After spending a couple decades in the hinterlands, it seems as if blues music has suddenly become "chic" once more among mainstream musicians and self-promoting celebrities. Actor Hugh Laurie, star of the TV show House, has announced his intentions to record a blues album. Tom Petty's 2010 album Mojo is said to be a return to his blues roots, ditto for Steve Miller's latest, Bingo. A popular cable TV show features a hard-boiled Memphis cop who polices the streets during the day and sings the blues at night (I like the show, but I've never heard him sing anything but Elvis songs....).
Then there's the problem of Cyndi Lauper. Best-known as the 1980s singer of such hits as "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" and "True Colours," Lauper is a talented vocalist too often typecast as a clownish one-trick pony. Still, when it became known that she was traveling to Memphis to record the blues album she "wanted to make for years," longtime blues fans rightfully scoffed. Still, here it is, Memphis Blues demanding our attention, Lauper admitting "all of these beautiful songs, and all of the great players on the album, were carefully chosen because I've admired them my entire life." The question remains, though, is Memphis Blues any good?
Cyndi Lauper's Memphis Blues
Give Lauper credit for knowing her subject matter...Memphis Blues include such classic blues tunes as Muddy Waters' "Rollin' and Tumblin'," Lowell Fulsom's "Shattered Dreams," Little Walter's "Just Your Fool," and Bobby Bland's "Don't Cry No More," as well as songs from Memphis Slim, Louis Jordan, Albert King, and others. Let's give her an 'A' for effort in choosing an impressive selection of songs.
Kudos, too, to Lauper for putting together a talented studio band schooled in the blues and R&B, including Stax label veterans Lester Snell and Skip Pitts (who performed with Isaac Hayes), and Hi Rhythm Section alumni Leroy Hodges and Howard Grimes (who backed Al Green). Guest stars like Blues Hall of Fame inductee Charlie Musselwhite, New Orleans music legend Allen Toussaint, soul vocalist Ann Peebles, and guitarists Jonny Lang and B.B. King lend an aspect of further credibility to the project.
Rollin' and Tumblin'
So we'll admit that Lauper enlisted the right musical talents to back her vision; another 'A' awarded for foresight. That just leaves her vocal performances...which, honestly, mostly OK. At her worst, Lauper is merely mediocre, as on the fractured cover of the notable B.B. King song "How Blue Can You Get?" Lauper's vocals here are overshadowed by Jonny Lang's bluesy fretwork and Snell's juke-joint piano riffs, and her voice doesn't meld well with Lang's here. The same goes for the album's first single, "Early In The Mornin'," on which Lauper's kittenish purr is less swinging than silly, but nonetheless meshes well with B.B. King's playful shouts and stellar guitar pickin'.
Lauper is at her best when she's not trying to adopt the role of blues vamp. The best track on Memphis Blues may be her down-n-dirty cover of the Waters' gem "Rollin' and Tumblin'." Pursuing a lower vocal register in order to match up with the great R&B vocalist Ann Peebles, Lauper's vocals here are raw, gritty and more heartfelt than anything else on the album. With Kenny Brown cranking out some nasty slide-guitar, and Snell pounding the keys as Lauper and Peebles swap vocals, this is the album's transcendent moment. A cover of Tracy Nelson's "Down So Low" follows a similar tack, Lauper belting out soulful vocals, while a duet with Lang on Robert Johnson's Delta blues classic "Crossroads" is provided a soaring vocal performance that is complimented by Lang's fiery guitar and passionate voice.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
It is readily apparent that, regardless of her immense vocal talents, Cyndi Lauper is not a natural blues singer. She shows flashes of true brilliance on tracks like "Crossroads," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," and Albert King's Chicago-blues romp, "Down Don't Bother Me" as she puts aside her blues diva personality and just lets the music move her. Whenever she ramps up the cuteness, however, as on the album-opening "Just Your Fool" (which nevertheless offers up some smokin' Charlie Musselwhite harp riffs), Lauper comes across as a sort of second-rate Cathy Jean without the smoldering sensuality.
In the end, though, Memphis Blues is entertaining as a sort of pop-blues exercise...not bluesy enough, really, for the hardcore fan that cut their eye teeth on Koko Taylor, or Marcia Ball, but maybe just smooth and sweet enough to appeal to the blues newcomer looking for a bit of honesty and sincerity and soul in their music. It wouldn't be a bad thing for Lauper to continue working in the blues vein and, truthfully, if Memphis Blues ends up bringing a few converts to blues music, then it has definitely been a worthwhile endeavor. (Mercer Street Records, released June 22, 2010)
