NELLIE “TIGER” TRAVIS

I’m Going Out Tonight

Benevolent Blues

By Stephanie Schorow

The first track of Nellie “Tiger” Travis’ new CD really hit home for me. Maybe it’s because I first listened to “Why You Lie Like That” just as the Republican primary was getting nasty. Or maybe because the song kicks off with sizzling guitar work by Max V and then really starts scorching when Nellie’s voice charges in. “I don’t know why you have a problem telling me the truth,” she wails in her honey-bourbon voice, heavy on the bourbon, with a twist of lemon. Why indeed?  

I’m Going Out Tonight  is Travis’ first all-blues album and it is blues with a capital B, blues like a blue-ribbon barbecue in the bayou. The 10 original cuts reach back to the roots: that basic beat, simple lyrics, single emotion. But the raw power of Travis’s delivery make the old rhythms seem as contemporary as today’s power ballads.

Strangely, it is the first all-blues CD that Travis has released in her 22-year career, even though she’s been a fixture in the Chicago blues clubs for decades. She got her start in gospel and R&B during a musical path that has taken her from Mississippi to Chicago. Six of the ten songs are written by Travis and they reveal that hers has not been an easy path. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger  – both in soul and song – and the album is one of personal triumph and tenderness for those who help us along the way.

There’s a famous line: there’s no crying in baseball. Well, there are no happy endings in the blues, at least not in love, or at least not found on Going Out.  Lovers are liars, as in “Why You Lie Like That,” or cheaters, as in the rocking “You Must Be Lovin’ Someone Else,” or overgrown boys as in the raucous and slightly goofy, “Ain’t Going to Raise No Grown Ass Man,” which serves as counter balance to the celebration of the infantile male that dominates the media.  As Travis sings, “I already got two kids, I ain’t gonna raise no grown-ass man.”

What Travis does celebrate is her own strong independent spirit and it stands out with her trademark vibrato in “Before You Grab This Tiger By the Tail,” written by Dylann DeAnna. Travis’ challenge to a potential lover is immensely enhanced by Buddy Guy veterans Ric Hall on guitar, Orlando Wright on bass, Marty Sammon on keys and husband Tim Austin on drums. It’s matched in intensity by another DeAnna tune, “Tornado Wrapped in Fire,” a growling, gritty tribute to the power of getting wiser with age. Backed with able keyboard work by Roosevelt Purifoy, Travis gives her voice a workout; when declares, “I’m a tornado,” you start looking for the storm shelter.

The title track, “I’m Going Out Tonight,” slows down a bit – it’s a sultry stroll about putting on a slinky dress and stepping out for an evening, although the singer acknowledges there will be limits to her abandon. The happiest, most rollicking song is about (sorry, Chicago) getting out of town and heading back South. Like a kind of musical GPS, “Born in Mississippi” gives directions on which roads to take before hitting the delta and coming home. Guitar by Ronnie Baker Brooks, son of legendary bluesman Lonnie Brooks, adds to the spirit.

The CD is dedicated to the late Koko Taylor and the song “Koko” evokes the deep gratitude and love Travis has for the woman she called “forever the queen of the blues.” Mixed with the platitudes about friendship are snippets of sharp observations about the trials of the music business and how a friend and a mentor can ease the way. That Koko’s legacy carries on is shown with the seamless transition into the next and last song, “There’s A Queen in Me,” which is really about the “queen” in all of us that helps us go on no matter how dark the blues may seem.

For more info on Nellie Travis, visit:

www.nellietravis.com

Her CD is available here

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