Toni Price

Toni Price - Midnight Pumpkin - 2001 - Antone’s Records

As a blues and R&B singer, Toni Price has no peers. Only Bonnie Raitt and Sue Foley -- both guitar players of considerable merit -- can approach the emotion Price can dig from a song, and of the two only Raitt has the same confidence with the material. Here, she is surrounded by her stalwart band and a host of friends who make up the elite studio crew of Austin, TX, including fiddler Champ Hood; guitarists Derek O'Brien, Scrappy Jud Newcomb, and Casper Rawls; bassist Frosty Smith; drummer Michael Duffy; David Grissom; and string king James Burton; as well as Tommy Shannon from Double Trouble and Jon Dee Graham. There are percussionists and a horn section and the whole damn thing shimmers with grace. Price delivers her songs without the reaching wail of her earlier records because she doesn't need to; she's a more nuanced vocalist, allowing the song to dictate to her what it needs. And what a collection of songs! There's the stomping bluegrass of Shelley King's "Call of My Heart," the smoky, tender artistry of Gwil Owen's "Something in the Water," the bluesy soul of "Work on It" and "Start of Something Good," and the Okie blues of J.J. Cale's "Like You Used To." Price also digs into her considerable early swing chops on the standard "Right Kind of Man," and duets with Malford Milligan on what should now be the watermark for Joe Tex's "I Want to Do Everything for You"; its original raw soul and barely restrained heat smolders between the singers. As if that weren't enough, there's a gospel quartet version of the late Blaze Foley's "Darlin'" and Gwil Owen and David Olney's swampy R&B torch stomp "Measure for Measure." From a lesser singer, this record would be a mess, a hodgepodge of rootless styles and wasted ambition. But in the heart and voice of Price -- via the production aesthetic of O'Brien and herself -- these songs all segue into one another, dovetailing seamlessly into a portrait of original raw soul. Lyrics and harmonies drip from Price's honeyed mouth like fine whiskey and cut a silhouette of her profile in the heart of the blues. One listen to Midnight Pumpkin and you'll never be the same. © Thom Jurek © 2013 Rovi Corp | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/album/release/midnight-pumpkin-mr0000934411

Classy R&B and soul blues with a touch of bluegrass and Gospel from the great Toni Price. This album hasn’t a dud song. Songs include Joe Tex’s “I Want To Do (Everything For You)” and J.J. Cale’s “Like You Used To”. The vocals and musicianship on this album are first class and the album is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Buy Toni’s great “Low Down and Up” album and support real music [All tracks @ 320 Kbps: File size = 127 Mb]

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1 Start of Somethin' Good - Jerry Williams 6:01
2 Thank You for the Love - Michael Keck 4:29
3 Work on It - Jerry Williams 4:03
4 Something in the Water - Gwil Owen 4:22
5 The Right Kind Of Man - Abel Baer & L.Wolfe Gilbert 3:25
6 Call of My Heart - Shelley King 3:42
7 Darlin' - Blaze Foley 3:55
8 Measure for Measure - Gwil Owen & David Olney 4:12
9 I Want To Do (Everything For You) - Joe Tex 4:17
10 Who Needs Tears - Shelley King 2:42
11 Like You Used To - J.J. Cale 4:03
12 Keep This Love Alive - Jerry Williams & Walter Richmond 4:37
13 We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye - Harry M.Woods 3:13

MUSICIANS

Toni Price - Lead Vocals
Scrappy Jud Newcomb - Electric & Acoustic Guitar
Derek O'Brien - Electric Guitar
Casper Rawls - Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, National Steel Guitar
Jon Dee Graham - Lap Steel Guitar
Olivier Giraud, Champ Hood - Acoustic Guitar
Roscoe Beck, Larry Fulcher, Luis A. Guerra, Tommy Shannon - Bass
Kevin Smith - Upright Bass
Erik Hokkanen - Mandolin
James Burton - Wood Dobro
Ian McLagan - Piano
Brannen Temple, George Raines - Drums
Barry "Frosty" Smith - Drums, Tambourine
Michael Duffy - Udu Drum, Tambourine, Shaker, Conga
Mambo John Treanor - Snare Drums, Snake Rattle
Jose Galeano - Congas, Timbales, Cowbell
Lisa Pankratz - Snare
John Mills - Tenor Saxophone
Gary Schletcka, Milan Moorman - Trumpet
Stanley Smith - Clarinet
Lustre Family Reunion: Uncle Shaspo - Lead Vocals, Cousin Chester - High Harmony, Cousin Esther - Low Harmony
Malford Milligan – Vocals (Duet) on Track 9

BIO

Vocalist and song stylist Toni Price's first exposure to blues was through second-generation blueswoman Bonnie Raitt. After studying her recordings, Price began to study the recordings Raitt learned from, women blues singers like Sippie Wallace, Victoria Spivey, and others who made names for themselves in the 1960s blues and folk revival. Price began singing in high school, but after graduating she sat in with country bands around Nashville, where she was for the most part born and raised, after moving from southern New Jersey. When Price lived in Nashville in the late '80s, she would religiously listen to local blues radio programs on college stations there. Price moved to Austin in 1989, and learned from the locals, who included Clifford Antone, owner of Antone's blues nightclub, and Austin-area guitarists like Derek O'Brien, who produced her second album. Shortly after she began singing in country bars in Nashville, she hooked up with songwriter Gwil Owen, who wrote many of the songs on her debut, Swim Away. In her blues singing career, Price cites vocalists Aretha Franklin, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, Patsy Cline, and Ray Charles as influences. Although critics have heaped praise on her gifted phrasing and delivery at her live shows and on both of her albums, the title of singer/songwriter is an inappropriate one for Price; the latter part of the title doesn't apply to her. In an interview in Austin, Price said she's never had the inspiration or desire to write songs, and figures she wasn't given that talent. Price's albums out on the Antone's/Discovery label include Swim Away (1993), Hey (1995), and Lowdown & Up (1999). Midnight Pumpkin appeared in the summer of 2001, followed by Born to Be Blue in 2003 and Talk Memphis in 2007. © Richard Skelly © 2013 Rovi Corp | All Rights Reserved http://www.allmusic.com/artist/toni-price-mn0000618191