Angela Strehli

Angela Strehli - Blonde & Blue - 1993 - Rounder

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

Two Bit Texas Town - Angela Strehli
Never Like This Before - Isaac Hayes, Booker T. Jones, David Porter
Can't Stop These Teardrops - Angela Strehli
You Don't Love Me - Little Walter
I'm Just Your Fool - Little Walter
Say It's Not So - Angela Strehli
Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um - Curtis Mayfield
Go On - Angela Strehli
Gotta Find Me a Lover (24 Hours a Day) - Eugene Record, Carl Davis
The Sun Is Shining - Elmore James
Going to That City - Sister O.M. Terrell

MUSICIANS

Angela Strehli - Vocals
Annie Stocking, Bonnie Hayes - Background Vocals
Steve Cropper, Steve James, Derek O'Brien - Guitar
Sarah Brown, John Pierce, Jonathan Sanborn - Bass
Will Calhoun, George Rains, Jim Keltner - Drums
Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff - Harmonica, Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone
Bill Payne - Piano
Keith Winking - Trumpet
Kent Winking - Trombone
Reese Wynans, Paul Griffen - Keyboards
Don Covay - Track Performer

REVIEW

The danger for modern blues performers is turning into a parody of what you're allegedly celebrating or honoring. Vocalist Angela Strehli avoids that trap by simply being herself; her honesty and individuality makes her cover of Major Lance's "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" a legitimate treatment. Strehli's tough-talking personna was tailor-made for such songs as "Two Bit Texas Town" and "Go On," while she managed to register pain without pathos on "Can't Stop These Teardrops" and "I'm Just Your Fool." Only on Elmore James "The Sun Is Shining" did she falter, more because Albert King has established a credible alternate vision of that number. But she makes up for that with the remarkable closing tune "Going To That City." While she doesn't eclipse Sister O.M. Terrell's transcendent original, she comes as close as anyone possibly could to providing a treatment that's just as valid. © Ron Wynn, All Music Guide

BIO

Don't let her lack of albums fool you: vocalist Angela Strehli is an immensely gifted singer and songwriter, a Texas blues historian, impresario and fan. Born November 22, 1945 in Lubbock, Texas, Strehli comes out of the same school of hippie folksingers that gave rise to some of Americana music's most gifted writers, people like Jimmie Dale Gilmore and her brother Al Strehli. Raised in Lubbock and inspired by the mix of blues, country and rock & roll she heard on West Texas early-'60s radio, she learned harmonica and played bass before becoming a full-time vocalist. Despite the fact that her recordings are scant, Strehli spends a good portion of each year performing live shows in Europe and around the U.S. and Canada. You can hear Strehli, who's now based in San Francisco, in all her glory on Soul Shake (1987, Antone's Records), Dreams Come True, with Lou Ann Barton and Marcia Ball (Antone's, 1990) and Blonde and Blue (1993, Rounder Records). Of these, Blonde and Blue seems to best showcase her talents as a vocalist and writer of quality songs. Strehli, an avid student of the blues and a sharp blues historican, also helped build the Austin blues scene with club-owner Clifford Antone and musicians like Kim Wilson and the Vaughan brothers; she resurfaced in 1998 with Deja Blue. © Richard Skelly, All Music Guide