Apr 12, 2019

RhoDeo 1914 Grooves

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Today's Artist an American singer who performed in various genres, including blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "The Wallflower", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind". She faced a number of personal problems, including heroin addiction, severe physical abuse, and incarceration, before making a musical comeback in the late 1980s with the album Seven Year Itch. Her powerful, deep, earthy voice bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll. She won six Grammy Awards and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. Rolling Stone magazine ranked James number 22 on its list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time; she was also ranked number 62 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.. ... N Joy

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Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta James received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her "the greatest of all modern blues singers," and she recorded a number of enduring hits, including "At Last," "Tell Mama," "I'd Rather Go Blind," and "All I Could Do Was Cry." At the same time, despite possessing one of the most powerful voices in music, James only belatedly gained the attention of the mainstream audience, appearing rarely on the pop charts despite scoring 30 R&B hits, and she lived a rough-and-tumble life that could have inspired a dozen soap operas, battling drug addiction and bad relationships while outrunning a variety of health and legal problems.

Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California on January 25, 1938; her mother was just 14 years old at the time, and she never knew her father, though she would later say she had reason to believe he was the well-known pool hustler Minnesota Fats. James was raised by friends and relatives instead of her mother through most of her childhood, and it was while she was living with her grandparents that she began regularly attending a Baptist church. James' voice made her a natural for the choir, and despite her young age she became a soloist with the group, and appeared with them on local radio broadcasts. At the age of 12, after the death of her foster mother, James found herself living with her mother in San Francisco, and with little adult supervision, she began to slide into juvenile delinquency. But James' love of music was also growing stronger, and with a pair of friends she formed a singing group called the Creolettes. The girls attracted the attention of famed bandleader Johnny Otis, and when he heard their song "Roll with Me Henry" -- a racy answer song to Hank Ballard's infamous "Work with Me Annie" -- he arranged for them to sign with Modern Records, and the Creolettes cut the tune under the name the Peaches (the new handle coming from Etta's longtime nickname). "Roll with Me Henry," renamed "The Wallflower," became a hit in 1955, though Georgia Gibbs would score a bigger success with her cover version, much to Etta's dismay. After charting with a second R&B hit, "Good Rockin' Daddy," the Peaches broke up and James stepped out on her own.

James' solo career was a slow starter, and she spent several years cutting low-selling singles for Modern and touring small clubs until 1960, when Leonard Chess signed her to a new record deal. James would record for Chess Records and its subsidiary labels Argo and Checker into the late '70s and, working with producers Ralph Bass and Harvey Fuqua, she embraced a style that fused the passion of R&B with the polish of jazz, and scored a number of hits for the label, including "All I Could Do Was Cry," "My Dearest Darling," and "Trust in Me." While James was enjoying a career resurgence, her personal life was not faring as well; she began experimenting with drugs as a teenager, and by the time she was 21 she was a heroin addict, and as the '60s wore on she found it increasingly difficult to balance her habit with her career, especially as she clashed with her producers at Chess, fought to be paid her royalties, and dealt with a number of abusive romantic relationships. James' career went into a slump in the mid-'60s, but in 1967 she began recording with producer Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and, adopting a tougher, grittier style, she bounced back onto the R&B charts with the tunes "Tell Mama" and "I'd Rather Go Blind."

In the early '70s, James had fallen off the charts again, her addiction was raging, and she turned to petty crime to support her habit. She entered rehab on a court order in 1973, the same year she recorded a rock-oriented album, Only a Fool, with producer Gabriel Mekler. Through most of the '70s, a sober James got by touring small clubs and playing occasional blues festivals, and she recorded for Chess with limited success, despite the high quality of her work. In 1978, longtime fans the Rolling Stones paid homage to James by inviting her to open some shows for them on tour, and she signed with Warner Bros., cutting the album Deep in the Night with producer Jerry Wexler. While the album didn't sell well, it received enthusiastic reviews and reminded serious blues and R&B fans that James was still a force to be reckoned with. By her own account, James fell back into drug addiction after becoming involved with a man with a habit, and she went back to playing club dates when and where she could until she kicked again thanks to a stay at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. That same year, James signed with Island Records and cut a powerful comeback album, Seven Year Itch, produced by Barry Beckett of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The album sold respectably and James was determined to keep her career on track, playing frequent live shows and recording regularly, issuing Stickin' to My Guns in 1990 and The Right Time in 1992.

In 1994, a year after she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, James signed to the Private Music label, and recorded Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday, a tribute to the great vocalist she had long cited as a key influence; the album earned Etta her first Grammy Award. The relationship with Private Music proved simpatico, and between 1995 and 2003 James cut eight albums for the label, while also maintaining a busy touring schedule. In 2003, James published an autobiography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, and in 2008 she was played onscreen by modern R&B diva Beyoncé Knowles in Cadillac Records, a film loosely based on the history of Chess Records. Knowles recorded a faithful cover of "At Last" for the film's soundtrack, and later performed the song at Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural ball; several days later, James made headlines when during a concert she said "I can't stand Beyoncé, she had no business up there singing my song that I've been singing forever." (Later the same week, James told The New York Times that the statement was meant to be a joke -- "I didn't really mean anything...even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude" -- but she was saddened that she hadn't been invited to perform the song.)

In 2010, James was hospitalized with MRSA-related infections, and it was revealed that she had received treatment for dependence on painkillers and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which her son claimed was the likely cause of her outbursts regarding Knowles. James released The Dreamer, for Verve Forecast in 2011. She claimed it was her final album of new material. Etta James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia later that year, and died on January 20, 2012 in Riverside, California at the age of 73.


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Searing stuff -- easily one of Etta James' greatest albums! The set is a non-stop jam, recorded live at the New Era Club in Nashville before a small and screaming crowd -- a perfect performance all the way through, one that showcases Etta as she rarely sounded on vinyl during the 1960s. The whole album runs away like a train on fire, and it's filled with incredibly lively readings of tracks like "Something's Got A Hold On Me", "Baby What You Want Me To Do", "Money", "Seven Day Fool", and "Woke Up This Morning" -- all taken at versions longer than the usual under-3 minute single takes!
Though the studio albums Etta James made for Chess in the 1960s usually had the blues singer surrounded by lush production and string-heavy arrangements, this live date finds her performing with only a rhythm section, organist, guitarist, and tenor saxophonist. The singer seems to respond to both the stripped-down setting and the enthusiastic audience with noticeable abandon. In fact, James the classy balladeer, a role she sometimes plays on her studio albums, is nowhere to be found on this blazing set. The only time the band slows down is on the tearjerker story-song "All I Could Do Is Cry" (though what the tune lacks in tempo it makes up for in emotional intensity).
The rest of the set is straight-edged blues and R&B, including covers of some hits of the day, like "Money (That's What I Want)" and Ray Charles's "What'd I Say." Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do" (on which James does a growling, harmonica-imitating vocal solo) steps up the blues quotient, as does the band's finale of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want To Make Love to You," with James's gospel-drenched pipes wailing all the while. Etta James rocks the house indeed.



 Etta James - Rocks The House  (flac   258mb)

01 Something's Gotta Hold On Me 4:23
02 Baby, What You Want Me To Do 4:10
03 What I Say 3:07
04 Money 3:18
05 Seven Day Fool 4:25
06 Sweet Little Angel 4:10
07 Ooh Poo Pah Doo 4:15
08 Woke Up This Morning 4:10
Bonus
09 Ain't That Lovin' You Baby 2:51
10 All I Could Do Is Cry 3:20
11 I Just Want To Make Love To You 3:39

Etta James - Rocks The House (ogg    87mb)

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Leonard Chess dispatched Etta James to Muscle Shoals in 1967, and the move paid off with one of her best and most soul-searing Cadet albums. Produced by Rick Hall, the resultant album boasted a relentlessly driving title cut, the moving soul ballad "I'd Rather Go Blind," and sizzling covers of Otis Redding's "Security" and Jimmy Hughes' "Don't Lose Your Good Thing," and a pair of fine Don Covay copyrights. The skin-tight session aces at Fame Studios really did themselves proud behind Miss Peaches.



 Etta James - Tell Mama  (flac   137mb)

01 Tell Mama 2:20
02 I'd Rather Go Blind 2:33
03 Watch Dog 2:06
04 Love Of My Man 2:37
05 I'm Gonna Take What He's Got 2:32
06 The Same Rope 2:39
07 Security 2:44
08 Steal Away 2:19
09 My Mother In Law 2:20
10 Don't Lose Your Good Thing 2:26
11 It Hurts Me So Much 2:34
12 Just A Little Bit 2:11

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Although the 1970 album Losers Weepers was not a landmark in Etta James' career, and doesn't include any of her most famous or outstanding tracks, it's a solid enough album that has an edge on some of the other LPs from the later part of her time with Chess Records. To its credit, it doesn't seem to be trying as hard or self-consciously to absorb some influences from contemporary soul trends; largely, it lets James do what she does best: give romantic songs everything she's got, without holding back on some of her grittiest phrasing and throatiest belting. Were the material up to her vocal finesse, this would be up there with the likes of what Aretha Franklin was doing at the time. It's not, but the songs are OK vehicles for her tense and frustrated takes on love. The title track gave her a small R&B hit, and is certainly the best song here. If it's a little reminiscent of her own "I'd Rather Go Blind" in the verse, the jubilant, ascending chorus sets it off as a worthwhile tune on its own merits (and the next track, "Weepers," is a "part two" of sorts that also served as the B-side). It's a satisfying mix of ballads and more uptempo cuts (like "Look at the Rain," written by Jackie Edwards, famous for writing early hits for the Spencer Davis Group), also putting some pop into the arrangements and melodies alongside the expected soul. One of the best ideas that anyone at Ace has come up with in 2011 occurred when my colleague Mick Patrick proposed a series of expanded versions of several of Etta James’ Argo, Cadet and Chess albums that has hitherto eluded digitization. It’s quite astounding how many of the albums that Etta released during her 15 years as the Chess group’s flagship female singer have not been issued on CD, especially given that the format’s now been with us for almost 30 years. But thanks to Mick and Kent, the number is gradually decreasing, with two “expanded editions” so far this year and the promise of more in 2012.

This expansion of “Losers Weepers” really brings a full-on focus to some great music that more or less fell by the wayside when originally released, partly because of Etta’s personal circumstances at the time but mostly because she was regarded by many as having had her day as an R&B chart force. Etta was in pretty bad shape when she made these recordings, but her rampant narcotic dependence did not stop her making the terrific music that you hear here. ‘Heavy Soul’ was a phrase that you heard frequently in the late 60s/early 70s and the intensity in the two-part title track completely defines the term. Etta’s sublime versions of ‘I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)’, ‘The Man I Love’ and ‘For All We Know’ are the logical continuation of her immortal collaborations with arranger Riley Hampton, at the other end of the 60s, which produced the timeless “At Last” album. Elsewhere Etta makes a relatively obscure Bee Gees song ‘Sound Of Love’ sound like it was written by three bruthas from Birmingham, Alabama rather than three brothers from Manchester, England. Her vocal on her revival of the Falcons’ R&B classic ‘I Found A Love’ is almost as riveting as that of the song’s original singer, Wilson Pickett. A revival of one of Etta’s old Modern recordings ‘W.O.M.A.N’ almost matches the original take for sass and sexiness. Etta’s take on the Association’s pretty 1966 near-chart topper ‘Never My love’ will leave you wishing Ms James had spent lots of time working in Philly with Bobby Martin, rather than cutting just the one session……And these are just bonus tracks folks!



Etta James - Losers Weepers (flac   411mb)

01 Take Out Some Insurance 2:58
02 I Got It Bad And That Ain't Good 4:30
03 I Think It's You 3:56
04 Someone 3:50
05 Losers Weepers 2:33
06 Weepers 2:33
07 You're The Fool 2:40
08 Hold Back My Tears 6:07
09 For All We Know 3:28
10 Look At The Rain 3:04
11 Ease Away A Little Bit At A Time 3:40
Bonus Tracks
12 The Love Of My Man 2:39
13 Tighten Up Your Own Thing 2:40
14 Quick Reaction And Satisfaction2:34
15 Nothing From Nothing Leaves Nothing 3:34
16 The Sound Of Love 2:48
17 The Man I Love 2:47
18 I Found A Love 3:24
19 W.O.M.A.N. 3:14
20 Tell It Like It Is 3:23
21 Never My Love 3:49
22 I Never Meant To Love Him 3:52

Etta James - Losers Weepers   (ogg  160mb)

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Etta James was fighting serious substance abuse problems when this album was recorded, commuting to the sessions from a rehab center. It was a triumph simply to complete the record at all. Although James' life may have been in rough shape outside of the studio, she delivered a fairly strong set that fused forceful '70s soul arrangements with some rock (Randy Newman and John Kay both contribute compositions), jazz, and New Orleans R&B. Some of the material is routine, but there are some very strong cuts, like a rousing "Sookie Sookie" and "Out on the Street Again," with its slightly sinister funk groove. "Feeling Uneasy," in fact, counts as one of the unsung highlights of her career, with a wrenching, near-wordless scat-moan vocal over a suitably languorous, melancholy blues-jazz arrangement.



 Etta James - Come A Little Closer (flac   281mb)

01 Out On The Street Again 4:19
02 Mama Told Me 2:31
03 You Give Me What I Want 3:40
04 Come A Little Closer 3:32
05 Let's Burn Down The Cornfield 3:45
06 Power Play 3:25
07 Feeling Uneasy 2:49
08 St.Louis Blues 0:44
09 Gon'na Have Some Fun Tonight 7:53
10 Sooki Sooki 3:09
Bonus
11 Lovin' Arms 3:48
12 Out On The Streets Again (Single Edit) 3:45

 Etta James - Come A Little Closer (ogg   101mb)

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Originally released on Warners Brothers to scant acclaim in 1978, this Jerry Wexler-produced masterpiece finds James in astounding voice with a batch of great material to apply her massive interpretive powers to. The band, including the cream of the late-'70s Los Angeles session hot-shots (Cornell Dupree, Jeff Porcaro, Chuck Rainey, Plas Johnson, Jim Horn), lays it down soulful and simple and the result is a modern-day R&B classic. Highlights abound throughout, but special attention must be turned to James' takes on "Only Women Bleed" and the Eagles' "Take It to the Limit."



 Etta James - Deep In The Night (flac   245mb)

01 Laying Beside You 3:58
02 Piece Of My Heart 3:42
03 Only Women Bleed 4:10
04 Take It To The Limit 4:06
05 Deep In The Night 4:54
06 Lovesick Blues 3:34
07 Strange Man 3:21
08 Sugar On The Floor 4:43
09 Sweet Touch Of Love 3:19
10 Blind Girl 5:12

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