From the first notes of Candice Ivory’s New Southern Village, it’s obvious she’s no shrinking violet. She’s in your face and unabashed, reminiscent of a young Tina Turner.
Ivory, who daylights as a music instructor at Washington University in St. Louis, says she understands that blues is a global music with roots in the American South. “New Southern Vintage,” she says, “pays homage to this iconic Southern folk form as well as the heroines and heroes who created it, including my greatest inspirations: blueswoman Memphis Minnie and my own great-uncle Will Roy Sanders, who fronted the Fieldstones, the best Memphis blues band of the 1970s and 1980s.”
Ivory’s interest in the blues is heartfelt, and her last album was a Memphis Minnie tribute called When the Levee Breaks. But New Southern Vintage is not a tribute album. It’s more just a collection of good songs with a blend of influences from soul blues to blues rock. It features 8 originals by Ivory and/or her songwriting partner Robert Allen Parker. Some of the highlights include Ivory and Parker’s “Ain’t So Blind,” Ivory’s “Blue Blood,” Joe Henry Hicks’ “I’m In Trouble,” Parker’s “Let Your Love Shine On,” Robert Petway’s “Catfish Blues” (sung by Mississippi bluesman and juke joint proprietor Jimmy “Duck” Holmes), Ermest Lawlers’ “World of Trouble,” and “Memphis” Minnie Lawlers’ “Shout the Boogie.”
The album features guest appearances by Holmes, Jan Hartmann, Antonio Vergara, Takuto Asano, and Chris Stephenson. She’s backed on several tracks by the album by Memphis-based band Blue Bloods (Parker, Public Enemy’s Khari Wynn, Adam Hill, and Donnon R. Johnson), as well as Ben Levin, Damian “Yella P” Pearson and Chris Stephenson.
About the author: Bill Wilcox is a roots music enthusiast recently relocated from the Washington, DC area to Philadelphia, PA and back again.