{"id":20779,"date":"2021-04-03T05:30:10","date_gmt":"2021-04-03T09:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20779"},"modified":"2021-03-29T15:48:15","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T19:48:15","slug":"album-review-nora-jean-wallace-blueswoman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/03\/album-review-nora-jean-wallace-blueswoman\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Nora Jean Wallace \u2013 BluesWoman"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Greenwood, Mississippi born and raised, Nora Jean Dawkins has been steeped in the blues and gospel. Her performing and recording career commenced in the \u201870s and includes a tenure in Jimmy Dawkins\u2019 band. After a decade-long hiatus during which she raised a family, she returned to music in 2002. She went on to release a pair of well-received albums as Nora Jean Bruso, 2003\u2019s Sings the Blues<\/i> and Going Back to Mississippi<\/i> in 2004. But then she once again set aside her musical endeavors, taking time to care for her ailing mother. Happily, she returns in late 2020 using her birth name, releasing BluesWoman.<\/i> It\u2019s quite possibly her most fully-realized work to date.<\/p>\n

While the BMA-nominated Going Back to Mississippi<\/i> remains an enjoyable and engaging listen, Wallace\u2019s new release sounds even more like the work of someone who has lived, loved, lost and endured, and done it all without losing joie de vivre<\/i> and a sense of fun. There\u2019s a saucy feel to the album\u2019s opening track \u201cMartell\u201d \u2013 an ode to fine cognac \u2013 that brings to mind jump blues artists like The Treniers and Louis Jordan. And Martell\u2019s husky, growling vocals on the track \u2013 joined by a spirited backing chorus \u2013 make it clear that while she might be kidding (a little), she\u2019s best taken seriously.<\/p>\n

On a reading of Syl Johnson\u2019s \u201cI Can\u2019t Stop,\u201d Wallace\u2019s top-flight ensemble \u2013 with guitarist Johnny Moeller and keyboardist Stanley Banks within its ranks \u2013 lays down a swampy, Creedence Clearwater Revivial-flavored groove that propels the song.<\/p>\n

George Jackson\u2019s \u201cEvidence\u201d was first cut by Candi Station in 1970, but Wallace sets aside the original’s Southern soul vibe, imbuing the tune with a blues feeling that matches its lyrical content quite well. The recording underscores Nora Jean Wallace\u2019s skill at bending the work of outside composers to work with her particular set of vocal talents.<\/p>\n

Banks wrote four of the songs on BluesWoman<\/i> (including the title track) expressly for Wallace, but the vocalist demonstrates her own songwriting chops on four cuts as well. A highlight among these is \u201cVictim,\u201d a languorous blues that breathes life into the \u201cvictim of love\u201d lyrical trope; in Wallace\u2019s hands, the idea is visceral and real. Moeller deftly manages the daunting feat of showcasing his chops while making sure never to overshadow the vocalist.<\/p>\n

Steve Guyger\u2019s harmonica work is tasteful and exemplary throughout the record, but he steps aside on \u201cRag and Bucket,\u201d making way for a guesting Kim Wilson. The Fabulous Thunderbirds front man weaves his blues harp\u2019s soulful melodic lines in between Wallace\u2019s phrasing in an effective call-and-response manner.<\/p>\n

>Wallace\u2019s original \u201cLook Over Yonder\u201d and \u201cI\u2019ve Been Watching You\u201d explore a Chicago blues style, and even though the latter employs an extended spoken-word introduction \u2013 one of several on BluesWoman<\/i> \u2013 even that well-worn device feels genuine in the context of the record. And the r&b stylings of \u201cDance with Me\u201d show that while blues is Wallace\u2019s foundation \u2013 and the idiom in which she\u2019s most comfortable \u2013 her abilities extend effortlessly beyond the genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greenwood, Mississippi born and raised, Nora Jean Dawkins has been steeped in the blues and gospel. Her performing and recording career commenced in the \u201870s and includes a tenure in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[4492],"class_list":["post-20779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-nora-jean-wallace","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20779"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20779\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20781,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20779\/revisions\/20781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}