![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/gina_coleman_blue.jpg\")
On her own, leading a succession of groups and in recent year fronting the Misty Blues Band, Gina Coleman has paid her dues and earned accolades while doing so. A two-time nominee for songwriting (in the Best Contemporary Blues category) by the Independent Blues Awards, Coleman is also an accomplished gospel and blues vocalist and cigar-box guitarist.<\/p>\n
Coleman\u2019s musical assets are on display on her new release, Unequivocally Blue<\/i>. As the disc\u2019s liner notes explain, the session for the album followed immediately \u2013 within an hour \u2013 of Coleman\u2019s return from her mother\u2019s funeral. That backstory provides helpful context for the album\u2019s most emotionally rich moments.<\/p>\n
The album opens with \u201cNo More to Give,\u201d a lump-in-the-throat cris de coeur<\/i>. It\u2019s the only track on the album on which Coleman accompanies herself on guitar; elsewhere on Unequivocally Blue<\/i> she focuses solely on vocals, leaving the instrumentation to her capable Misty Blues Band mates.<\/p>\n
Coleman\u2019s voice is an instrument capable of a great deal of expression. While her husky, doleful approach on \u201cNo More to Give\u201d is note-perfect, it\u2019s merely one side of her artistry. \u201cDays Gone By\u201d almost sounds like a different singer; it\u2019s comparatively upbeat and playful, with some tasty slide work from Seth Fleischman. The title track swings in a slinky manner, veering tantalizingly close to jazz; Coleman\u2019s vocal moves in that direction as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet Them Blues\u201d places acoustic guitar in the lead, with a set of bouncy standard blues changes underpinning the tune. It\u2019s soul-inspiring in a secular sort of way. \u201cAin\u2019t No Giving Tree\u201d sounds like a different band on a different album, moving in an almost pop direction. Somehow, it works in the context of the album, underscoring the versatility and range of Coleman and her band.<\/p>\n
\u201cFly With Me\u201d is hypnotic and subtle, with a lively, understated instrumental break. The sassy \u201cHow the Blues Feels\u201d is torchy and sensual. \u201cUp Above My Head\u201d is playfully funky, with a Staple Singers-inspired gospel feel. The spare \u201cNothing in Vain\u201d is haunting, meditative and moving. A deep groove forms the basis of \u201cStoop Stomp\u201d; it\u2019s a reminder yet again of Gina Coleman\u2019s stylistic range.<\/p>\n
The album concludes with an atmospheric track: \u201cWill My Blues\u201d serves up gentle guitar picking and pattering percussion, plus Coleman\u2019s stirring voice. It\u2019s blues in its lyrics, if not in its arrangement. And it\u2019s an uplifting note upon which to end the record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On her own, leading a succession of groups and in recent year fronting the Misty Blues Band, Gina Coleman has paid her dues and earned accolades while doing so. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[5775],"class_list":["post-30014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-gina-coleman","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30022,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30014\/revisions\/30022"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}