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Blues is King [+
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Syracuse New Times
Blues is King on Friday
Blues is King on Friday
The Shelley King Band's final song at the 14th annual New York
State Blues Festival could hardly have been more timely. "All
I want is a brand new day," her a capella chant droned,
part cosmic mantra, part dirt-road rap. Her plea was not ignored;
just as she finished, the sun broke through stubborn cloud cover
to illuminate the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que Stage next to Salina Street,
and light up Clinton Square as well.
King's powerful set was the surprise of the eclectic lineup
on Friday, July 15, livening a slowly growing crowd as the second
act of the festival's opening night.
Anchoring the events at the Budweiser Main Stage next to Clinton
Street, and the evening itself, was the quintessential horn
band Roomful of Blues. A staple on the blues scene since 1967,
Roomful (more like arena full) has spent 36 years supersizing
the blues, redimensioning the idiom into a steroidal hybrid,
an insistent, in-your-face throb full of swing, rhythm'n'blues
and urban and country blues, all soaked with soul. Their set
was irresistible, persistently magnified by their diverse repertoire
and driven by their signature horn and Hammond-B3 sound. These
were proven veterans in overdrive, frequently switching styles
and inflating the dynamics, laying down pressurized, dance hall-ready
blues, all of it rockin' hard.
As it had throughout the evening, the music's direction changed
once again when The Subdudes took the main stage for the evening's
finale. Easily the least familiar act of the evening, in both
name and style, this New Orleans-based quintet plied yet another
niche of blues-influenced Americana with a set full of blues,
folk, zydeco, Cajun and country influences, all spun into an
itchy dance groove. Using bass, guitar, accordion, keyboards
and a drummer who played with a drumstick in one hand and a
tambourine in the other, the Subdudes shucked and rambled through
a set replete with the echoes of Ry Cooder, Dr. John and The
Band. Loaded with Crescent City syncopation, their music fused
a spiritual quality into rustic, homespun funk, a kind of roots
music reinvented as a kinetic pulse, causing the crowd to shake
and quiver in spontaneous response.
And even though Friday's music left the crowd walking away happy,
it was King's Texas honky-tonk that had set the standard for
the evening. An imposing woman with a plus-sized voice, the
Austin-based singer-songwriter rode the ridge line between blues,
folk and country, couched it all in dance-hall vernacular, and
made it rock hard. Her songs were declarative statements full
of self-emancipation, narratives of personal turmoil and redemption,
or reflective parables full of scars from lessons learned the
hard way. Her band was lean and spare, with guitarist Kris Brown,
bassist Tony Velasco, and drummer Perry Drake etching out sinuous
rhythms, and her authoritative voice full of sass and swagger.
Leaving both the glow of the late afternoon sun and a standard
to match in her wake, King had proven the slogan on the festival
volunteers' T-shirts to be correct: "Syracuse ain't nothing
but a blues town."
--J.T. Hall
One of the State's
Best Voices [+
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San Antonio Express-News
One of the State's Best Voices
Author: Jim Beal Jr.; SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS
Queen King
All right, so nobody has crowned Shelley King a queen - yet
- but she is certainly working, and working is the operative
word, her way into Texas singer/songwriter royalty.
Based in Austin, but raised in rural Arkansas, King is a singer
with a big, flexible voice and songwriting chops to spare. Saturday
at 9:30 p.m. she and her band, Perry Drake (drums), Kyle Judd
(guitar) and Ann Marie Harrop (upright bass), will take the
stage at Tin Pan Alley in Bracken, just across Cibolo Creek
from the old Cibolo Creek Country Club. Tin Pan's phone number
is (210) 651-9110. Cover costs $8.
Like many of the best singers, King grew up singing in church.
Her first public performances were under the steeple and that
sanctified singing style still marks everything she does. And
what King, with the considerable help of the band, does is a
bit of folk, a bit of country, a taste of zydeco, a touch of
rock and some gospel.
People who might not have been familiar with King and her work
had their ears opened when Toni Price's "Midnight Pumpkin"
CD included King's "Call of My Heart" and "Who
Needs Tears."
King now is working the tour road, doing everything from acoustic
shows to full-on band gigs, with her second disc, "The
Highway." Recorded in Muscle Shoals, Ala., "The Highway"
is a snapshot of King's strengths: solid songs, varied tempos,
plainspoken lyrics and a strong combination of motion and emotion.
King can write blues ("Running Out of Blue"), travelogues
("Pack It Up"), common-sense quirkiness ("More
Than It's Worth") and plain old fun tunes ("Texas
Style Zydeco"). Put it all together with that voice and
that band and you have a queen even if there is no crown.
KGSR 107.1 FM web
site [+
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Jody Denberg
While driving through West Texas, noted songwriter...
While driving through West Texas, noted songwriter Lee Hazlewood
and his wife were enraptured by Shelley King's "Texas Blue
Moon." Mrs. Hazlewood suggested it would make a fine duet
with Lee's longtime muse Nancy Sinatra, who evidently agreed,
because the song appears on the duo's new Warner album, Nancy
& Lee 3. Austin Chronicle
Austin's Shelley King has had one of her songs covered by the
one and only Nancy Sinatra (These Boots Are Made For Walkin')
"Texas Blue Moon" (off of King's "The Highway"
CD) can be found on "Nancy & Lee 3" from Nancy
Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood - available in Australia and New Zealand
with US and Europe release dates forthcoming...KGSR Website
Country Standard Time [+
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Clarissa Sansone
Shelley King
The Highway
Shelley King
The Highway
Lemonade
Austin singer and songwriter Shelley King had been establishing
a solid local following since her arrival in 1992, but when
Toni Price covered two of King's songs on "Midnight Pumpkin,"
King's songwriting talent became firmly established, earning
her several Austin Music Awards. With the release of her second
album, King displays her prowess with the pen as well as her
pipes.
King, who has described herself as a naturally happy person,
sounds like she's having a darn good time here, which is a testimony
to how energetic her live shows must be. Even when she sings
of lost love, she sounds joyful and hopeful.
The 12 songs run the gamut from commercially viable Americana
to zydeco to soul- and gospel-tinged roots music. The first
half effectively evokes the wide-open, sultry landscape of East
Texas and Louisiana, but the songs are not as interesting, musically
and lyrically, as the ones that follow. Most of the songs on
the second half tone down their country element and let more
a more soulful sound through, which suits King's big, un-cryin'-in-your-beer
voice.
Much is made in reviews of King's gospel background (singing
in church in Arkansas), and that early training comes through
in her vocals. While King can be ebullient, she is also capable
of singing with a smoky tone of wisdom to her voice, as in "Walk
On" and "Who Needs Tears", whose lyrics are equally
wise. Not merely a singer-songwriter, King is both singer and
songwriter. (P.O. Box 33097, Austin, TX 78764, Shelley King)
- Clarissa Sansone, Country Standard Time
(RECOMMENDED
Austin Music Hall) [+
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Austin Chronicle
SHELLEY KING
SHELLEY KING
You couldn't choose a warmer pairing of feminine pipes than
billing the Shelley King Band with the Texana Dames. King's
estimable songwriting, long championed locally by Toni Price,
finally got its well-deserved national nod when Nancy Sinatra
recorded "Texas Blue Moon" this year. The Texana Dames
likewise showed their heartfelt colors this year when Traci
Lamar stepped forward with her tour-de-force solo CD, Apasionada.
She joins her mother and sister, Charlene and Conni, to bring
tidings of comfort and joy to this special Christmas Eve show.
- Margaret Moser
Reviews Dallas Observer [+
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Dallas Observer
Texas Music Project
"Don't Mess With Texas Music"...
Texas Music Project
"Don't Mess With Texas Music"
The casual listener may have noticed a lyrical leitmotif running
through this Texas song sampler, to wit, the seductive lure
of the open road. Most of the state's population lives in the
gridlocked precincts of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio,
El Paso, Laredo and Corpus Christi, but if there is one abiding
fantasy we all share here in the land of Big Oil and bigger
pickup trucks, it's an empty highway stretching to a ruler-straight
horizon, a sweetheart by one's side, a good song on the radio
and "no particular place to go." Shelley King, a honey-voiced
honky-tonk thrush was transplanted to Austin from Arkansas by
way of Houston. In "Texas Blue Moon," she distills
the whole highway fantasy into one midnight run so sweet it
makes the destination irrelevant.
Top Recordings of
the Year [+
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Buddy Magazine
Shelley King, Rockin' The Dancehall (Lemonade)
Shelley King, Rockin' The Dancehall (Lemonade): Consistently
excellent, high-energy country-rock-pop-blues-gospel-soul, delivered
by a tight, experienced band. No studio overdubs or other tricks
here, just 14 songs from the show the way you heard it at Gruene
Hall.
Tom Geddie
Queen of the Road
[+
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Dallas Observer
Queen of the Road
Shelley King has been up and down The Highway, looking for a
home for her music
BY NATE CAVALIERI
Shelley King is onstage at a smoky punk dive on an oppressively
humid summer night, hundreds of miles from home, in the middle
of the Midwest. It's close to 100 degrees in the bar, and as
she plays guitar and sings, even her knuckles are sweating.
Her eclectic country songs have absolutely cleared the leather
jackets and liberty spikes out of the room, and she hasn't even
finished the first set. Welcome to Shelley King's worst nightmare.
"I remember going out into the parking lot between sets
and I was on the verge of tears," she says with a somewhat
sour laugh. "I kept thinking, 'Why am I in Cleveland? Get
me out of here. Get me back home, where they love us.'"
Literally and figuratively, the punk club in Ohio is thousands
of miles behind her, something that she can look back at with
a laugh. It opens up the floodgates to an assortment of wince-inspiring
stories about her struggles early on: leaving puking bass players
at the side of the Texas highway, finding last-minute substitute
guitarists while en route to gigs and logging tens of thousands
of miles to play in every imaginable environment. More than
a decade after King began forging a solo career, she is able
to bear these battle scars with pride. It helps that she's found
a loving home in Austin. King has become a dominant force in
the city's highly regarded songwriting circle since she migrated
there in 1992, gaining notoriety as both a songwriter and performer.
"You know, somehow things always work out, and I think
I've always known that things just will work out," King
says. "We drove up to Dallas one time with no guitar player,
so we decided to play acoustic and call up a friend of ours
to play harmonica to fill things out. But when we got there
one of the most fabulous guitar players in Dallas just happened
to be there. He had just got done with a gig and had nothing
to do. The harmonica player showed up in the middle of the first
song, and with everyone playing it was like magic."
Maybe King has a charmed existence, but her ability to make
magic happen is mostly the result of her determination as a
songwriter and bandleader. Onstage, she leads her band through
tangents of electric Southern blues and acoustic folk, revved-up
Cajun country and rock and roll with a charismatic ease that
evidences the resilience of a lifelong performer.
"I guess the more I keep going at it the better luck I
have," King says. "I've been lucky over the years
to play with people I admire and play to people who want to
listen. Sometimes I joke that God is my booking agent. I should
get a bumper sticker or something that says that."
The musicians who surround her--including Perry Drake, on drums,
lead guitarist Kris Brown and bassist Bonnie Whitmore--all stand
out as distinctive players in their own right, rambling through
the set with a coy energy that glues together the songs' divergent
styles. One moment Brown is nailing spot-on bluegrass licks
to progressive, jazz-infused country guitar solos; the next
he is freestyling psychedelic accounts of staring at spinning
45 labels on the Fisher-Price turntable of his youth. And somehow
it all makes sense. King's songs, while musically diverse, are
tied together with a storyteller's voice that has become something
of a tradition for Texas-born greats such as Lyle Lovett and
Townes Van Zandt.
"In Austin, people really mix things together--they almost
expect it," she says. "There is country and blues,
folk and rock. Everything gets wrapped up in there. For songwriters,
that kind of thing is encouraged. For me, that was so welcoming
because after having been in other markets it wasn't that way.
In Houston...well, they didn't know what the hell my music was
up there."
Maybe King should spread some promo copies of her latest, The
Highway, through the streets of Houston. The disc, released
last winter on King's own Lemonade Records, plays like a road
map touching on every subset of neo-traditionalist Southern
country music, from Appalachian bluegrass to Texas-imbibed zydeco.
At the forefront throughout the record is King's warm alto,
narrating with a kind of soul power that can only be born in
one place: a church.
"It was just a little one-room church in Arkansas,"
King says of her first performance venue. She started singing
there, in the church choir of her grandmother's congregation,
when she was just 4 years old. "There wasn't much music
happening outside of that church, and singing the gospel songs
was something that I fell in love with. When I was a little
older I was singing solos in church. This wasn't a fancy place,
there weren't microphones or anything, and it was there I learned
that I had to sing to the back row if I wanted people to hear
me."
In slow increments, King has reached beyond the back row of
that church to roots-music fans across the country. In addition
to her relentless touring, her songs have been championed by
Austin notable Toni Price. Price recently brought King's music
to international audiences with performances of "Call My
Heart" and "Who Needs Tears" on Austin City Limits.
"I don't know what working with her did for me nationally
or internationally," King says. "I know around here
she is someone who is known for performing good songs. Everyone
knows that she sings the best songs and she doesn't write any
of them, so people want to know who writes the ones she sings.
She definitely has a cult following, and when the people who
love her see her play my songs live or on Austin City Limits
or something, they want to check me out when I come to their
town, too."
While shopping songs to other artists can have a big payoff,
King's intentions are evident in her self-made success and determination
as a solo performer. King may write songs that other people
want to sing, but she doesn't start with that in mind. She's
not just a songwriter; she's also a singer.
"I guess I've written songs that have made me say to myself,
'Oh, that might be a Bonnie Raitt song,' or something, but that
isn't the way that I approach writing songs," King says.
"That's just something that is a way to think about the
song. I write songs that are based on inspiration, songs that
I want to write. There are definitely some songs that I would
never play in public, but I still write songs like that when
they come to me. I'm just lucky the Shelley King songs come,
too."
dallasobserver.com | originally published: July 17, 2003
Christy Showin' Some
Love to Ginger [+
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Stave Magazine
Love. On the Lawn
Location: Austin, TX
Love. On the Lawn
Location: Austin, TX
September 24, 2006
Featuring: Shelly King, Carolyn Wonderland, Kacy Crowley
www.loveaustintexas.com
Reviewer: Christy Claxton, Editor
Stave Magazine
www.christyclaxton.com
Christy Showin' Some Love to Ginger
I want to first talk about the South Austin experience called
"Love on the Lawn." Austin rocker, Ginger Leigh, and
her partner Cindy Hill, have been providing live music via the
front lawn of their Austin gift and clothing store, Love, for
several years. This random, regular event is considered one
of the best "venues" in Austin. Here's why. It's hip,
hippy, family friendly, happy, easy-going, neighborhood enjoyment.
And the music is great, too. I've seen a variety of musicians;
local and touring from this little stage, and combined with
the atmosphere, the result is always pleasing.
On a perfect fall Sunday, I made a trip to Love to listen to
Shelly King's songwriter round with Carolyn Wonderland and Kacy
Crowley. In Lottoland, this is considered a Powerball winner.
King is an accomplished songwriter who also happens to possess
one of those voices that you just want to hear over and over.
It's big, cuts through the busy traffic sounds of South First
Street, and still retains the comfortable warmth every Southern
singer wants to achieve. To King's right was, in my opinion,
one of the best songwriters to emerge from the Austin scene.
Kacy Crowley. My "Love" listening partner said she
hated a particular Crowley song just as I was leaning over to
say, "that is about as perfect as a song can be."
We both laughed, and I said, "That's why you hated it.
It's so incredibly pointed and real with its pain. Instead of
a neat incision into your heart, it simply ripped it out all
jagged and bloody and raw."
Let me say it again. Perfect song.
Next to Crowley was the wonderous Carolyn Wonderland. She's
a Houston ex-patriot who has rightfully landed in Austin to
kick some boy axe slinger ass. Yup. That means she rips a guitar
to shreds. She also belts a good blues tune, too. She is a perfect
addition to the funky, hippy South Austin landscape.
Ultimately, I was surprised that this combination of singer/songwriters
could pull it off as a unit. King is a huge voice, Wonderland
is a huge performer, and Crowley is a tiny person with a wispy,
quirky voice and delivery. She should have disappeared between
two powerhouse performers.
She did not.
Her talent and message are huge. I have been a fan for years,
and she always sort of makes me stop what I'm doing and listen
really, really hard. I always feel a somatic emotional response
to her songs. She creates and performs with intent, and therefore,
she easily sat between the obvious and made her own presence.
And as a unit, it was a perfect South Austin Sunday.
Make a point of keeping a lawn chair and a little Styrofoam
cooler in your trunk. Should you find yourself in the vicinity
of Love on a random music night, fill the cooler with treats,
and make yourself comfortable on the Lawn. Let me tell you.
There's a reason this little yard party is considered one of
the "Best of Austin."
Full-throttle [+
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Austin Chronicle
SHELLEY KING
Rockin' the Dancehall
SHELLEY KING
Rockin' the Dancehall
"With a proverbial trunk full of instant hits and yet-unheard
classics, Shelley King could've taken the studio route for her
third CD. Best known for her full-throttle vocals and a string
of tunes made famous by Toni Price ("Tennessee Whiskey,"
"Who Needs Tears," "Call of My Heart"),
King takes center stage with both at Texas' oldest dance hall,
Gruene Hall. By planting her crowd-pleasing compositions right
where they belong - in front of a live audience - the 14 songs
burst into blooms of every color, from blues ("Rainy Daze")
to blacktop ("The Highway"). The shuffle of waltzing
feet is almost audible on "Things You Do," and the
only thing missing from "One Shot at a Time" is the
clink of shot glasses toasting. King's talent lies not just
in her fine songwriting ("Running Out of Blue," "One
Way Ticket to Austin"), but also a comfortable rapport
with the audience that comes through in the well-oiled machinery
of the Shelley King Band: Perry Drake, Bonnie Whitmore, Kyle
Judd, and Kris Brown. King keeps their motor revved with a nonstop
schedule of touring and performing, and their proficiency is
evident on tracks such as "High on a Mountain," "Summer
Song," and "Soul Searching." Too often, live
LPs are a way of filling gaps between studio releases or fulfilling
contracts. In the hands of Shelley King and her band of cross-country
gypsies, Rockin' the Dancehall is an exuberant breath of air."
- Austin Chronicle
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