Always the Queen: The Denise LaSalle Story (Music in American Life)

Denise LaSalle's journey took her from rural Mississippi to an unquestioned reign as the queen of soul-blues. From her early R&B classics to bold and bawdy demands for satisfaction, LaSalle updated the classic blueswoman's stance of powerful independence while her earthy lyrics about relationships connected with generations of female fans. Off-stage, she enjoyed ongoing success as a record label owner, entrepreneur, and genre-crossing songwriter. As honest and no-nonsense as the artist herself, Always the Queen is LaSalle's in-her-own-words story of a lifetime in music. Moving to Chicago as a teen, LaSalle launched a career in gospel and blues that eventually led to the chart-topping 1971 smash "Trapped by a Thing Called Love" and a string of R&B hits. She reinvented herself as a soul-blues artist as tastes changed and became a headliner on the revitalized southern soul circuit and at festivals nationwide and overseas. Revered for a tireless dedication to her music and fans, LaSalle continued to tour and record until shortly before her death. | Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Prelude: "Far Away Places" 1. Mississippi Girl 2. Music and Life Lessons 3. "There's Got to Be a Better World Somewhere" 4. "That Was God Talking to You!" 5. "Mama Says It's in My Blood!" 6. The Road to "Trapped"—and Stardom 7. Dreams Come True 8. Going through Changes 9. "One Life to Live . . . Let's Live It Together" 10. A New Label and a New Era 11. Steppin' In on Some Down Home Blues 12. Cry of the Black Soul 13. Still the Queen 14. God Don't Make Mistakes Coda: "Speak to God on My Behalf" A Note on the Text Index Back cover | A Chicago Sun-Times Must-Read Book — A Chicago Sun-Times Must-Read Book | Denise LaSalle (1934–2018) was a soul and blues singer-songwriter and businesswoman. Her songs include "Trapped by a Thing Called Love," "Married, but Not to Each Other," and the modern-day soul-blues standards "A Lady in the Street," "Don't Jump My Pony," and "Someone Else Is Steppin' In." LaSalle entered the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011 and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2015. David Whiteis is a journalist, writer, and educator living in Chicago. His books include Blues Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Chicago and Southern Soul-Blues . "This is the autobiography of soul and blues singer Denise LaSalle "as told to" the blues scholar David Whiteis. The book documents Ms. LaSalle's move from rural Mississippi to Chicago as a teenager, where she eventually established herself as a successful songwriter and performer in gospel and blues. She also founded several record labels and demonstrated considerable savvy as a businesswoman. In the early 1980s, realizing that her brand of emotionally resonant soul music had lost ground in the marketplace to newer forms -- first disco, and then rap/hip-hop -- Ms. LaSalle began to write songs and perform in the modern-day blues genre usually referred to as "soul-blues" (a term she takes credit for inventing) or "southern soul." Her songs in this genre conveyed a bold, often provocative message of womanly assertiveness and pride, including explicitly drawn demands for both sexual and financial satisfaction, that both invoked and modernized the classic blueswoman's stance of power and independence, a trope that links her directly to such legendary blues singers as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Ida Cox. Armed with this new material but still capable of pleasing long-time fans with renditions of her earlier hits, Ms. LaSalle became one of the dominant figures on the "southern soul"/"soul-blues" circuit, which was actually a newly revitalized incarnation of the old "chitlin' circuit," the network of predominantly African-American performance venues that crisscrossed the south and also extended into some northern and western urban strongholds (tracing, more or less, the geographic pattern of the early/mid-20th Century Great Migration). She remains one of the most beloved figures on that circuit, admired by listeners and fellow artists alike for her legacy and her ongoing dedication to her music and fans. LaSalle's story thus complements the overall story of blues and soul music as the cultural expression of a diasporan people who reinvented themselves to adjust to Northern life while retaining many of the cultural, religious, and social traditions with which they had grown up in the South"-- Provided by publisher Cover 4 Title 4 Copyright 5 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 10 Prelude: “Far Away Places” 14 1. Mississippi Girl 16 2. Music and Life Lessons 26 3. “There’s Got to Be a Better World Somewhere” 37 4. “That Was God Talking to You!” 53 5. “Mama Says It’s in My Blood!” 61 6. The Road to “Trapped”—and Stardom 82 7. Dreams Come True 100 8. Going through Changes 115 9. “One Life to Live . . . Let’s Live It Together” 129 10. A New Label and a New Era 163 11. Steppin’ In on Some Down Home Blues 171 12. Cry of the Black Soul 190 13. Still the Queen 201 14. God Don’t Make Mistakes 215 Coda: “Speak to God on My Behalf” 230 A Note on the Text 234 Index 236 Back cover 258 "From her early R&B classics to bold and bawdy demands for satisfaction, Denise LaSalle updated the classic blueswoman's stance of powerful independence while her earthy lyrics about relationships connected with generations of female fans. Offstage, she enjoyed ongoing success as a record label owner, entrepreneur, and genre-crossing songwriter. As honest and no-nonsense as the artist herself, Always the Queen is LaSalle's in-her-own-words story"--Page 4 of cover