Trudy Lynn

Album Discography

"Sings The Blues" (Ichiban 1989)

"Come To Mama" (Ichiban 1990)

"The Woman In Me" (Ichiban 1991)

"I'll Run Your Hurt Away" (Ichiban 1993)

"24 Hour Woman" (Ichiban 1994)

"1st Lady Of Soul" (Ichiban 1995)

"Retrospectives" (Ichiban 1998)

"U Don't Know What Time It Is" (Ruf 1999)

"Memories Of You" (Jus Blues)

"American Roots: Blues" (Ichiban/Rykodisc 2002)

"Trudy's Blues Live" (Isabel 2004)

Trudy Lynn with The Calvin Owens Blues Orchestra "I'm Still Here" (Sawdust Alley)

**** Hallelujah I exclaimed when I received a new disc from the marvelous Trudy Lynn, "Houston's 1st Lady Of Soul". I had to pause in consternation though when I saw "with The Calvin Owens Blues Orchestra". Don't get me wrong- Owens is cool so let me explain. Rue Davis wrote a handful of songs for Trudy and I had the privilege of hearing Rue's demos so I was "jazzed", no pun intended, to hear Trudy tear into this fine batch of songs. Cuz' people, Trudy don't play! There was no "blues orchestra" on them demos so I was a bit worried what would be the result of this seemingly superfluous hybrid. Them demos were just fine, after all, and they only needed live drums and a little bottom. They didn't need to be jazzed up with a 24-piece orchestra. Ah well, it turns out it all works extremely well. The arrangements are tasteful, not overblown like I feared, and this is one fantastic band and bandleader. Lynn is a dynamic singer and she hasn't lost a hint of her vocal prowess. The first cut ("Swing Boogie") sounds like what you'd expect- swingin' big band blues. Before going further I want to draw attention to the title song. We're talking award winning material here. "Looking back over my life/There's been so many memories/I've been singing these blues for awhile/Oh I guess it was meant to be/I've head my doubts/But don't count me out/In my life there's been some bouts/The struggle only made me stronger/I thank God I'm able to carry on." sings Trudy with all the sincerity humanly possible. In a perfect world this epic ballad would be up for a Grammy a year from now. Now this is a blues album and Rue also serves up some decent 12-bar bluesers ("Blues Party", "Left Me Singing The Blues") and Southern Soul ("You're The Only One", "Welcome Home Baby"). Trudy herself penned "Blues Singing Woman" and the B.B. King-like "Everybody's Got A Blues Song To Sing". Man, this woman can sang and the production is flawless on this 14-track release. There's only one minor misstep here that keeps it from "classic/masterpiece" status and that's the inclusion of five cuts Trudy doesn't even appear on! Now the cookin' instrumental "Boogie Woogie Gumbo" with Clarence Holliman and and Jabo The Crown Prince Of Zydeco is a fitting addition as an interlude but Calvin Owens' "Saturday Night" and Nelson Mills' "Starry Eyes" & "Hands Off My Woman" would fit better on the new Calvin Owens disc than here. "Hands Off" is sung (well, I might add) by Nelson Mills and although it's a good track Trudy needs no help with the vocals on her records! Perhaps when this disc finally comes out these tracks could be added to another record? That aside I predict this will go down as one of the best blues albums of 2006.