MUSINGS & RAMBLINGS

“Gonna throw up both my hands,
Gonna Holler ‘what’s the use?’
I oughta, but I ain’t-a
Gonna cut you loose.”

Laura had the hammer-on lick of that tune wobbling perfectly, Lara had attitude and sneer on top of the guitar, and it just plain had authority.

Lara Price’s voice is like butter and she has huge projection and breath control. She sounds just so good. Unlike many who sing loud she can sing softly, and with authority in the softness. “A Lover Is Forever” You can hear the opening verse at CDBaby. It’s pleading sadness and wry letting go sets it apart from most blues ballads.

Still in duo format Laura switched to a Stratocaster while Lara used the Martin acoustic for “Angel From Montgomery”. Lara can carry a John Prine song too, while Laura added grit and grind.

Calling up drummer “Bald Head Fred” and bassist Jack Cannon to the stage they launched into “Faces of the Blues”, the title track of one of their CDs. It’s a classic “opener song” with a slow intro into up-tempo drive and some hot guitar to get things rolling.

With the house about half to two thirds full on a cold night in rainy February the band cut loose on “Suspicion [?]” with Lara getting a creamy voodoo sound to her voice and Laura cutting loose with a zinging solo with a lot of distortion. Laura is the sole front instrument in this band and she’s really covering it. Hot leads that make sense to the song and strong backing rhythm riffs that move things along. She’s helped by the tight rhythm section of Bald Head Fred on drums and Jack Cannon on bass. Jack covers a lot of the harmonic ground with a very full bass line, which he made heard in the large room. I rapidly became fond of Bald Head Fred’s drumming as he kept slipping in small Latin elements that filled out the sound and kept it from becoming static or stagnant. This is not any standard power trio. They have great power as needed and they are much more about dynamics. The sound level of the Lara Price Band is only as loud as they need it to be; they vary the dynamic loudness and the attack to suit the song. “Little By Little (your love is slipping away from me)” was a fantastic show of dynamics, up and down in volume and with rhythmic variation. This band is tight.

Lara Price has a fantastic vibrato on command. With the “butter” in her voice and the breath control of her large rib cage Lara has a command of singing that is seldom seen. Her control is remarkable. As the show went on she appeared to get past her weariness and really began spitting out her diction of the words, giving sharpness to the words that powers the songs and puts them across.

Finding something new to do with old warhorse blues classics is always a challenge. Jack Cannon’s opening bass solo followed by Bald Head Fred’s joining in on drums led into a new take on Sonny Boy’s “Help Me.” This band sure isn’t into slavish copies of the records.

On a Joe Louis Walker hot number Laura cut loose with a long solo and did the crowd walk out into the house. Her parents were in the house and I think she was really having a good time showing them and her guitar teacher how far she’s come. It was one of those fun moments and the guitar playing was fiery.

“I Need A Man”, one of their familiar tunes lists a set of qualities Lara specifies. It’s a lot of fun with full breathy “I need a man like you.” Switching to drums for a number it was clear that Lara has drumming in her background. “The Game of Love” was a danceable.

At the break outside I had fun talking with Bald Head Fred, a good guy, about the thrills of touring and having your old tour van terminally break in New Orleans. They finally gave it to a charity. “I called from Alabama and they said ‘it could be this or it could be that.’ We got back to New Orleans and they hadn’t even moved it from where I parked it. It was on its fourth rebuild. I said the hell with it.” Lara later from the stage would comment about touring in the south: “Fried everything. We got to Atlanta and there were actual Thai and Mexican restaurants and we went nuts.”

The second set opened with “(I just want to make) Love To You.” This became a funk tour-de-force for Jack Cannon on bass, with Lara gritting and shouting down to a purr, “I just want to make love to you, love to you.” My personal reaction was just what she intended me to have. “Born Under A Bad Sign” was great ensemble work with Lara singing the weary lyrics with authority and Lara powering the guitar parts and Fred and Jack nailing the distinctive riffs of this song.

Lara flat Testified with a huge vocal sound on a song I didn’t know, but was something about “I’m gonna move away from here”, and getting away from a bad man. She was spitting the lyrics now and her earlier weariness seemed to have left her. Spot on. And then they dropped right down into a wistful slow blues number. Your love is gone—“Old Love.” And then right back up into “I Feel A Change Coming On.” Lara’s voice had vibrato on command and grit on command. Lordy, what a voice!

Than they turned Laura loose on a guitar classic. Coyly: “Do we have any Hendrix fans out there?” It was “Little Wing” and Laura did it right showing perfect Hendrix and then doing more her way. A tour-de-force. I went out and danced. After talking about Mobile and touring they did “You Need To Be With Me” and Laura doing crowd walking again while soloing. The people remaining were quite enthusiastic and one table of ladies turned out to be from Alabama (they recommended fried pickles) and actually requested “Sweet Home Alabama” which the band did for16 bars. I had to bite my tongue to keep from shouting out “Freebird!”

The closer was the up-tempo B.B. King version of “Rock Me, Baby” and was a lot of fun. I shook hands with the band and asked Fred to keep that touch of Latin music in his drumming. It makes for a distinctive sound. I congratulated Laura again and enjoyed her wide-eyed wonder at the way her life has gone since joining the band. Lara was looking really tired again and really didn’t want to talk while being gracious. I've since learned she was in a hurry to get the long two hour plus drive home done as she had to catch a plane in the morning!

As you can tell I had a fine time. Man, what a voice! And Lara Price has a band to match, with a guitar player that complements her style. Laura Chavez is going to be a power in combination with that huge voice.

Lara Price Blues Band website
Lara Price CDBaby pages with sound clips: Faces of the Blues Lara and Laura Unplugged I Got News