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With
every new CD of yours I am even more sure - on a field of modern blues
female artists you are one of the most interesting and imaginative
ones. Your new disc proves that so well - from song selection and
gathering the right players in the studio, to arrangements and vocal
performance, it is all good! I dig your take on the blues and I'm sure
my listeners will dig it too!
....Very interesting. The titles skilfully revive and refresh old standards. An excellent idea, magnificently realized. I'm very pleased to broadcast your music, I'm sure my audience will appreciate it as I do.
Mare Edstrom is een singer-songwriter, pianiste, maar voornamelijk gitariste uit de Midwest. Feitelijk een Amerikaanse bluesvrouw naar mijn hart. Op haar achtste jaar leerde ze al piano spelen om dan jaren later naar de gitaar te grijpen, en dit was meteen haar begin van haar muziekcarrière. Talloze popbandjes uit de thuisbasis volgden in de negentiger jaren, maar uiteindelijk siert deze jonge en stoere gitaarvrouw trots en wel, haar vorige bluescd's: "Inside The Blues" uit 2004, "Shake 'Em On Down" uit 2006, en nu is er het nieuwe "Sugar Sweet". En dat Edstrom alle genres aankan was reeds te horen op haar eerste album, "Learning How to Believe". Een plaat met allemaal covers van de legenden uit de singer-songwriterschool. Ze gaf een nieuwe kijk op songs van Townes van Zandt, Eric Taylor, Greg Brown, Janis Ian om dan met haar opvolgende albums, het over een heel andere boeg te gooien. Niet dat Edstrom grote aardverschuivingen teweegbrengt, maar met een doorleefd stemgeluid, presenteert Mare Edstrom op ambachtelijke en melancholische wijze dertien eerlijke bluesrockcovers van o.a. Sleepy John Estes, Robert Johnson, Betty Everett, Ma Rainey, Julia Lee, Little Willie John, Arthur Alexander en Willie Dixon. Allemaal deuntjes, die ze overtuigend brengt in haar unieke stijl, met als uitschieter, een magistrale versie van Bukka White's gospel "Fixin' to Die" als afsluiter. Op dit album kon ze rekenen op een zeer goede begeleiding, met producer/gitarist Kenn Fox als grote steun, achter haar songs waarin er op hemelse wijze van haar stem gebruik maakt. Bottleneck slide gitarist Kenny Fox is wederom de producer van haar vierde blues album "Sugar Sweet", een zeer verzorgd album, zonder overigens te gladjes te worden. Dat Edstrom een uitstekend gevoel voor het uitkiezen van nummers heeft mag verondersteld worden, en ook op dit album weet zij een nummer "Breakfast In Bed", geschreven door Kenny Fox af te wisselen met twaalf covers. Opvallend zijn de nummers van dit album waarin Edstom haar kunsten laat horen op gitaar in combinatie met de vertrouwde slide (Fox) en mondharmonica (Steve Cohen). "Sugar Sweet" is daarom een heel afwisselend album geworden. R& B, rockabilly, gospel, blues met een country gevoel, alshetware het warme gevoel uit de vijftiger jaren, waarin Edstrom's stem je tot op het bot weet te raken. De toekomst ziet er daarom rooskleurig uit met een sterke vrouw als Mare Edstrom.
**** (4 stars) - A far from typical blues album, but still rather good. If all you did was look at the track listing for Wisconsin blues singer Mare Edstrom’s SHAKE EM ON DOWN you’d find nothing too surprising. The album contains a pleasing mix of covers that includes Blind Willie McTell, Memphis Minnie, Blind Boy Fuller and Robert Johnson standards. However, as Edstrom launches herself into McTell’s Broke Down Engine, the realization hits, with the force of a sledgehammer, that this is far from a typical album. The first
thing you notice is that Edstrom was not born with a typical blues voice. In fact Broke Down Engine for one is transformed into a wailing lament, instead of a gritty and earthy blues classic. And while the ‘strangeness’ of Edstrom’s voice provides the initial hook, it’s not all there is to SHAKE EM ON DOWN. Blues equilibrium is restored by the burning spirit and force of will she brings to bear on the likes of Rocks In My Bed. Eventually that spirit consumes everything else and Edstrom carries the music
along
on a tidal wave of sheer talent. It does help that she’s backed by musicians of the calibre of Steve Cohen on harmonica and Kenn Fox on guitar. The contrast between their blistering approach and Edstrom’s more suble interpretations causes a friction that sparks the album into life. Mare Edstrom has had the great good sense to use her vocal talent to draw some unusual choices into her web. The Beatles’ Oh Darlin’, is given a whole new interest and perspective and there’s not many singers that can do that to a
Beatles’ song. Whether the purists and traditionalists will warm to what is a clash between a tight red hot ‘classic’ blues band and a singer whose talents are singular, remains to be seen but, on SHAKE EM ON DOWN, Mare Edstrom has thrown open the shutters and allowed a shaft of sunlight to hit a genre that can sometimes be bound by its own heritage. She has poured her heart and soul into SHAKE EM ON DOWN and in the process produced a quite magnificent album.
Mare Edstrom is een singer-songwriter, pianiste, maar voornamelijk gitariste uit de Midwest. Feitelijk een Amerikaanse bluesvrouw naar mijn hart. Op haar achtste jaar leerde ze al piano spelen om dan jaren later naar de gitaar te grijpen, en dit was meteen haar begin van haar muziekcarrière. Talloze popbandjes uit de thuisbasis volgden in de negentiger jaren, maar uiteindelijk siert deze jonge en stoere gitaarvrouw trots en wel, op haar vorige bluescd : "Inside The Blues" uit 2004 en het nu nieuwe album "Shake 'Em On Down". En dat Edstrom alle genres aankan was reeds te horen op haar eerste album, "Learning How to Believe". Een plaat met allemaal covers van de legenden uit de singer-songwriterschool. Ze gaf een nieuwe kijk op songs van Townes van Zandt, Eric Taylor, Greg Brown, Janis Ian om dan met haar twee opvolgende albums, het over een heel andere boeg te gooien. Niet dat Edstrom grote aardverschuivingen teweegbrengt, maar met een doorleefd stemgeluid, presenteert Mare Edstrom op ambachtelijke en melancholische wijze veertien eerlijke bluesrockcovers van o.a. Blind Willie McTell, T-Bone Walker, Muddy Waters en Blind Willie Johnson, maar ook van haar grote voorbeelden Memphis Minnie en Little Esther, aan wie ze trouwens deze plaat heeft opgedragen. Allemaal deuntjes, die ze overtuigend brengt in haar unieke stijl, met als uitschieters "Rollin and Tumblin’/Got Mud in My Soul", "Stop Breakin’ Down Blues" en de emotionele afsluiter "In My Time of Dyin'". Op dit album kon ze rekenen op een zeer goede begeleiding, met producer/gitarist Kenn Fox als grote steun, achter haar songs waarin er op hemelse wijze van haar stem gebruik maakt. Bottleneck slide gitarist Kenny Fox is wederom de producer van haar derde album "Shake 'Em On Down", een zeer verzorgd album, zonder overigens te gladjes te worden. Dat Edstrom een uitstekend gevoel voor het uitkiezen van nummers heeft mag verondersteld worden, en ook op dit album weet zij een nummer "Sugar", geschreven door Kenny Fox af te wisselen met twaalf covers van o.a. Willie McTell, Leroy Carr, Barbecue Bob Hicks, Bumble Bee Slim, en natuurlijk Memphis Minnie. Opvallend zijn de nummers van dit album waarin Edstom haar kunsten laat horen op gitaar in combinatie met de vertrouwde slide en mondharmonica. "Shake 'Em On Down" is daarom een heel afwisselend album geworden. Blues rock met een country gevoel waarin Edstrom's stem je tot op het bot weet te raken. De toekomst ziet er daarom rooskleurig uit met een sterke vrouw als Mare Edstrom.
Mare Edstrom, Shake
'em on Down, 2006 Spiritone After a lifelong career
in music that included a stint as an opera singer,
concert pianist, and a member of rock bands, Waterford's
Mare Edstrom finally found her calling in interpretive
blues and the singer/songwriter vein. Edstrom teamed
up with guitar virtuoso Kenn Fox in 2002 and that
partnership has helped spawn a performing duo and
a series of recorded works on Fox's Spiritone Records.
Edstrom's first release in 2003 paid homage to singer/songwriters
such as Townes Van Zandt, Greg Brown and Janis Ian.
Her first real success came with Inside the Blues
in 2004, a collection of blues interpretations
that received critical acclaim and fairly widespread
radio play. Her newest album, Shake 'em on Down,
is already duplicating that feat.
Translation - See below for original: Original Italian:
[From Mare: Please note that Kenn Fox played all the guitars on this CD .] With her third release, Mare
Edstrom continues in the vein of traditional blues
performed with a mainstream sensibility that at
first veils her considerable power as a guitarist
and vocalist. The first few notes of "Broke
Down Engine," though, with some beautiful slide
work, convey the abiding respect Edstrom has for
her chosen material. Blind Willie McTell, Bukka
White, Robert Johnson, and Memphis Minnie--one of
Edstrom's personal heroes--feature prominently on
Shake 'em on Down; the title, of course,
refers to the White song.
Translation - See below for original: Original French: "Cette jeune femme, qui semble un peu gauche en photo, se livre en mille vibrations bleutées lorsqu’elle est lâchée dans l’arène. Mare Edstrom s’est entourée d’un sacré gang de musiciens pour un second album au fond du blues (Inside The Blues), au coeur de sa passion, en hommage à tous ses héros du passé et du présent, parcourant tous les blues (T-Bone Walker, Jimmy Rogers, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minjnie, Henry Glover, et deux ou trois Johnson, Robert, Blind Willie...). Bien que pianiste, Mare est avant tout une chanteuse, de celles qui se sont faits d’abord les crocs sur les traditions vocales du jazz et du R&B, pour plonger avec éclat dans la pureté originelle du blues, sobre et intense. Surfant sur des octaves variés, capables de pousser la voix à la limite de la fêlure, tantôt rugueuse, tantôt suave, Mare Edtrom, penchée sur les notes de son piano,semble portée par l’âme sulfureuse d’une trame vocale qu’elle pousse parfois à l’extrême, et qui ravage les reprises déposées sur ce bien bel album. Elle est domptée et encouragée par une section rythmique calée pour la réussite, d’où sourdent particulièrement un harmonica déchaîné ou une guitare saturée, des musiciens capables d’envelopper des ballades complices avec une simple guitare acoustique, ou des hordes de notes à couper le souffle. Les pièces de l’oeuvre oscillent en permanence entre sagesse des sentiments et extase débridée. Mare n’aime pas les consensus et les brise en de violentes versions dépoitraillées (le gospel ‘In My Time Of Dying’ éructe de sensualité brutale entre une version à la Dylan et l’original de Blind Willie Johnson), les dénature (un terrifiant ‘Stop Breakin Down’ entame par un dobro en vrille pour finir sur une guitare hurlante et très rock)...La frêle jeune femme n’hésite même pas à défigurer certains titres en hip hop gonflé au rock, à en épicer d’autres de saveurs bien mixées, ou revenir aux sources d’un road band authentique. Un disque très excitant et l’impression de nouvelles sensations du blues moderne! A classer entre les grandes Dames du R&B et du Blues, celles du passé et celles de l’avenir."
"The second album
from singer Mare Edstrom (her first, Learning How
To Believe, was released last year) is a different
kind of blues disc. It’s not different in its selection
of material—there’s nothing odd about choosing to
record 'Statesboro Blues' or 'The Thrill is Gone'
or, especially, 'Can’t Be Satisfied' -- but in Edstrom’s
style and execution. From her first notes on T-Bone
Walker’s 'Treat Me So Low Down,' it’s clear that
she comes to the blues through a different door
than most: Instead of the standard gut-deep growl
or jazzy rasp, Edstrom uses a straight-up delivery
with the occasional downright pretty flourish. "Mare Edstrom was
torn between what her style of music should encompass.
Playing since the age of three she was torn between
classic rock and classical. She even gave up music
for a short time , and then found the blues, for
which we can all be thankful. Mare's voice is big
and lends itself to the blues perfectly. Interpreting
classics from everyone from Blind Willie McTell
to Jimmy Rodgers Mare does all these tunes justice.
Featuring classics like "That's ALright"
and "The Thrill Is Gone" Mare really belts
these tunes out and is backed by a stellar band.
Mare is a blues voice who is sure to make an impact
on the industry, and I am sure we have not heard
the end of her." "It’s albums like Mare
Edstrom’s 'Inside the Blues' that makes all the
work worth it. Just listening to that great traditional
blues guitar opening up the album makes me want
to weep. And then in waltzes Mare’s great classic
voice. You could shelf this album nicely next to
your best Muddy Waters and sandwich them right alongside
Robert Johnson and T-Bone Walker all of which she
reinterprets here. Her version of the Blind Willie
Johnson classic 'In My Time of Dyin'' is perhaps
the best shiner on the album and it appears last
to complement your way to hitting 'play' again." "Mare Edstrom should
have titled her CD 'The Blues Are Inside Her' instead
of 'Inside The Blues.' It becomes obvious by listening
to her new release that the blues is a part of her
soul and makeup. The one thing I found interesting
was that she sounds as if she is a classically trained
vocalist, at times bordering on an operatic vocal
style. While she handles each track with authority,
I honestly think her voice was made for jazz. She
almost sounds too classy for this genre, and to
top it off she looks like the girl next door. I
thought you were supposed to look tough and roughshod,
as if you have lived the blues. Well, this my friends
is a perfect example of the old adage-You can’t
judge a book by its cover. It all just does not
seem to fit, yet when you hear her belt out 'Rollin'
And Tumblin’/Got Mud In My Soul' or the emotional
closer 'In My Time Of Dyin'' she makes a believer
out of you. I sure became one once this CD was complete.
One of the best tracks, a real scorcher, is 'Stop
Breakin Down Blues.' It really smokes straight on
through. The guitar playing on this CD is exemplary,
it is the key in getting the tracks meaning conveyed
to the listener with conviction, and Edstrom's voice
rides the tide that the six-string creates. Well
there you have it, one of the more interesting blues-rock
artists I have come across in a long time. Hey,
the Red Sox won the World Series, so why not?" "Mare Edstrom is
a vocalist, songwriter, pianist and guitarist based
out of the Midwest. She started singing at a young
age and was taking piano lessons by age eight. Soon
after Mare was performing with bands, choirs and
theater groups. Edstrom's musical influences are
classical, rock and the blues. Inside The Blues
is her cover tribute to some of the greats such
as T-Bone Walker, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith,
Robert Johnson and others. She is joined by a group
of talented players who share her passion for the
genre. Producer Ken Fox also handles the beguiling
guitars and bass. The back of Mare's CD cover says
it best: 'The Blues. Soul wrenching music
straight from the heart; real songs-grit, joy and
humor, the most honest form of human expression.'
This paraphrase sums up the essence of this fourteen
track CD. Edstrom has a wide vocal range and the
fervor to sing the blues. Her interpretations meld
authenticity with modern textures and tones. For
example, a soulful harmonica is found throughout
the collection but there is also the subtle use
of a turntable on 'Got Mud in My Soul'. It's hard
to say how I choose my favorites from this collection,
as all the songs had heart and first-rate musicianship.
I appreciated Mare's interpretations of 'That's
Alright', 'Statesboro Blues' (a complete 360 from
the Allman's cover) and 'Spiderman Blues'. Mare's
CD is a powerful bridge from the blues of the past
to the more modern renditions of this potent genre." "If you're a woman and
sing the blues, you might have a tougher time proving
yourself than, say, any guy with a guitar that can
play a turnaround. I don't make the rules, just
an observation. But success shouldn't be a problem
for Edstrom, who can belt out the classics with
the best of them. And surprise, on this disc, that's
just what she does. You'll hear songs out of the
blues canon, like 'Statesboro Blues,' 'The Thrill
Is Gone,' and 'Can't Be Satisfied,' to name a few.
Edstrom's voice isn't the whiskey-soaked growl of
a Joplin, though it does find an edge from time
to time. Instead, she seems to just belt it out
with a cleanness and very little distortion. Backing
her up are some fine players, like Kenn Fox on guitar
and bass, Steve Cohen on harmonica, Randy Green
on the Hammond organ, and Randy Mueller on drums.
Together they provide a powerful backdrop for Edstrom,
with some real nice guitar and harp work. Edstrom's
take on 'The Thrill Is Gone' is worth noting, as
she turns it into a slow driving number, with an
open central section. An interesting take on the
classics." "Using an authentic-sounding,
red-hot backing band, Mare performs a mixture of
songs by classic blues artists [Muddy Waters, Robert
Johnson, T-Bone Walker] and originals by producer
Kenn Fox. You've gotta be really sure of yourself
to release a collection of classic blues songs and
Mare rises to the challenge, delivering an above-average
performance that is both faithful to the blues and
gives real passion that the blues deserves."
"Mare Edstrom is a welcome addition to the contemporary blues scene. On Inside The Blues (Spiritone Records), she pays tribute to many well loved blues artists and their songs, adding a unique dimension with her rich, expressive voice."
"I'm impressed. Mare
Edstrom is not only a very good vocalist but also
an imaginative artist. Arrangements on her new CD
are just great. Songs like "Stop Breaking Down"
or "Got Mud In My Soul" blew me away." "This work presents
an exciting new take on the blues while maintaining
a vintage brand of roadhouse authenticity." "Looking
at the demure picture of Wisconsin-based singer/songwriter
Mare Edstrom on the cover of her sophomore release
one would be hard put to guess at the fire that’s
hiding inside. Edstrom pays homage to an array of
blues artist, both old and new and she does so by
putting a new twist on the genre. She has a powerful
and broad-ranged voice that’s not your typical blues
growl, but actually works well on this eclectic
collection of songs. She belts out a rollicking
version of T-Bone Walker’s “Treat Me So Low Down”
and offers a more refined and higher pitched vocal
on a lively “Cherry Wine.” She handles Memphis Minnie’s
“North Memphis Blues” with an air of authority and
ease while she is altogether more moody and soulful
on a gritty take of Chris Smither’s “I Feel The
Same.” Producer Kenn Fox deserves lots of
credit here. He adds some superb guitar and bass
throughout the album, is responsible for all the
arrangements and wrote the two original tunes, “Tried
So Hard” and “Tell Me” as well as “Got Mud in My
Soul,” the latter which is segued from Muddy Water’s
“Rollin’s and Tumblin.’” But perhaps the best song
on the album is the emotive closing version of Blind
Willie Johnson’s “In My Time of Dyin’” which, surprisingly,
has the most original and non-blues vocal on the
album. However, the sheer beauty and intensity of
Edstrom’s vocal coupled with the imaginative arrangement
makes this special. There’s no doubt that she is
a talented and versatile vocalist."
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Reviews of SHAKE
'EM ON DOWN
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