The Dreamer

Performer: Etta James
Engineer: Donto James; Terry Howard...
Producer: Etta James; Donto James; Josh Sklair; Sametto James...
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Terry Deroven, Josh Sklair, Bobby Murray, Leo Nocentelli (guitar); Jimmy Z. (saxophone); Lee Thornburg (trumpet); Kraig Kilby (trombone); David K. Mathews (keyboards); Donto James (drums). Audio Mixer: Ed Cherney . Recording information: Fort Athens, Riverside, CA. Photographer: Alan Mercer. Apparently, Etta James' musical career ends with The Dreamer. The legendary vocalist announced a few months back that this would be her final album; she's retiring from music in order to deal with serious medical issues. Co-produced by James, Josh Sklair, and her sons Danto and Sametto, The Dreamer's 11 tracks offer an imperfect but utterly worthy portrait of the places she's been musically with a couple of selections that reveal her dictum that "every song is a blues." Her signature meld of soul, blues, rhythm & blues, rock, and country are all on display here. The production underscores her lifelong commitment to these styles and suits the material at large. Her musical accompanists include not only her co-producers, but guitarists Leo Nocentelli and Big Terry de Rouen, saxophonist Jimmy Z., trombonist Kraig Kilby, and trumpeter Lee Thornburg. Ms. James' choice of material is rigorous even if two of its selections are questionable: the cover of Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" doesn't lend itself well to the choogling boogie arrangement here; and the funkified reading of contemporary country stars Little Big Town's "Boondocks" sounds like she tried too hard to make it fit. These cuts aside, the rest of the material is vintage; it reflects the work of Ms. James' influences and contemporaries. Her readings of Otis Redding's "Cigarettes & Coffee" and "Champagne & Wine," Bobby "Blue" Bland's "Dreamer," Bob Montgomery's country-pop standard "Misty Blue," Ray Charles' "In the Evening," Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "That's the Chance You Take" and "Too Tired," and Little Milton's "Let Me Down Easy" all contain within them not only their original traces, but the musical experience necessary to bring their subtler, deeper meanings to the fore. She re-creates these songs not as mere touchstones or mementos from a career, but as signposts to the living, breathing tradition that bears the signature and considerable influence of her life upon them. The Dreamer is a fitting -- if not perfect -- bookend to one of American popular music's most iconic lives. ~ Thom Jurek

Entertainment Weekly (p.102) - "Snarling through covers as far-flung as 'Welcome to the Jungle' and Little Big Town's 'Boondocks,' James brings some welcome grit to the retirement-album game." -- Grade: B+ JazzTimes (p.64) - "[H]er majestic authority isn't so much diminished as recalibrated, resulting in a gutsy, gravelly sound that suggests roads well traveled." Living Blues (pp.40-41) - "THE DREAMER is a deeply soulful, quite bluesy masterpiece, one of the strongest of her prolific career." Record Collector (magazine) (p.102) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "James' voice is rich, deep and expressive and her choice of covers impeccable as she delivers bold, sassy takes on King Floyd's 'Groove Me' and Otis Redding's 'Champagne And Wine'..." Uncut (magazine) (p.90) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "A supremely sassy swansong."

Though Californian belter Etta James is widely known as one of the greatest blues singers, famed for her '60s Chess recordings and '70s Muscle Shoals work, her story is bigger than that. She started out with the Johnny Otis band in the '50s as a hard-edged R&B singer of the kind whose records would've been called rock & roll if made by a white singer. The tireless James never stopped working, and by the '90s, she'd covered everything from jazz standards to Steppenwolf and CCR.

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