Thursday, March 02, 2006

We Like Etta James

I like the blues. And I like Etta James, also known as the Matriarch of the Blues. You may know her classic songs: Tell Mama, At Last, A Sunday Kind of Love, I Would Rather Go Blind.

You might recall the Etta James of your parents' or grandparents' generation looking like this a few years ago:



But Etta James today looks like this:


And her voice hasn't changed at all. Even with her 200 pound weight loss -- she did the surgery and talked about it in Ebony Magazine a couple years back. Well...

She's got a new project, All The Way, coming out in a few weeks, in which she covers Prince, R. Kelly, James Brown, and Marvin Gaye. A small departure from her projects of the past five years, primarily blues, but still a great project.

And... unlike some of our 60-something artists who go into seclusion, Etta James has recorded a project almost every year for the past 15 years, still tours, has stayed true to her original musical roots, and includes her sons on all her projects as producers and musicians.

Let's hear it for Ms. James. And "tell mama" that Etta James is still around in 2006.
fs

5 comments:

D-Place said...

I love Etta!

Waddie G. said...

Etta looks STUNNING...wow...I am amazed.

Lito Sandoval said...

I loves me some Etta, yet I only seen her once in concert years ago in San Francisco. She was on PBS recently and it was fun to see that although she doesn';t walk as much she's still nasteeeee on stage.

Marz said...

SHE LOOKS SO FIERCE.

Black don't crack it doesn't, may wrinkle, but it doesn't crack.


-Marz

BuddahDesmond said...

I knew nothing about this record until I came to your blog. Thank you so much for this post. I'll definitely be checking it out!

Go ahead Etta with your bad self! Show 'em how it's supposed to be done!