I am very saddened to hear of Albertas passing today. We have many Blues Divas, now more than ever it seems, but A.A. was the QUEEN of Detroit Blues,period. I was very fortunate and honored to have performed with her, did a week of dates with R.J. ,Raymone & Chris Smith on sax backing her in 06. On the first gig, as is customary, the band does a few before we bring up the featured star, AA. So.. Im fronting the band and call Just a little bit and away we go. Goes over very well,the band sounds great,Im comfortable..Gonna be a good gig.. The rhythm sect. whispers to me.. Hey Gobes, thats HER tune Oh shit! I havent even played behind her yet, and I just blew it out with one her numbers! But she was cool as could be, came up onstage and gave the audience a rare treat, an GENUINE Blues Show! Im blown away just standing next to her. And she seems pleased. So, we play the set and get to break. I go and apologize immediately for stepping on her set list, wont happen again etc. She says to me Red, you as bad as you wanna be baby! Sing me the song! Ive never been more relieved. What I learned from her that week will stay on my mind,always. She told me stories about T-Bone,Hooker and more, and each performance was just incredible. I was so honored to play some blues music with this great woman. Ann Rabson paid me a very fine compliment,which AA concurred, after the Marquette blues fest,and I will always treasure that moment. Alberta was always so kind and gracious to me,and she asked me to sing for her on her B/day at Nancy Whiskys the following year, and I was just so flattered. What a lady! She even made James Cloyd Jr blush that night, but thats a whole other story..R.I.P. and have a great time in Blues Heaven, Alberta. And thank you so much for your Blues, it was superb!
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 20:45:05 +0000
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