Reviews
Berkeley City
Council
January 2003
HONOR JANUARY 17TH AS GWEN AVERY DAY
WHEREAS, growing up around her grandmother's speakeasy in Verona,
Pennsylvania young Gwen soaked up the music of early blues and
jive artists
that frequented or passed through her grandmother's place. Born
of a musical
family, she grew up singing first at home then at church and in
local clubs;
and
WHEREAS, Gwen captivated the imagination of the Bay Area and
touched
many lives with her honest, soulful approach. Whether Gwen was
rocking and
swinging in North Beach, bringing a soulful voice to the women's
equality
and gay rights movement of the 70's, or performing in various
outdoor music
festivals and prisons, Gwen made her diverse talent and shining
presence
felt in the history of our rich musical community; and
WHEREAS, Gwen rocked the Berkeley council chambers with her powerful,
full-of-life performances at the 2000 People's State of the City
Address;
and
WHEREAS, Like some of the great female singers such as Ella
Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, and Aretha Franklin, she commands an
audience with
her infectious stage presence to hang on her every note, suspends
us in her
stories of passion and pain, makes us laugh out loud at life,
and draws us
near like a long lost lover; and
WHEREAS, We celebrate Gwen Avery's 60th birthday, and applaud
her
first music album release entitled, "Sugar Mama," a
blues, gospel, R + B,
jazz extravaganza, which was conceived and produced in Berkeley,
California;
and
WHEREAS, Gwen Avery, defines the spirit of Sugar Mama with her
soul
searching, rafter shaking vocals, intimate crooning, boot knocking
sassiness, lighthearted playfulness, country cooking warmth and
hospitality,
and her provocative, booming confidence. The essence of Gwen is
the music;
and
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Berkeley City Council does
hereby honor
Gwen Avery and proclaims
JANUARY 17TH AS GWEN AVERY DAY
in the City of Berkeley and invites all citizens and residents
to reflect on
Berkeley's one and only Sugar Mama.
Up
San Francisco
Chronicle
January 2002
  
Taking her bow
Blues singer Gwen Avery finally being recognized
Rona Marech, Chronicle Staff Writer Friday, January 25, 2002
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gwen Avery oozes the blues. She looks it, she sounds it, she emotes
it.
Even when she's just talking, it sometimes seems like Avery is
reciting poetry. She'll lean in, grow close to tears, then laugh,
in a big, messy, rolling way.
And she can sing, her voice by turns is rich or husky or shimmery
and always tinged with that essential blues ache. "I want
to be your Sugar Mama," she'll croon, shaking her head and
squeezing her eyes shut. Even her chin is expressive. She's like
a legend that never was.
Or almost never was. Since the women's music movement in the
1970s, Avery's name has been known to a small group of fans. But
she never made her own recording, and for long stretches, she
performed sporadically, if at all. She struggled, sometimes financially
and sometimes personally -- a molten personality trying to get
by in a seemingly wooden world.
Then a little more than a year ago, the Berkeley singer released
her first CD, "Sugar Mama," a blues, gospel, R&B
and jazz compilation. At 59, Avery may finally be getting some
sugar in her bowl.
"She has this great, deep, bluesy, soulful, sensual voice.
It's very real. There's no air. It's complete grit and soul,"
said Melanie Berzon, KCSM radio program director and jazz show
host. "I'm so pleased and happy that Gwen is finally getting
the recognition she's deserved for lo this many years."
In a sea of fakes, people say, Avery is real. She has history.
She has juice. She has stories. Hers begins at her maternal grandmothers's
juke joint in Verona, Pa., an unlicensed, flea-bitten place where
black townspeople gathered because they weren't welcome in any
of the white bars or nightclubs.
"If it was 15 feet wide, I'll kiss you all over," Avery
said. A single, naked lightbulb hung from the pressed-tin ceiling.
The floors were linoleum.
But it was rollicking. Fights and sex and all that music. Avery's
grandmother could sing and fender-pick the guitar, and on some
weekends, people would jam there all day long. Regulars were propping
Avery on the kitchen table when she was 4 years old to sing along
with the jukebox.
Everybody sang, she said. "It's like you just walk because
everybody is walking. If everybody was lying down, maybe you'd
never walk."
Avery likes to say she was raised in the speak-easy; that by
the time she was too big to be singing on a table, she'd seen
all the meanness.
"Sugar was hard to find," she said. "You'd want
maple syrup, but all you'd get is lots of salt and pepper."
Her father skipped town before she was born. When Avery was 8,
her mother moved to Ohio, leaving the youngster at the juke joint
with her grandmother. Avery doesn't like to say she was abandoned,
but the sense that these separations were somehow her fault trailed
after her, far into adulthood, she says. She was in second grade
when she dropped out of school.
"How the hell are you gonna do your homework," she
said. "when people are fighting and cussing all over you?"
Instead, Avery learned street smarts and killer pool. "You
had to be quick on your feet and light in your mind," she
said. "From the training I got in the juke joint, I had some
steam, baby."
For years, Avery hung around tiny Verona, singing in small clubs
and doing a little of this, a little of that, a little of nothing.
Though she'd known she was a lesbian since she was 12, she mostly
kept that to herself and one older friend, a mentor, who, she
says, always told her, "Be proud, honey. Don't let nobody
tell you who you are."
In 1969, when she was 25, Avery saw pictures of San Francisco
in Life Magazine. People, equipped with bowls of marijuana, were
sitting in the the street in lotus position, she said. The city
was so permissive, there were even openly gay cops! "My eyes
bulged out of my head onto the page," she said. "I was
gone."
North Beach became her stomping ground. "Rock musicians,
gays, hookers and middle-class workers -- that was my kind of
community. All mixed up. I could hang."
She sang with the rock group Full Moon Band and eked out a living
playing gigs, hustling pool and making friends. "People were
nice. I was beautiful. What can I say?"
Spurred by the fight for women's equality and gay rights, the
women's music movement was gaining momentum in the mid-'70s. Avery
attended an all-women's music concert in Santa Cruz and was instantly
enthralled.
The music gave lesbians the common language they'd lacked before,
she said. She desperately wanted to offer this burgeoning music
community the culture of her paternal grandmother -- "a true
slave person. A broken-English, down-home, biscuit-slingin' woman."
Her voice has haunted Avery since she heard it as a small child.
"When she opened her mouth, your hair stood on end. It was
raw," she said. "I'm still searching for that within
myself."
Avery's original song, "Sugar Mama," was included on
the 1977 record, "Lesbian Concentrate," one of the earliest
lesbiancentric records to come out of that scene.
"I would call her contribution to that album just so spectacular,"
said Chris Wilson, producer of AudioFile, a public radio program
that spotlights music of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transgender listeners. "The rest was political, historical
and important. But her voice -- it was just mesmerizing. I always
remembered her because of that."
But Avery said that Olivia Records, the Oakland label that produced
the record, broke her heart. The same issues of racism and classism
that confounded the early feminist and gay rights movements also
infected the women's music scene, she said.
She never made money from "Sugar Mama." Her music career
fumbled. In the early '80s, Avery's friends began to die of AIDS;
she lost her longtime partner to breast cancer.
She'd never had much luck holding down a job. Avery's ready emotions
wake people up and fuel her performances, says her manager, Emily
Tincher, but they don't necessarily fit into a conventional workplace.
Avery's worst times ended when the '80s finally ended. In the
years that followed, she sang with the Glide Memorial Church choir
in San Francisco. She volunteered and cut hair and, as always,
managed to slide by somehow, usually by dint of charm and luck.
Occasionally, Avery performed at small venues or festivals --
often to raise money for battered women, gay rights, women in
prison or other political causes. But the gigs were infrequent.
Her musical career seemed unsalvageable.
Avery had all but lost hope of ever cutting a CD when she met
Tincher at a songwriting workshop in 1999. Tincher had never been
a manager, but she fashioned herself into one, making up for her
inexperience with determination. Convinced that a CD was long
overdue, Tincher raised money for a recording at a series of house
concerts and brought venerated local producer Linda Tillery on
board.
"(Gwen's) like a tornado. She can sweep you up, or she can
knock you down," said Tillery, who has known Avery for decades.
"I thought, 'OK, this is going to be challenging.' Because,
first of all, you're dealing with two very strong personalities;
two willful personalities. But I have such respect for her musically
and such a desire to see her recognized, I decided, yeah, I'm
going to go ahead with this."
Tillery said her instinct was affirmed at one of the earliest
rehearsals when Avery sang the gospel song "Precious Lord."
"It was like this spirit came in. We were doing it,"
Avery said. "Oh, it was good, girl."
"In essence, we had church in her living room," Tillery
said. "That day she laid it out. She was channeling her grandmother
and mine, too, and probably some slaves we don't even know."
"Sugar Mama" has received a warm, but limited, critical
response. Outmusic, a network of gay and lesbian musical artists,
named the CD outstanding new recording at its 2001 awards. It
was also included on AudioFile's year-end list of best releases.
But the mainstream music world hasn't caught on. Operating without
a distributor, Tincher and Avery have sold about half of the 2,000
CDs they cut. The recording's resistance to easy categorization
-- it's not just blues, not just R&B -- has complicated marketing
efforts.
"They don't know what to name it, and neither do I,"
Avery said. But regardless, with the help of Tincher -- now a
romantic as well as business partner -- Avery has a bona fide
second act. She is performing regularly, an exercise in terror
and euphoria, she said. Plans for another CD of "sophisticated
blues" are under way.
"I always felt like a warrior or soldier," Avery said.
"I've learned to deal with separation, isolation in the crowd,
rejection in the abandonment."
Challenge, she added in her best blues-mama, seen-it-all tone,
is opportunity knocking. "You need your critical times to
develop your humanness, your lovingness," she said. "If
you don't hurt, you won't know how it feels to someone else. How
you gonna heal if you don't fall down, get up and put a Band-
Aid on?"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where to go
Gwen Avery performs with the Sistahs at 8 p.m. on Feb. 14 at Epiphany
Musical Instruments, 640 Fourth St., Santa Rosa, $12. (707) 543-7008.
And at 8 p.m. on Feb. 23, Jon Sims Center for the Performing
Arts, 1519 Mission St., San Francisco. $5-$10 donation. (415)
554-0402.
For more information, visit www.gwenavery.com or call (510) 843-3014.
E-mail Rona Marech at rmarech
Up
Andrew Gilbert
Contra Cost Times
Posted on Fri, Apr. 12, 2002
Oakland joint jumps as Avery croons, shouts
ANDREW GILBERT: JAZZ TALK
By Andrew Gilbert
TIMES CORRESPONDENT
When Gwen "Sugar Mama" Avery is in the house, the
only thing you know for sure is that the music is going to be
grooving.
The powerful blues singer introduced her stellar new band, the
Blues Sistahs, at Dotha's Juke Joint on Friday, and returns each
Friday this month to the cozy nightspot attached to Everett &
Jones Barbecue in Jack London Square.
Featuring guitarist Pat Wilder, electric bassist Renaye Bush,
drummer Yolanda Brown and Avery accompanying herself on keyboard,
the band played a loose set with several false starts. But when
the quartet started cooking, they displayed a serious feel for
the blues.
Wilder was equally effective playing rhythm guitar and uncoiling
stinging blues lines. She's got a clean, lean sound that's an
effective foil for Avery's sumptuous voice. Bush's bass work provided
propulsive funk whenever necessary, and Brown handled the various
grooves with aplomb, giving the band a subtle kick whenever it
started to lose focus.
Avery's deep contralto is a formidable instrument, and she knows
how to use it to maximum effect. She can shout the blues with
Kansas City gusto, croon soulfully, and slide into her upper range
with a gruff, girlish cadence reminiscent of Macy Gray. With Brown
and Wilder occasionally stepping forward to sing lead or joining
in call-and-response backup vocals, the band brought a big satisfying
sound to an impressive array of material.
Avery's repertoire includes her strong original pieces, which
range from the Crescent City funk of "Marianne" to insistent
boogie numbers like "I'm on My Way," blues classics
like "Stormy Monday," "The Thrill Is Gone"
and "See See Rider," and singer/songwriter classics,
including Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and Randy Newman's
"Sail Away." Her jaunty arrangement of "Precious
Lord" was particularly effective, transforming Thomas A.
Dorsey's mournful gospel plea into a high-stepping affirmation
of faith.
A large woman with a playful demeanor, Avery seemed right at home
on Dotha's stage. That's not surprising, considering that she
literally grew up in a juke joint run by her grandmother in a
small town outside of Pittsburgh in the Allegheny River Valley.
Drawn to the Bay Area in the late '60s, she eventually found work
singing in Full Moon, a popular hard rock band led by Gregg Young.
Avery reinvented herself when she was invited to perform at the
first women's music festival in Santa Cruz in the early '70s.
She
began writing her own songs, and toured widely on the women's
music circuit with other singers recording for Olivia Records.
Her career has taken off in recent years as she's performed widely
throughout the Bay Area. Like her belated debut album "Sugar
Mama," which was released in 2000, Avery's performance was
basically a travelogue covering many of the stops she's made on
her musical journey.
It's a trip that should delight any fan of the blues.
Up
Keith "MuzikMan"
Hannaleck
Artist: Gwen Avery
Title: Sugar Mama
Genre: Blues
Label: Sugar Mama Music
Website: www.gwenavery.com
Gwen Avery wants to be your one and only “Sugar Mama”
of the blues on her debut release. From her opening lines in the
title track, she comes across as very convincing and natural.
Avery covers the array of the blues with authoritative vocalizations
and a band as tight as 10-year-old Levi jeans. She stretches herself
over the blues, gospel, and rhythm and blues with roots that run
as deep as the great Mississippi River. With original down home
cooking, her musical recipe starts simmering then comes to a full
boil with her earnest and sensitive lyricism. She personifies
each song with all of her that she has to give. She sings as if
her delivery to humankind was a special order by the man upstairs.
Now, you cannot ignore powerful stuff like that can you?
I love music like this because it feels so real and genuine.
Gwen Avery is
the real deal folks.
© Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
August 24, 2002
Up
Chris Wilson
This Way Out
A mesmerizing, soulful voice that no doubt reverberates all the
way to heaven where the late, great ladies of the Blues are giving
a standing ovation. --
Chris Wilson
This Way Out
Up
David Whiteis
Chicago Reader
June 29, 2001
CRITIC’S CHOICE
GWEN AVERY
Vocalist Gwen Avery was raised in a tiny town outside Pittsburgh,
where she spent many happy hours in her grandmother’s speakeasy;
listening to the jukebox-or to whatever blues man was passing
through that night. Her current style is an urbane, meticulously
crafted blend of contemporary blues, light jazz, and pop. Her
sensual voice has a flexible timbre, a wide
range, and the heft of a saxophone, and she hits tough intervals
spot-on. Sugar Mama 2k,” an update of her song on the trailblazing
1977 Olivia Records release, begins as a gentle melancholy plea
for intimacy, caressed by saxist Jules Broussard’s rippling
meditations. But then the band kicks into a brassy vamp, Avery’s
voice thickens into a salacious gurgle, and her
lyrics become outright suggestive (“Gonna love you up and
down and all round”). The breezy workout “You’ll
Find Love” draws equally from modern soul blues and 70;s
jazz-funk fusion. creating an understated but propulsive groove.
Her rendition of “The Thrill is Gone “ masterfully evokes
the woundedness and bitter determination that suffused BB Kings
version, qualities that have made the tune a blues perennial.
And “Sand Song,” a bittersweet pop-jazz bauble given
depth by her artful melisma, her pointed but understated approach.”
David Whiteis.
Up
Jai-Rui_Chong
Berkeley Daily Planet
Singing Sugar Mama's Number
Berkeley Daily Planet 2/22/02
The people in the speakeasy in Verona, PA used to flip young
Gwen Avery nickels to play records on the jukebox. “IT would
be B5 or S6 or whatever,” said Avery, now 59 and living in
Berkeley. “So that’s how I learned the songs, not by
the name of the artist but by the number. “
Avery is herself a kind of mis and match jukebox, capable of
low-down trouble blues, harmonic doo-wop and nimble scats-while
accompanying herself on piano. And there’s no denying that
Avery has a special gift when she breaks out into the spiritual
“How Long” in the middle of her living room with a voice
as wide and deep as the Mississippi River. Not only does she want
to bring back the dance-out-of-your-seat good times, but also
the camaraderie that was special in her hometown. “It was
the only place in town where everybody could mingle,” said
Avery, “People of all races would get a beer, listen to music,
and talk about their homelands. It was a little tiny melting pot.”
It is this rollicking juke-joint that Avery recreates when she
plays and jams with her band, the Blues Sistahs. Jai-Rui_Chong
Up
Gordon Baxter
Blues On Stage
CD Review
Gwen Avery
"Sugar Mama"
by Gordon Baxter
Review date: March 2001
Although it is around 30 years since singer/keyboard player
Gwen Avery left her home town in Verona, PA for the West Coast,
"Sugar Mama" is her first album. Produced by the Grammy-nominated
Linda Tillery, the album features some noted musicians from the
Bay Area including bassist Ruth Davies (ex Charles Brown) on several
tracks. Avery herself sings and plays electric
piano on most of the tracks, and wrote six of the 12 songs. The
millennium version of Avery's signature tune ("Sugar Mama
Y2K") opens proceedings. Things start off in a laid back
late night lounge style, and meander along for a while before
getting transformed into a much tighter, punchier affair that
makes you sit up and take note.
There is a definite gospel tinge to much of Avery's vocal intonations,
often blended with the sophisticated soul stylings of an Anita
Baker, especially on "Sad Song" (not the Otis one!).
There is also a cabaret element to Avery's sound, which is most
evident on Nina Simone's "Sugar In My Bowl." The album's
bluesiest track is probably the penultimate "Do I Move You,"
which is the second tune written by Nina Simone. It features some
very nifty guitar work from Roderick Munson and Shelley Doty.
Then, by way of contrast, Avery reaches into the gospel songbook
of Tommy Dorsey for the closing rendition of "Precious Lord,
Take My Hand" which opens with some appropriately churchy
organ from John R. Burr, before the band rock things up a bit.
Overall "Sugar Mama" is a good album, which shows that
Avery is an accomplished singer and songwriter. The style veers
more towards the smooth and sophisticated end of the blues, blending
together elements of gospel, soul, and blues in varying quantities.
This review is copyright © 2001 by Gordon Baxter, and Blues
On Stage, all rights reserved. Copy, duplication or download prohibited
without written permission. For permission to use this review
please send an E-mail to Ray Stiles.
Ray Stiles at: mnblues@aol.com
Copyright © 2001 Ray M. Stiles
Up
Nancy Einhart
SF Bay Guardian
March 12, 2002
Gwen Avery and the Blues Sistahs
In a dingy pocket of the city, up a dismal fluorescent-lit stairwell,
is the Jon Sims Center for the Arts. Last Saturday the eerie quiet
of the linoleum steps belied the veritable revival going on upstairs,
where the crowd stood and swayed with the urgency of people who
just couldn't stand to sit down anymore. And up front, lifting
them up and egging them on, was Gwen
Avery. "We're gonna give this one up to God," Avery
said, before launching into a funked-up rendition of the gospel
classic "Precious Lord." As she strutted about the stage
like a chubbier James Brown, Avery made eyes at the audience with
a half-crazed, half-flirtatious edge. When Avery commanded her
guitarist to "break it down," a woman in the front row
held her hands to the heavens in true revival style. Moments later
Avery tumbled to the ground and splayed her legs in the same direction,
letting go with a series of shrieks. The packed house pulsed with
warmth, but it was clear from her energetic performance that her
many years onstage have taught her a few things. Sometimes her
voice leaps out at you, but other times it's overshadowed by the
energy she exudes. It wasn't just Avery who moved the crowd. She
had a band backing her up, dubbed the Sistahs, whom she compared
to the Blues Brothers. "They tryin' to be blue, but we really
blue." During the set, which included Avery's original anthem
"Sugar Mama 2K," Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne,"
and Nina Simone's "Sugar in My Bowl," the audience quickly
learned that Avery wasn't going to tolerate much sitting. Raised
largely in the confines of her grandmother's juke joint in Pennsylvania,
Avery didn't waste much time on niceties. "We encourage you,
of course, to dance," she told the crowd. "Politely,
get off your ass." If the crowd seemed a bit sluggish, Avery
would bound into the audience, at one point taking a woman in
an embroidered sweatshirt into her arms for a twirl across the
floor. Even the guy from the food table, who looked like he might
have bought himself a few cups of wine, got up and danced, as
did the sound technician, who had to run back occasionally to
adjust the board. As Avery moved from "Suzanne" into
a raucous blues jam, she commanded the audience to get up and
move their chairs out of the way. "If I have to come out
and get you up myself, I will," she threatened, adding, "and
as you go out, pick up two or three more CDs." The crowd
happily obliged, clearing the floor and lining up with cash. Because
Gwen Avery's not a woman you want to argue with. -Nancy Einhart
Up
Lee Hildebrand
East Bay Express
CRITIC’S CHOICE: GWEN AVERY “SUGAR MAMA’
EAST BAY EXPRESS, OAKLAND CA
Women’s music insiders have been raving about Avery for
nearly thirty years, but few outsiders ever heard this remarkable
Pennsylvania-born, Bay Area based piano-playing singer until the
recent release of “Sugar Mama,” her debut CD. Produced
by Linda Tillery, the disc captures the vocalist applying her
richly resonant contralto pipes with depth of feeling to an eclectic
repertoire of original songs and standards. They include “Georgia
On My Mind,” “Thrill is Gone,” Leonard Cohen’s
“Suzanne” and a couple by Nina Simone (of whose style
Avery’s is at times reminiscent). Lee Hildebrand, East Bay
Express, February 10, 2001
Up
Jos Van Dam
Blom
BRTO-RADIO, HOLLAND
BRTO-RADIO, HOLLAND:
sung by a one of the best female singers in this style I’ve
heard for years. Gwen’s songbook includes strictly killers,
no fillers! Six out of 12 of the Sugar Mama songs were written
by Gwen herself. The other songs betray that Gwen and her executive
producer Emily Tincher have a nose for picking out the best material.
Come what may: this record will be on my playlist for a long long
time. -Jos Van Dam Blom
Up
Andrew Gilbert
Contra Costa Times
Fri, Apr. 12, 2002
Oakland joint jumps as Avery croons, shouts
ANDREW GILBERT: JAZZ TALK
By Andrew Gilbert
TIMES CORRESPONDENT
When Gwen "Sugar Mama" Avery is in the house, the
only thing you know for sure is that the music is going to be
grooving. The powerful blues singer introduced her stellar new
band, the Blues Sistahs, at Dotha's Juke Joint on Friday, and
returns each Friday this month to the cozy nightspot attached
to Everett & Jones Barbecue in Jack London Square. Featuring
guitarist Pat Wilder, electric bassist Renaye Bush, drummer Yolanda
Brown and Avery accompanying herself on keyboard, When the quartet
started cooking, they displayed a serious feel for the blues.
Wilder was equally effective playing rhythm guitar and uncoiling
stinging blues lines. She's got a clean, lean sound that's an
effective foil for Avery's sumptuous voice. Bush's bass work provided
propulsive funk whenever necessary, and Brown handled the various
grooves with aplomb, giving the band a subtle kick whenever it
started to lose focus. Avery's deep contralto is a formidable
instrument, and she knows how to use it to maximum effect. She
can shout the blues with Kansas City gusto, croon soulfully, and
slide into her upper range with a gruff, girlish cadence reminiscent
of Macy Gray. With Brown and Wilder occasionally stepping forward
to sing lead or joining in call-and-response backup vocals, the
band brought a big satisfying sound to an impressive array of
material. Avery's repertoire includes her strong original pieces,
which range from the Crescent City funk of "Marianne"
to insistent boogie numbers like "I'm on My Way," blues
classics like "Stormy Monday,"
"The Thrill Is Gone" and "See See Rider,"
and singer/songwriter classics, including Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne"
and Randy Newman's "Sail Away." Her jaunty arrangement
of "Precious Lord" was particularly effective, transforming
Thomas A. Dorsey's mournful gospel plea into a high-stepping affirmation
of faith. A large woman with a playful demeanor, Avery seemed
right at home on Dotha's stage. That's not surprising, considering
that she literally grew up in a juke joint run by her grandmother
in a small town outside of Pittsburgh in the Allegheny River Valley.
Drawn to the Bay Area in the late '60s, she eventually found work
singing in Full Moon, a popular hard rock band led by Gregg Young.
Avery reinvented herself when she was invited to perform at the
first women's music festival in Santa Cruz in the early '70s.
She began writing her own songs, and toured widely on the women's
music circuit with other singers recording for Olivia Records.
Her career has taken off in recent years as she's performed widely
throughout the Bay Area. Like her belated debut album "Sugar
Mama," which was released in 2000, Avery's performance was
basically a travelogue covering many of the stops she's made on
her musical journey. It's a trip that should delight any fan of
the blues.
Up
Kathleen Wilkinson
SF Gate
Gwen Avery and the Blues Sistahs
Through 4/26/2002
Dotha’s Juke Joint at Everett and Jones Barbeque
If you're jonesing for some blues and BBQ with all the fixin's,
then you won't find anything better than Friday nights at Dotha's
this month. Serving up huge platters of meat and Naw'lins-style
belt-it-out tunes, the down-home juke joint sure delivers. Avery,
is all about entertainment -- sort of a cross between James Brown
(think slicked-back hair and a flashy smile) and Screamin' Jay
Hawkins with her crazed laugh and chicken imitations. She jokes
with the mixed Berkeley-Oakland Baby Boomer crowd between lively
covers of Muddy Waters' "Rock Me (Like I Ain't Got No Bone),"
B.B. King's "The Thrill Is Gone" and a bit of gospel
-- "Precious Lord" -- as well as a few of her own original
songs, including her signature tune "Sugar Mama." Lead
guitarist Pat Wilder, with her blond braids and blue shades, warms
up the crowd with her version of Tracy Chapman's "Turn Back
Around" and drummer Yolanda Bush does a bang-up job on vocals,
too, with "Stormy Monday." --
Kathleen Wilkinson
--SF Gate
Up
|
January 17, 2003: The Proclamation, Gwen Avery Day !
