Unwinding blues
Music Makin' Mama
Ann Rabson
Alligator Records through Festival
Review by Melanie Sjoberg
I had reached the end of a particularly difficult week at work and a night of serious Green Left Weekly selling. I then wallowed in the luxury of a deep, relaxing bath before sitting down to review the first solo CD for Ann Rabson, also of Saffire — Uppity Blues Women fame.
This is a truly mellow album, highly recommended for pleasant unwinding.
Ann has been playing music for 20 years but describes her first solo album as "something necessary" at a time when she is "feeling my own mortality".
"This album allows me to focus on my vision for the music and experiment with textures, styles and instrumentation."
Rabson traces her musical influences back to powerful blues performers like Big Bill Broonzy, Jelly Roll Morton, Bessie Smith and Billie Holliday. The traditional style of Bessie is captured on a cover version of "He's Got Me Going", a haunting ballad about waiting for your man, underlined by some beautiful plucking guitar.
A similar style is recreated on "Skin and Bone", written by Roosevelt Sykes, about someone you love falling into sickness from too much fast and dangerous living.
People familiar with the Saffire sound will relish the similarities with the fun of the honky-tonk piano, which comes alive on many of these tracks.
This CD also manages to draw out some vibrant passion through an interesting combination of other performers. The violin contribution of Mimi Rabson on "Another You" is especially evocative. The pain and emotion of loss are forged by the searing tone of the violin.
Rabson says that the concept behind Music Makin' Mama was to produce the blues tradition of bragging, partly because she claims that she doesn't have any "legendary beauty" to recall. Rabson certainly has reason to brag about the diversity and spirit of her music, and if we interpret beauty genuinely, rather than in relation to some abstract million dollar fashion image, then the traits exist in technicolour on this album.