Written by James Killen

Nashville Singer/ songwriter, Amy Black Mad a trip to Houston’s Mucky Duck via Memphis last Thursday night to introduce her latest release, “Memphis”. She brought a band full of Memphis blues musicians to perform a late show on a school night before a scant group of devoted fans, but they played the show as if it were before an SRO crowd.

Amy started her career in Boston doing roots music and country. She moved to Nashville to further her career along the country lines. Her last two records, however, have leaned more to the blues side of pop and soul. The last one in the Memphis style and the one just previous to that “The Muscle Shoals Sessions” tended more toward that style of roots blues. She generally mixes her versions of classic covers with her own compositions and delivers them with a full clear voice that exhibits a wide octave range.

Amy and company leapt right into the blues with Ms. Black dancing throughout the instrumental segments of the songs. She followed her opening number with an expressive cover of Ann Peebles’ “I Pity the Fool”. That was followed by covers of Bobby Blue Bland’s “I Wouldn’t Treat a Dog the Way that You Treated Me” and Albert King’s “Walking the Back Streets and Crying”, the latter featuring Amy’s strong full vocals and some pretty impressive guitar and saxophone solos.

The band moved from covers to some of Ms. Black’s original compositions, starting with “It’s Hard to Love an Angry Man” displaying some amazing vocals over a nice organ and saxophone fill. Then it was “Without You” which had a bit of a country twang and a pinch of gospel sound. Next up was Amy’s lively tune about depression and getting through “The Blackest Cloud”. A heavy bass line carried the rhythm through “What Makes a Man” in a straight ahead blues fashion.

The mood moved to a mellow blues, lounge music style, with Otis Redding’s “My Lover’s Prayer”. Then came Black’s own “We Got a Good Thing Going On” with a very nice sax solo. Black and company moved on to Al Green’s romantic lullaby, “Old Time Lovin’” that featured some very nice background harmonies.

Amy’s band delivered a fantastic blues version of her folky composition, “Nineteen” about young men being sent to the horrors of war in Viet Nam. This version included an exceptional guitar solo by Rusty Russell over a well composed keyboard orchestration. Then, the guitar style got jazzy for the gospel sounding, “Let the Light In” which Ms. Black wrote as a dedication to Mavis Staples.

The band lit into Mickey Tucker’s “The Crawl” instrumental while Amy left the stage for a costume change from her dangly chains outfit to her flourishing fringed blouse, effectively changing the effects of her constant dancing during instrumental parts of her songs. This was just one of the ways that we could see that the twenty or so of us that were in the room were getting the same show that a venue of 500 listeners would be getting. That, my friends, is professionalism.

In the new costume, Ms. Black performed “William Bell’s “You Don’t miss Your Water”, followed by “I Need Your Love So Bad” featuring display of Amy’s vocal range from high notes to a guttural growl over some well executed deep blues guitar riffs.

The band entered the final stretch of the show with covers of some very classic blues and R&B songs. Moving first to a cover of the Staple Singers’ “City in the Sky”, followed by Otis Clay’s “Reach Out and Help Somebody” and into “Rocket 88” which was originally done by one of Ike Turner’s early band incarnations.

Without leaving the stage Amy announced their encore piece, a gospel rocking blues version of Sam Cooke’s “Jesus Gave Me Water”. Ms. Black carved out time to deliver an encore to the encore with Jerry Lee Lewis’s, “Night Train to Memphis”.

It was a shame that there were not more attendees in the room to experience this talented tribute to a blues style deeply rooted in the 50’s and 60’s Memphis tradition. The band was talented and never acted blasé about the lack of attendance. Amy Black fuels and drives a high energy performance and has carefully chosen a tight group of musicians to execute it. As the tour moves down the line, I hope that more fans take advantage of the opportunity to enjoy this experience.