and rock & roll covers. This outing found a then 62-year old Peaches roaring over a crack band equally at home pumping punchy horns and a slinky groove into the Born Again-era Dylan nugget "Gotta Serve Somebody" and laying down a funky bed for O.V. Wright's tasty "Don't Let My Baby Ride." Not surprisingly, James's strongest moments come on ballads like Ray Charles's gospel-flavored "Come Back Baby" and Ann Peebles's pleading "You're Gonna Make Me Cry."

This veteran vocalist easily slips into the swamp-rock pocket of CCR's "Born On The Bayou" and rides herd over a particularly crisp reading of Big Mama Thornton's oft-covered "Hound Dog." Even The Rolling Stones' disco anthem "Miss You" is given an even more lascivious twist by an undulating mid-tempo groove that replaces the dance beat with flamenco-like nuances and luscious sounding horns.
**
The mark of great singers is their ability to turn a trifling song into an emotional masterwork. R&B legend Etta James has done it live for nearly 20 years with Kiki Dee's "Sugar on the Floor" and a few others. But what's really sublime is hearing James sink her teeth into numbers that stand up to her own greatest work--"At Last" and the other Chess hits that built her reputation. James ignites such sparks all over this new disc of mostly well-chosen covers, wrapping her deep, supple, and saucy pipes around Otis Redding's "Try a Little Tenderness" and "Hawg for You"; replacing Mick Jagger's flippancy with real heart on the Rolling Stones' "Miss You"; putting the gospel fire into Bob Dylan's "You Got to Serve Somebody"; and digging down 'n' dirty into O.V. Wright's "Don't Let My Baby Ride." The straight-ahead arrangements and undistinguished playing leave James to carry the album herself, but at 62, she's still a fireball and more than up to the task.
By Ted Drozdowski.
**
Etta James- (Vocals);
Bobby Murray, Josh Sklair, Leo Nocentelli- (Guitar);
Jimmy Z. Zavala- (Harmonica, Tenor & Baritone Saxophones);
Lee R. Thornburg- (Trumpet, Valve Trombone);
Tom Poole- (Trumpet);
David K. Matthews- (Piano);
Mike Finnigan- (Hammond B-3 Organ);
Sametto James- (bass);
Donto James- (Drums, Percussion);
Ross Locke- (Percussion, Background Vocals);
Goldman Redding- (Background Vocals).
**
01. Gotta Serve Somebody 6:50
02. Don't Let My Baby Ride 5:15
03. Rhymes 4:36
04. Try A Little Tenderness 4:46
05. Miss You 6:00
06. Hawg For Ya 3:44
07. You're Gonna Make Me Cry 6:18
08. Walking the Back Streets 7:08
09. Let's Straighten It Out 5:24
10. Born On The Bayou 4:41
11. Come Back Baby 5:56
12. Hound Dog 3:43
**
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Etta JAMES, Albert COLLINS, Joe WALSH - Jump the Blues Away 1989

Etta JAMES, Albert COLLINS, Joe WALSH - Jump the Blues Away 1989

Blues

Nothing if not eclectic, the Jazzvisions series veers completely away from jazz on its blues installment. The idiom is blues-rock, the headliner is the once and future Eagles star Joe Walsh, and his co-partners are electric bluesman Albert Collins and the indestructible singer Etta James. Within that idiom, though, this is a strong program captained by experts in the arts of blues licks and working the crowd. Collins is terse and stinging on guitar, full of bent-note soul; James is right in her element, laying on the double entendres, whipping up the audience in her experienced manner; and Walsh, aside from the inevitable "Rocky Mountain Way," does well in the blues guitar idiom, even giving a tip of the cap to Collins, "Thanks for all the licks!" The backup band roars in the traditional journeyman electric blues-rock form, with strong piano and organ work and pumping drums. At its best, especially when Collins and James are on, this concert at the indoor Wiltern Theatre has much of the celebratory flavor of a jumping outdoor blues festival. Available on LP, CD, cassette, laserdisc and VHS video.
By Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide.
**
01. Intro  :47
02. Walk Away  3:47
03. Goin' Down  5:35
04. Moon Is Full  6:47
05. Sweet Little Angel  5:51
06. Rock Me Baby  4:42
07. If Trouble Was Money  8:59
08. Baby, What You Want Me to Do?  4:52
09. Blues Don't Care  6:37
10. Rocky Mountain Way  6:37
**
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Etta JAMES - Jazz 2007

Etta JAMES - Jazz 2007

Jazz

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the singing of Etta James is not her versatility -- she has tackled and excelled in gospel, blues, R&B, soul, rock, jazz and pure pop -- but the way her singing stays unmistakably the same in all genres, always conveying strength, emotional honesty, and a subtly nuanced streak of defiant pride that allows her to make any song, no matter how strongly it might be associated with another artist, completely her own. This collection places her in the realm of jazz, compiling a dozen standards she recorded between 1960 and 1970 for the Argo and Chess imprints. Each of these sides features orchestral string and horn arrangements that give off the illusion of smooth mellowness, but it is only an illusion, because James brings all of her vocal guns to the table, and she is as taut as a garrote wire in her phrasing and every bit as sure of the outcome, approaching jazz with the same deep soul fervor she brings to everything she sings. Her take on Harold Arlen's "Stormy Weather" is a case in point. Lena Horne's signature version of the song is full of a languid and haunting resignation, but James tackles it with the defiance of a person used to removing all obstacles from her path and it becomes a persistent hymn to personal survival. Same song. Same lyrics. Different result. Or take James' rendition of the jazz standard "Misty." She fills it with barely restrained gospel fervor, turning its ethereal center inside out and giving the song a kind of stubborn sturdiness that is startling. Remarkably, she always sounds like herself, even when bathed in a backdrop of lush strings and calculated horns. This set doesn't prove that James is a jazz singer so much as it proves that James can sing jazz if and when she chooses to do so. No surprise there. She is, after all, Etta James. And thank God she is.
By Steve Leggett, All Music Guide.
**
Though generally classified as a blues singer, there is certainly something of the jazz chanteuse in Etta James. Her approach to phrasing is nuanced and precise, and though her tone never turns with the delicacy of Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald, her ability to remake a song in her own image is reminiscent of those singers. JAZZ collects James's jazz recordings, which find the singer putting her indelible stamp on such gems as "Stormy Weather," "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," and "Misty," among others. Most impressively, James never tries to sound "jazzy," but instead tackles each tune with her fundamental style, and pulls it off with absolute authority.
From CD Universe.
**
01.Stormy Weather 3:08
02.Fool That I Am 2:57
03.Don't Get Around Much Anymore 2:27
04.Dream 2:25
05.One for My Baby (And One More for the Road) 3:27
06.Don't Take Your Love from Me 3:35
07.Don't Blame Me 2:23
08.These Foolish Things (Remind of You) 4:00
09.Prisoner of Love 2:14
10.Lover Man (Oh, Where Can He Be?) 3:54
11.Misty 3:13
12.I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 4:31
**
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Etta JAMES - R&B Dynamite 1987

Etta JAMES - R&B Dynamite 1987

Blues

The singer in her precocious formative years, headed by her 1955 R&B smash "Roll With Me Henry" (aka "The Wallflower"). James' follow-ups included the driving "Good Rockin' Daddy," a bluesy "W-O-M-A-N," and the New Orleans raveup "Tough Lover," which found her backed by the gang at Cosimo's (notably saxman Lee Allen). Even though her tenure at Modern Records only produced a handful of hits, these 22 cuts are delightful artifacts of the belter's earliest days. The CD was reissued, with identical (though slightly resequenced) tracks and liner notes, as Hickory Dickory Dock on Ace 680.
By Bill Dahl, All Music Guide.
**
01. W-O-M-A-N 2:44
02. Number One 2:26
03. I'm A Fool 2:26
04. Strange Things Happen 2:30
05. Hey Henry 2:53
06. Hope You're Satisfied 3:03
07. Good Rockin' Daddy 2:23
08. Sunshine Of Love 2:26
09. That's All 2:15
10. Tears Of Joy 2:46
11. The Pick Up 2:28
12. How Big A Fool 2:22
13. Market Place 2:52
14. Tough Lover 2:10
15. Do Something Crazy 3:20
16. Be My Lovey Dovey 2:02
17. Nobody Loves You (Like Me) 2:25
18. Hickory Dickory Dock 3:02
19. You Know What I Mean 3:05
20. Roll With Me Henry AKA Dance With Me Henry 2:57
21. Baby, Baby, Everynight 2:20
22. We're In Love 1:46
**
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Etta JAMES - Love's Been Rough On Me 1997

Etta JAMES - Love's Been Rough On Me 1997

Blues

Ms. James's acknowledgements in the booklet of this 1997 release are gracious in standard liner-note fashion; she thanks her collaborators and significant others and concludes, "You can call it country, you can call it country blues, you can call it country soul -- call it whatever you like. It is just me. Another one of my dreams fulfilled. I've always wanted to do a country record and here it is." Perhaps she was diplomatically holding back, or perhaps she truly felt this way but soured on the record within the next year, but in a 1998 ROLLING STONE interview, she bitterly disowned this recording. She criticized everything from the production to the photo on the cover (to my nearly ten-years-past recollection, her descriptive phrase was something like "a picture of me with a shawl around my neck, looking like some sad old woman who's about to go make spaghetti"). She seemed disappointed and resentful that the label initially had supported her in her desire to make a country record, but then backed away from that concept in the event (more below on the specifics of this).

So, be aware that by recommending this so strongly, I am putting myself in opposition to the artist herself. But artists are not always the best judge of their own work; sometimes one can get a clearer view from not standing so close. I wonder if Ms. James's opinion of LOVE'S BEEN ROUGH ON ME would be more generous today, if she were able to hear it as the record it is, rather than the one that fell short of what she had in mind. I have a feeling that what she envisioned (or whatever the aural equivalent of "envisioned" would be) was more along the lines of what Solomon Burke was allowed to do on his 2006 masterpiece NASHVILLE -- an aged but still potent R&B voice that exudes hard-won wisdom, confronting music of an unabashedly rustic character in both composition and execution. It is true that the country influence on Ms. James's album, when not absent entirely (vigorous rock-and-soul jams like "Love It Or Leave It Alone" and "I Can Give You Everything"; a heartfelt cover of Otis Redding's "I've Been Lovin' You Too Long"), is subtle at best. There are a few song structures so purely Nashville as to be identifiable as such no matter how they're decked out ("Done In The Dark," which she and one of her sons cowrote; "If I Had Any Pride Left At All"), and a fleeting guitar twang or underpinning of steel ("The Rock"; the title song), but the greater portion of the album is a slick and soulful affair. The inclusion of a horn section, over the singer's objection, seems to have been a particularly sore spot. If it's "Etta goes country," it's decidedly heavier on the "Etta" than the "country."

And yet, ten years on, this sounds not only better than ever, but (to me) like the jewel of what could be called the third phase of Ms. James's recording career, the one that began in 1994 with her first release on Private Music, and continues in her present association with RCA. In this period she has benefited from a kind of support that is no doubt the envy of many less fortunate contemporaries. She has been staggeringly prolific, recording Tin Pan Alley standards (four discs!), rock, blues, the inevitable holiday album, even easy-listening pop. But for all the first-class production values and the admirably broad artistic palette of her many releases, few of them have really "scored." There is no doubting Ms. James's sincere affection for the music of Gershwin, Berlin, Porter, and their like, but three albums of standards with pianist Cedar Walton's jazz combo ('94's MYSTERY LADY, '95's TIME AFTER TIME, and '01's BLUE GARDENIA) demonstrate conclusively that such music does not play to her strengths as an improviser or interpreter (she has more in common as a song stylist with Aretha Franklin and Dinah Washington, both of whom could also sound out of place on Tin Pan Alley, than with Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday, who thrived there). An attempt at still more of the same, this time in heavily synthesized, "modern" clothing, '99's HEART OF A WOMAN, is not only the worst of her Private albums but one of the worst things I have ever heard from any major artist: unlistenable. LIFE, LOVE AND THE BLUES ('98) and MATRIARCH OF THE BLUES ('00) are more pertinent, but still leave an aftertaste of the generic. They're agreeable yet stubbornly unmemorable attempts at recapturing a classic Etta James formula.

Not so with LOVE'S BEEN ROUGH ON ME. For once, whatever her misgivings about what was done with her original concept, she seems to this listener to have everything going for her: songwriting that is consistently strong; a unified theme and atmosphere that pervades the entire set (I can only describe this as a sort of "nocturnal" quality -- everything here, whether a ballad or an uptempo number, has the feel of a late-night rumination from someone who has accepted her insomnia); a style of music that is right in her comfort zone as an interpreter; and instrumental support that's not only alert and responsive but assertive enough to challenge her, to good effect. She gets into a hell-for-leather duel with whichever of her electric guitarists features on "Love It Or Leave It Alone"; and the way the ensemble coalesces and swells behind her whenever the "b" section of "Cry Like A Rainy Day" comes around ("I've made some wrong moves..." "Remember these arms..." et cetera) is genuinely thrilling. Finally, do not be surprised if, like me, you come to consider her performance of the standout track, "If I Had Any Pride Left At All," as affecting a ballad performance as she has ever given on record. No small compliment when one's discography includes "At Last" (well, yes, but try to remember how you felt about it before it was flogged to death in every TV show or movie that has a slow dance) and "Lovin' Arms." For all that the voice has darkened and wizened (which she uses to exquisite effect in the rueful I'm-leaving-you opener, "The Rock"), her singing here is far more remarkable for the power it retains than for anything
it's given up.
By  Todd KAY.
**
Etta James- (Vocals);
Don Potter- (Acoustic Guitar);
Dann Huff, Josh Sklair, Brent Rowan- (Electric Guitar);
Paul Franklin- (Steel Guitar);
Joe McGlohon, Jim Horn, Sam Levine , Chris McDonald, Mike Haynes- (Horns);
Barry Beckett, Steve Nathan- (Keyboards);
Eddie Bayers- (Drums);
Terry McMillan- (Percussion);
Curtis Young, Dennis Wilson , Donna McElroy, John Wesley Ryles, Vicki Hampton, Louis Dean Nunley, Yvonne Hodges- (Background Vocals).
**
01. Rock, The 03:33
02. Cry Like a Rainy Day 05:21
03. Love's Been Rough on Me 03:09
04. Love It or Leave It Alone 05:28
05. Don't Touch Me 03:57
06. Hold Me (Just a Little Longer Tonight) 03:47
07. If I Had Any Pride Left at All 03:49
08. I Can Give You Everything 03:15
09. I've Been Loving You Too Long 04:20
10. Done in the Dark 04:19
**
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Etta JAMES - Live From San Francisco 1981

Etta JAMES - Live From San Francisco 1981
Recorded live at the Boarding House, San Francisco, California in March, 1981

Blues

Although this was released in 1994, it was actually recorded in March 1981. Etta and friends financed the recording but were unable to release it. Thankfully, this was pulled out of the vault. Obviously, this recording was a labor of love and it shows.
I have to admit, I was not entirely ready for the growling vocals, and even at times it sounds like Etta is gargling water! But it's apparent she's just having fun and doing it on purpose. When she launches into a devastating cover of Take It To The Limit (my favorite track), you know you're in the hands of a pro.
The backing band is tight and stripped down. One guitar, bass, drums, keyboards, and a minimum of horns. The audience obviously LOVES Etta and their enthusiasm drives the performance. Etta delivers a great set of blues, soul and R&B that is guaranteed to satisfy. Signature songs Tell Mama, Sugar On The Floor, and I'd Rather Go Blind are followed by a three song Otis Redding medley. Etta wraps it up with an exquisite song titled Born Blue.
By  T. McCool.
**
Etta James- (Vocals);
Brian Ray- (Guitar);
Bobby Martin- (Saxophone, Keyboards, French Horn, Background Vocals);
Keith Johnson- (Trumpet, Keyboards);
Kurtis Teel- (Bass);
Armand Grimaldi- (Drums).
**
01. I Just Want To Make Love To You 3:04
02. Take It To the Limit 5:42
03. Baby What You Want Me To Do 5:02
04. Sugar On The Floor 6:04
05. Tell Mama 4:01
06. I'd Rather Go Blind 4:55
07. Otis Redding Medley 9:30
08. Born Blue 3:56
**
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Etta JAMES - Changes 1980

Etta JAMES - Changes 1980
Label: MCA
Vinyl

Blues

Elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.
Ranked #19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock N Roll
She was voted the 62nd Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Artist of all time by Rolling Stone.
She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
**
From the mid-1950s to the present, Etta James' powerful, soul-charged voice has become deeper and rougher, with a rich texture and heartfelt inflections. It goes without saying that the woman known as "Mama" is aging like California wine, and she can still open wounds in her songs and come out standing strong. When she was five years old, Jamesetta Hawkins amazed the congregation of her church choir. When she belted out Gospel songs with absolute spiritual fervor, it was clear that the child was a musical prodigy. Her career as a singer began when she recorded "The Wallflower" with Johnny Otis in 1954 for Modern Records. A year later, the song topped the charts. In 1960, she moved to Chess Records and soon began cranking out hits such as the driving, jiving, southern soul smash "Tell Mama," which Janis Joplin covered later that decade. Since then, she has recorded for Island and Elektra, experimenting with rock and jazz, but always returning to her Gospel-soaked roots and southern soul.
**
Leo Nocentelli- Guitar
Allen Toussaint- Piano
Ken Williams- Percussion
Tony Broussard- Guitar (Bass)
Robert Dabon- Keyboards
Herman V. Ernest III- Drums
Sampson Henry- Keyboards
Steve Hughes- Guitar
Etta James- Vocals, Main Performer
**
A1   Mean Mother (4:33)
A2   Donkey (3:18)
A3   Changes (4:00)
A4   Don't Stop (3:23)
A5   Who's Getting Your Love (3:33)

B1   Night By Night (3:15)
B2   It Takes Love To Keep A Woman (4:10)
B3   Wheel Of Fire (3:32)
B4   Night People (4:44)
B5   With You In Mind (4:21)
**
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Etta JAMES & Eddie 'Cleanhead' VINSON - The Late Show, LIVE 1986

Etta JAMES & Eddie 'Cleanhead' VINSON - The Late Show, LIVE 1986
Label: Fantasy
Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
Recorded live at Marla's Memory Lane Supper Club,
Los Angeles, California on May 30 & 31, 1986.

Blues

The blues is beatiful...
Etta and Eddie got that smokey, silky, low-lush soul flowin with this...
I've been lissenin to vol. One forever!!! and i could never find this one, but i lucked up into it one day a couple months ago and found it in the basement of some back-alley, burnt-down record shop and ever since then, i keep it with me wherever i go...
This is "instant blues" - just add bourbon and heartache and you got yourself an event!
By R. Davis.
**
With two blues powerhouses like Etta James and "Cleanhead" Vinson, there's no way you won't like this CD. This was recorded live in 1986 in blues club in L.A. featuring Red Holloway, Shuggie Otis, and Jack McDuff, and you feel like you're right there for the performance. Etta sounds great, and I am not really too impressed with a lot of her later stuff after the 60's and early 70's.
**
Etta Jame (Vocals);
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinso- (Vocals, Alto Saxophone);
Shuggie Otis (Guitar)-
Red Holloway- (Alto, Tenor, & Baritone Saxophones);
Jack McDuff- (Hammond B-3 Organ);
Richard Reid- (Bass);
Paul Humphrey- (Drums).
**
01. Cleanhead Blues - Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson  5.29
02. Old Maid Boogie - Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson  4.53
03. Home Boy - Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson  3.37
04. Cherry Red - Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson  4.12 
05. Baby, What You Want Me to Do - Etta James  5.58
06. Sweet Little Angel - Etta James  8.44
07. I'd Rather Go Blind - Etta James  6.49
08. Teach Me Tonight - Etta James  4.00
09. Only Women Bleed - Etta James  4.40
10. He's Got the Whole World in His Hands - Etta James  4.21
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Etta JAMES - Blues From The Big Apple, Live! 2007

Etta JAMES - Blues From The Big Apple, Live! 2007
Label: Music Avenue

Blues

Etta James can moan, groan, and holler the Blues, sing sweet Soul music, croon smooth Jazz, and belt out R&B in short Etta can do it all! She extracts the deepest passion of Blues singing and re-injects it into any song of her choice, originating from most any musical genre. A legend in her own time, she has influenced Tina Turner, Janis Joplin, Gladys Knight and countless other successful female soloists. James pioneering 1950 s hits like Roll With Me Henry (The Wallflower) also substantiate her place in the early history of Rock and Roll alongside such icons as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Ray Charles.

Like many great Blues performers, Etta James is best experienced live! In the early 1980 s Etta James played mostly smaller clubs, and it was during one of these appearances in New York, in 1980, that this exciting live album featuring her incendiary vocal performances of Blues and Soul classics was recorded.
**
I have been meaning to write something about Etta James for a very long time. I am a big fan of her music. I don't know what to make of the hub bub going on between her and Beyoncé Knowles.
I do hope they get it all worked out. But just so people understand what a talent that Ms. James is, consider just a few of her awards;
Etta James is the winner of four Grammys and seventeen Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame both in 1999 and 2008.
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01. Respect Yourself Live  4:52
02. I Can't Turn You Loose Live  3:52
03. Dust Your Broom Live  3:48
04. Rock Me Baby Live  3:22
05. Stormy Monday Blues Live  5:11
06. I'd Rather Go Blind Live  4:28
07. I'll Drown in My Own Tears Live  4:23
08. Out on the Streets Again Live 3:35
09. Shake Yo Booty [Live]  4:18
10. Roll with Me Henry (The Wallflower)  2:54
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Etta JAMES - Life, Love & The Blues 1998

Etta JAMES - Life, Love & The Blues 1998
Label: RCA Victor

Blues

Etta James followed her two deeply jazzy mid-'90s albums of torch songs with Love's Been Rough on Me, a flirtation with Nashville writers. On Life, Love & the Blues, she returns to her blues and soul repertoire, enlivening even the hoariest of tunes ("Spoonful," a gender-flopped "Hoochie Coochie Gal") with her growl. The tinges of funk underpinning "Born Under a Bad Sign" are given full room to stretch on a cover of Sly Stone's "If You Want Me to Stay," and James nearly swipes "The Love You Save May Be Your Own," one of Joe Tex's great preaching ballads, from the master.
5 STARS IS NOT ENOUGH!! There is no greater blues recording by a female artist than this! I have played it over & over again and still, a year later, I listen to it every day. It is in my car, my wife has it it her car. I have it in both of my CD jukeboxs in my home stereo systems (bedroom and main room). Everyone who hears it wants to have it. I have an extensive Blues & Jazz collection and have been an avid blues fan since the early 60's. I recommend that you don't even think about buying another blues recording until you own this. People who don't enjoy or listen to the blues always ask what it is that I am playing. If I stop at a traffic light, pull into a parking lot or just drive down the road I constantly have to answer the same question. WHO IS THAT??? I turned a friend of mine onto this recording. She works nights in a convienience store and plays it continuously. She told me that the customers rave about the music. They stop in their tracks frequently and hang out listening until a song or the CD ends. This is the BEST. This is Etta James at her best. The recording is "Life, Love & The Blues". Simply stated, if you have LIFE and are still breathing, whether or not you know LOVE or the BLUES, you will be deeply moved by this recording.
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Few R&B singers have endured tragic travails on the monumental level that Etta James has and remain on earth to talk about it. The lady's no shrinking violet; her autobiography, Rage to Survive, describes her past (including numerous drug addictions) in sordid detail.

But her personal problems have seldom affected her singing. James has hung in there from the age of R&B and doo wop in the mid-'50s through soul's late-'60s heyday and right up into the '90s and 2000s (where her 1994 disc Mystery Lady paid loving jazz-based tribute to one of her idols, Billie Holiday). Etta James' voice has deepened over the years, coarsened more than a little, but still conveys remarkable passion and pain.

Jamesetta Hawkins was a child gospel prodigy, singing in her Los Angeles Baptist church choir (and over the radio) when she was only five years old under the tutelage of Professor James Earle Hines. She moved to San Francisco in 1950, soon teaming with two other girls to form a singing group. When she was 14, bandleader Johnny Otis gave the trio an audition. He particularly dug their answer song to Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' "Work With Me Annie."

Against her mother's wishes, the young singer embarked for L.A. to record "Roll With Me Henry" with the Otis band and vocalist Richard Berry in 1954 for Modern Records. Otis inverted her first name to devise her stage handle and dubbed her vocal group the Peaches (also Etta's nickname). "Roll With Me Henry," renamed "The Wallflower" when some radio programmers objected to the original title's connotations, topped the R&B charts in 1955.

The Peaches dropped from the tree shortly thereafter, but Etta James kept on singing for Modern throughout much of the decade (often under the supervision of saxist Maxwell Davis). "Good Rockin' Daddy" also did quite well for her later in 1955, but deserving follow-ups such as "W-O-M-A-N" and "Tough Lover" (the latter a torrid rocker cut in New Orleans with Lee Allen on sax) failed to catch on.

James landed at Chicago's Chess Records in 1960, signing with their Argo subsidiary. Immediately, her recording career kicked into high gear; not only did a pair of duets with her then-boyfriend (Moonglows lead singer Harvey Fuqua) chart, her own sides (beginning with the tortured ballad "All I Could Do Was Cry") chased each other up the R&B lists as well. Leonard Chess viewed James as a classy ballad singer with pop crossover potential, backing her with lush violin orchestrations for 1961's luscious "At Last" and "Trust in Me." But James' rougher side wasn't forsaken -- the gospel-charged "Something's Got a Hold on Me" in 1962, a kinetic 1963 live LP (Etta James Rocks the House) cut at Nashville's New Era Club, and a blues-soaked 1966 duet with childhood pal Sugar Pie De Santo, "In the Basement," ensured that.

Although Chess hosted its own killer house band, James traveled to Rick Hall's Fame studios in Muscle Shoals in 1967 and emerged with one of her all-time classics. "Tell Mama" was a searing slice of upbeat Southern soul that contrasted markedly with another standout from the same sessions, the spine-chilling ballad "I'd Rather Go Blind." Despite the death of Leonard Chess, Etta James remained at the label into 1975, experimenting toward the end with a more rock-based approach.

There were some mighty lean years, both personally and professionally, for Miss Peaches. But she got back on track recording-wise in 1988 with a set for Island, Seven Year Itch, that reaffirmed her Southern soul mastery. Her following albums have been a varied lot -- 1990's Sticking to My Guns was contemporary in the extreme; 1992's Jerry Wexler-produced The Right Time, for Elektra, was slickly soulful, and her most other '90s outings have explored jazz directions. In 1998, she also issued a holiday album, Etta James Christmas. She was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2003 received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. That year also saw the release of her Let's Roll album, followed in 2004 by a CD of new blues performances, Blues to the Bone, both on RCA Records. James then shifted gears and released an album of pop standards, All the Way, on RCA in 2006.

In concert, Etta James is a sassy, no-holds-barred performer whose suggestive stage antics sometimes border on the obscene. She's paid her dues many times over as an R&B and soul pioneer; long may she continue to shock the uninitiated.
By Bill Dahl, All Music Guide.
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Etta James- Vocals
Lee Thornburg- Trumpet, Trombone
Mike Finnigan- Hammond B-3 Organ
Josh Sklair- Guitar, Dobro
Bobby Murray- Guitar
Sametto James- Bass
Tom Poole- Trumpet
Donto James- Drums, Percussion
Dave Mathews- Keyboards
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01. Born Under A Bad Sign   3.28  
02. I Want To Ta Ta You, Baby     5.56
03. Here I Am (Come And Take Me)   4.55  
04. Running Out Of Lies   5.03
05. Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler   7.01
06. Spoonful   4.09  
07. Life, Love & The Blues   5.18  
08. Hoochie Coochie Gal   4.24
09. Cheating In The Next Room   4.57  
10. If You Want Me To Stay   5.20  
11. The Love You Save May Be Your Own   4.01  
12. I'll Take Care Of You   4.59
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