You gotta learn how to grunt in life or it ain’t worth
it....
I was very recently urged to experience Cee Cee James
perform live and I look forward to that possibility when she next tours in the UK.
The vocal prowess so evident on latest release Blood Red Blues, reviewed here a few days ago, would be a dynamic
treat to hear. Indeed, having been so impressed with BRB I did track down this live recording, and James’ other blues
album Low Down Where The Snakes Crawl
is now on order from the States.
Seriously Raw [Live At
Sunbanks] offers up fourteen superb blues tracks, opening with Robert Johnson’s Crossroad Blues, where Cee Cee ‘warms up
the stage’ with an amazing vocal start just after the slick Rob Andrews slide
intro. Her Joplin tone and volume ignites the song, and Jason Childs supplies skilful
lead guitar. I’ve commented on the Joplin echo, as has every other reviewer I’ve
read, and it seems James is comfortable with and honoured by the comparison –
so much so that she delivers a version of Mercedes
Benz on this album, and it takes confidence to risk such a direct
juxtaposition. I wasn’t sure at first, but it works, especially as Cee Cee’s
commentary – and then scream – makes the homage honest. This is followed by a
lovely cover of Kristofferson’s Me and
Bobby McGee. Her song I Got A Right
To Sing The Blues from BRB gets
an earlier outing here too. Tina Turner’s Nutbush
City Limits gets a brilliant slowblues introduction and then launches into
a raucous rendition.
If you check out this page http://www.triplerphotography.com/Music/For%20Cee%20Cee/index.html there’s a sequence of great photographs that present the blood, sweat and tears
of Cee Cee James performing, and they supply visual credence to the emotive
energy of her singing. Great captures by Reed R. Radcliffe.
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