Staying with the blues this week: Gina Coleman solo album
I am staying north of the border this week, with one of the musical forms that is inherently Sin Fronteras – the blues. A blend of African rhythms, holler work songs, jazz, gospel, and European music structures, it is a mélange of countries. Nurtured in the US, loved in France, played in Mexico, the foundation of the British invasion bands like the Stones, it has and continues to cross borders. Today I want to talk about a Brooklyn-born blues singer who has taken the blues around the world, Gina Coleman, and her new solo album.
For me, it all started with a YouTube video “Hear My Call” with Gina Cole. I loved the resonator guitar and the vocals, so I searched for more. Before I knew it, I was a Misty Blues band fan. There was a religious message – not evangelical, just a call out for the best of us – and the deep, authentic, grab -your- soul blues. Their music called to me.
Cole is a South Bronx native who founded the internationally recognized blues band Misty Blues, which has given us 35 years of the real stuff. For 25 of those years, Gina has been widely known as the lead singer, founder, songwriter, and cigarbox guitar player of the Misty Bluesband, performing original and traditional blues with hints of jazz, soul, funk, and revival gospel. Gina/Misty Blues have recorded 16 albums with tracks featuring artists like Charles Neville, Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Justin Johnson, and Kat Riggins. As Gina leads Misty Blues into the next 25 years, she is venturing out with her first solo album, Unequivocally Blue,and it is a winner!
Eleven authentic grab -your- gut and eat- your- heart- out blues songs. Not throwbacks, but authentic and modern at the same time. The first single on the Spotify stream, “No More to Give,” surrounds her whiskey voice with twangy guitars and the resonator, paced with subtle but perfect timing drumming. It is followed by Days Gone By a straight time funky tune flavored in soul and well-aged with relaxed vocals that remind you of Koko Taylor.
The title track “Unequivocally Blue”, #3 on the stream, is a movin’ blues tune with a sheen of jazz, propelled by a walking bass line and the drummer’s brushes and friendly little electric and acoustic guitar accents. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it reminds me of Bobby Troup’s “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66”.
“Let Them Eat Blues” continues the “Route 66” feel that we are moving along and telling a story a walking blues story. It’s followed by“Ain’t No Giving Tree” with a hint of rumba, but following a classic 12 bar format with a strong rhythm guitar keeps the pace. “Fly with Me” changes the mood and the pace, emphasizing her vocals and a more classic down and dirty Delta blues, with the pain driven even deeper by knifelike guitar notes. “How the Blues Feels” moves in a different direction, staying slow and deep, but with her voice up an octave, and vocal fulfillment at the end of each of the verses.
“Up Above My Head” has a 1960s pop feel/gospel/blues sound. Definitely gospel, but more of a get out and dance than stay in the pews and clap song. “Nothing’s in Vain” is breathy, almost bedroom, a slow waltz of a blues song with some great guitar riffs. “Stoop Stomp” is just what the title implies, a classic form with a story that takes you to the “broad daylight” and blues guitar work that is amazing.
Will My Blues wraps the stream. It starts you out with guitar downbeats and Coleman singing intimately just to you, modulating her voice to create the hills and valleys of a melody. It leaves you, not foot tapping, but thinking, and with your eyes closed.
Unequivocally Blue is a mellow and intimate album, a shift down from many of the Misty Blues songs. It is – as a solo album should be – focused on Coleman. Primarily acoustic-based, but with precisely placed electric touches. If you are a blues fan, and especially if you are a Misty Blues fan, Unequivocally Blue is just that – the authentic range of sound and soul that makes up what the blues is today. It moves through history but is always right here with you. Keep it up, Gina. We love you.
Patrik O’Heffernan