Wealth of blues history in the dynamic women of The Blues Broads playing at the Monterey Bay Blues Festival:
Over the course of three days and nights at the Monterey Fairgrounds during the 26th annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival this weekend there will be music galore, not to mention festival sights and sounds that never fail to delight the stalwart regulars and newcomers alike.
Headliners include Mavis Staples, The Barkays, Bobby Rush, Magic Slim & the Teardrops, Millie Jackson, Ruthie Foster, Lester Chambers’ Blues Revue, and Men of Soul: Howard Hewett, Freddie Jackson, Peabo Bryson & Jeffrey Osborne.
While there is a tendency for this venerable local institution to dwell heavily on R&B and soul acts, plus oldies but goodies, there is one group, The Blues Broads, that will seem new to most at first glance.
But once you take a closer look, you’ll realize there is a wealth of blues history in this group that is spread across the lives of five amazing women.
On the Presidents Stage Friday night at 8:20, The Blues Broads will not rely on sexy maneuvers, black leather or chantilly lace corsets to hold your attention.
Tracy Nelson, Annie Sampson, Angela Strehli, Dorothy Morrison and Deanna Bogart will instead wow you with their unique blues and gospel styles, heavenly vocal harmonies, and an honest, no-nonsense approach to their craft.
Each has a story to tell through her music, but the surprise will be how this tour de force ensemble will gel their disparate talents into one big, beautiful illustration of “woman power.”
“Originally it was kind of a revue that got started probably six or seven years ago,” Nelson said in a phone interview from her home west of Nashville. “Bob Brown and Angela Strehli do these barbecues at Rancho Nicasio. They own that place out in West Marin. They decided to throw together a whole bunch of different women in blues, kind of do what they were loosely calling at that point the Blues Broads. I think originally Maria Muldaur was there. Dorothy wasn’t there yet. Carlene Carter has done a couple of them. It would be who was available and throw them into this big revue.
“After a few years, it became Annie Sampson, Angela and I, plus there was loosely other people coming and going. Essentially when Dorothy Morrison agreed to be part of this, that solidified the unit, and then it just became us. I remember when they called me and said Dorothy Morrison was going to do the show that year, I just about died. We get to sing this gospel choir every time we do ‘Oh Happy Day’ in the show. And that’s just the best. With this particular group of women, that song works! And so we just went on from there.”
Joining the core four who all have at one time or another called the San Francisco Bay Area home, will be the Baltimore-based pianist/saxophonist/vocalist Deanna Bogart.
Her boogie piano will be just one part she plays in the mix, keeping one foot in the band context as well as joining the women in vocals, either front-and-center or background. Nelson explained that each “broad” will take a turn performing material from their own catalogue, with the others usually providing harmony and backing vocals.
“We’ve got some original stuff,” Nelson explained, “and we do a song that Annie wrote. We do a song that Angela wrote, a song I wrote, and ‘Oh Happy Day’ that Dorothy wrote. We pull things from our old records. I’m doing mostly stuff from my new record ‘Victim of the Blues.’ And we all pull in stuff from our shows. The group stuff is the most fun. We do an old Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers song, ‘Jesus I’ll Never Forget.’ We do ‘River Deep, Mountain High,’ and we do ‘Higher and Higher.’ For the group’s effort, we seem to fall into a really gospel bag. Even though they’re secular tunes, they have that feel.”
Nelson is originally from Wisconsin, but she garnered a loyal following in the Bay Area back in the ’60s with the band Mother Earth.
Her signature composition “Down So Low” has been recorded by Etta James, Linda Rondstat and Cyndi Lauper. After her second album, she moved to Nashville in 1969.
Sampson was raised in rural Louisiana, and her style exemplifies those deeply soulful roots, whether she’s singing blues, rock, a country ballad or a modern folk classic.
When she came to the Bay Area she enjoyed a long run with the musical “Hair” and then fronted the popular group Stoneground. They recorded four albums and toured internationally.
Morrison was lead singer and co-author for the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ recording of “Oh Happy Day,” which became an international hit, selling 7million copies. It is still the “national anthem” for American gospel groups.
Strehli is probably the most truly “blue” of the Blues Broads. She devoted her life and career to the heroes of the genre, knowing and singing with so many of the greats, from Muddy Waters to Albert King to Stevie Ray Vaughan.
She supported the legends through helping establish the Austin music venue Antone’s, known worldwide as a blues mecca.
She moved to Marin County 20 years ago, and with her husband, Bob Brown, has run the food and music venue Rancho Nicasio, where the Blues Broads originated.
After interning in western swing and R&B with Cowboy Jazz and Root Boy Slim, Bogart has fronted her own tight ensemble for more than 15 years.
Playing dazzling piano and soulful saxophone, she’s added the energy of boogie-woogie, contemporary blues, country, and jazz to create a unique fusion of musical styles. Her vocals and songwriting are full of vitality, as much as her playing is savvy, sensuous and deep.
“It’s so cool,” Nelson said about how the five women sound together. “My favorite thing to do on this Earth is to sing backup. I’d rather sing backup than sing leads. I love harmonies. I’ve always had gospel harmony singers on my records. To me, to have three- and four-part harmony behind a song is just thrilling. It’s just thrilling. And the voices in this group are all so damn good. And you know, there’s nothing that works as well as people in the same family singing together. There’s some kind of Zen magical thing that happens. I can’t really claim that with us, but it’s damn near. We just all have the same ear, the same tonality and it really works well.”
Whether you make it the whole weekend or can just come out for the day, the 26th annual Monterey Bay Blues Festival will be a feast for the ears. For the complete schedule, visit the festival’s website at www.montereyblues.com.
Beth Peerless can be reached at peerless@mbay.net. GO!
