Blues Singer Angela Strehli Returns With ‘Ace of Blues’ On Relaunch of Antone’s Records (ALBUM REVIEW)

If we are associate names with the now septuagenarian blues singer Angela Strehli, at least three come to mind – Austin, Antone’s, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.  Ace of Blues, her first album in over 17 years is a momentous event by any standard, made even more vital as it marks the relaunch of Antone’s Records, in partnership with New West Records. In most cases, an album of cover tunes should not garner ridiculous amounts of interest, but this is different. Strehli met and actually shared the stage with the iconic blues artists that she covers here. The only other living female blues artist who could claim this litany is likely Bonnie Raitt. (No slight to Rory Block, but Block’s encounters are with the acoustic blues artists).  Don’t miss the photographs in the jacket and the booklet that capture her with Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Otis Clay, Jimmy Reed and Eddie Taylor, Little Milton Campbell, Otis Rush, B.B. King, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, Bonnie Raitt, and of course, the Austin icons – Stevie Ray Vaughan, Sue Foley, and more. She pays tribute to many of them in these selections, writing her own personal tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan to close the album. Her history is fascinating, as she grew up in Lubboch, TX in the same neighborhood as Joe Ely, Butch Hancock and Jimmie Dale Gilmore of The Flatlanders. Her discography is worth checking out as well. 

Strehli founded the iconic blues club, Antone’s, with the late Clifford Antone in Austin, and later became President of the record label of the same name. That’s how she was able to meet and perform with blues royalty. She is arguably as vital to that burgeoning blues scene in Austin in the ‘80s as the Vaughan brothers or any other Austin artist one cares to mention. Since 1989, she and her husband, Bob Brown, have lived in northern California and run the restored roadhouse restaurant Rancho NIcasio, where several albums, notably from Little Village, have been recorded. So, her supporting cast are the northern California musicians with Brown and Strehli co-producing and Kid Andersen mixing. Ari Rios is the engineer.  Players include Mike Schermer (guitar), Steve Ehrmann (bass), Kevin Hayes (drums), and Mike Emerson (keys) with guests that include Andersen, Jim Pugh, Sons of the Soul Revivers and others. 

Strehli spans blues, gospel, and soul in these dozen tunes, stating that she tries to stay as true to the original arrangements as possible to pay the most faithful tributes to these masters, beginning with Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “Two Steps from the Blues,” with a full horn section and a big assist from Sons of the Soul Revivers. Her band had opened for Bland in Austin in 1976. This was, by admission, the most difficult of any tune to record, but Strehli’s phrasing and emotive take win the listener over immediately. She challenges herself as her voice has deepened and weathered, which only enhances its appeal. From there she covers Elmore James’ “Person to Person,” with fine piano from 80-year-old John Allair who stills tours with Van Morrison. O.V. Wright’s “Ace of Spades,”where she includes a vamp about her nickname the blues giants gave her, ‘Ace of Blues.’ The Bland tune and Little Milton Campbell’s “More and More” (a hit for Blood, Sweat, and Tears) all feature Sons of the Soul Revivers on backgrounds. Of course, she nods to Muddy Waters, who she first met in Chicago while she was in college in 1965 for “I Love the Life I Live” with Kaz Kazanoff adding stellar harmonica.

Strehli went for a throwback sound for Chuck Berry’s “You Never Can Tell” with Allair on upright piano and Bill Gibson form Huey Lewis and the News on a stripped-down drum kit, just a snare and a kick.  She notes that the only song in this collection that was a staple of her live shows is Howlin’ Wolf’s “Howlin’ For My Darling.” Schermer does an excellent guitar reading of Otis Rush on Rush’s “Gambler’s Blues,” a standout track, not often heard sung by a female. This is in Strehli’s wheelhouse. She kills it. She takes on the quintessential Otis Clay track. “Trying to Live My Life Without You” is replete with horns and the Sons of the Soul Revivers who also grace gospel singer Dorothy Coates’ “I Wouldn’t Mind Dying.” She’s got that distinctive Jimmy Reed rhythm down in Reed’s “Take Out Some Insurance” and saves perhaps the most heartfelt for the closer, her own personal tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan in the touching ballad, “SRV.” Strehli was the one to give SRV the confidence to start singing, first suggesting “Texas Flood,” one that she used to perform, that has obviously become a classic.

Ace of Blues may well be Strehli’s career-best, worthy of landmark status, and an excellent, most fitting way to relaunch Antone’s label since Strehli was there from its inception. 

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