Blues to the Bone
Californian Etta James decided against accepting filmmaker Martin Scorcese's personal invitation to sing atThe Bluesgala in New York in early 2003. The well-celebrated soul and blues queen makes amends here with what is one of the most blues-centered recordings in her expansive discography, bringing her big, no-nonsense voice and her feisty, proud woman's point of view to bear on classics, many identified with Chicago. The likes ofHowlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightnin',"Jimmy Reed's "Hush Hush," andMuddy Waters's "Got My Mojo Working" may be hackneyed choices, but she seizes each of a dozen as her own, and clearly, as she says herself, these are the blues songs that touch her the deepest. No argument here.--Frank-John Hadley