Anyone who knows me knows I’m an Aretha fan and the way I see it, if you’re going to cover the Queen of Soul you better do it right, cuz it’s sink or swim, no middle ground, it works or it doesn’t. I was walking up to the door and I could hear Lisa wailing out one of Aretha’s signature songs, Natural Woman and she was totally nailing it! It was almost more than I could believe, but there it was! I realized it wasn’t just an accident as she went to work on a Tina Turner influenced Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin and drove Janis Joplin’s Get It While You Can with that same intense intimacy Janis had. It was pretty easy to see why Francois Braeken, a reporter for the Euro-Americana Chart wrote “Tina (Turner) has recently started her farewell tour and if you are desperately looking for a worthy successor…You Got 2 See Lisa Marshall”.

Lisa Marshall (guitar/vocals) co-founded Peculiar Boogie in L.A. which played some of those legendary places like The Troubadour and The Roxy for over 10 years. They were supporting band for Robben Ford and Koko Taylor and others. Mary (bass/vocals) studied under Chuck Rainey (Aretha’s favorite bass player) and was given a personal invitation to Victor Wooten’s 2009 bass camp. Russell Scanlon (guitar/vocals) is a stage veteran with a wide variety of genres and artists like The Austin Symphony, Bernadette Peters and Martha and the Vandellas. Johnny Radelat (drums) is also the drummer for The Greyhounds, a popular Austin funk band. Unfortunately Johnny couldn’t be there.

It was a good night to kinda settle back and listen because the crowd was smaller, maybe 25 people altogether. Most of the material came from 2008’s ‘Simple’ EP and from the upcoming full-length CD set for release this summer. The rest was Aretha, Tina, Joplin, Mavis, Etta and on and on. Gutsy songs, but Lisa delivers world-class with one of the very best white soul voices going today.

I’m hoping to see this talented lady and her awesome band come out to the North side soon, but we better make our reservations early! The schedule is listed on www.lisamarshallmusic.com and March is filled … 3 different gigs just on the 11^th??

I drove home later that night and I was glad I went. Another great Heights Live show produced by the girls at Now Hear This agency. Upcoming shows are at http://www.heightsliveconcerts.com.