SENA EHRHARDT

Live My Life

Blind Pig

by Eric Steiner

Live My Life is Sena Ehrhardt’s follow-up to her second Blind Pig release, All In.  In 2013, she received two Blues Blast Music Award nominations for All In: one in the Song of the Year category for “Dreamin’ or Dyin,’” and a second nod for the Sean Costello Rising Star Award. All In was honored by Living Blues Magazine and the All Music Guide as one of the top blues CDs of 2013. Her 2011 Blind Pig debut, Leave the Light On, received the prestigious Best New Artist Debut Release and Sean Costello Rising Star awards from Blues Blast Magazine, in addition to a Blues Music Award nomination for "Best New Artist Debut" from the Blues Foundation.  The CD was also honored by Blues 411 for "Best New Artist Debut Recording.”

While these first two CDs have set the blues bar high for any young blueswoman, Sena’s third Blind Pig CD will surely sustain the momentum sparked by these earlier releases.  Live My Life features some hard-charging blues rock on the opening “Stakes Have Gone Up,” and she keeps the energy high throughout the CD with “Love Me at All,” “My Bad,” “Chilled to the Bone,” and the title cut. Complementing these up-tempo tunes are a few covers and softer blues ballads, including a respectable version of Albert Collins’ “If Trouble Was Money,” a slow blues song fueled by fellow Minnesota blues man Bruce McCabe on piano that’s built solidly around a traditional blues structure. The slow ballad, “Come Closer,” is one of my new favorite blues love songs of 2014 and Sena gets more than a little sultry as she deftly stretches her alto vocals on guitarist Cole Allen’s “Too Late to Ask.”  Cole also contributes an exceptional guitar solo on the cover of the classic ““Help Me through the Day,” as Sena updates this classic Leon Russell blues song from a woman’s point of view.  When not touring with her full band, Sena and Cole perform as an acoustic duo in smaller venues.

In addition to Bruce McCabe, Sena recruited some additional first-class guest musicians on Live My Life, such as Smokin’ Joe Kubek, who lights up “Things You Shouldn’t Need to Know,” and Jimi “Primetime” Smith, who adds rhythm guitar on “Help Me through the Day.”  The band also covers the Beatles’ ramped up rockabilly song “Slow Down” and gives it a bluesy mid-tempo Texas twist to accent Sena’s seductively flirtatious vocals.

“St. Paul” Peterson, a Prince discovery and veteran of The Time, the Steve Miller Band and the Minneapolis All Stars, shares bass parts on this CD with Rick Rousell, an alumni of the Minnesota Barking Ducks (yes, there really is a Twin Cities blues band with that moniker – I’ve seen them and they are a first-class bar band!), the James Solberg Band and Chicago’s own Studebaker John.  Peterson also plays drums and shares engine room duties with Michael Bland, a fellow Prince alumnus who has also worked with such other notable Minnesota-based acts like Soul Asylum and Paul Westerberg.

This time out, Sena’s production team hails from the Gopher State: Live My Life was recorded by Josh Levi and Nick Schmidt at Winterland Studios in Minneapolis and produced by renowned producer David Z (an LA transplant from the Twin Cities whose considerable blues production credits include Buddy Guy, Tab Benoit, John Mayall and Etta James, among many others). As I learned more about the people behind the scenes on Live My Life, including executive producers and Blind Pig founders Edward Chmeleweski and Jerry Del Guidice, I knew that Sena Ehrhardt was in very good hands. This is Sena's first CD with her guitarist father Ed sitting out on the sidelines. Dad should be justifiably proud of his daughter’s fine new release.

Live My Life, is scheduled for a September 2^nd release.  The first weekend in September features CD release parties at the home of the Blues Society of Omaha at the 21^st Saloon on September 4^th, followed by a set at Cartoon’s Oyster Bar’s Blues Down Under Series in Springfield, Missouri on the 5^th, and a show at the award-winning Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City, Missouri. Sena’s hometown CD release party will he held at Famous Dave’s BBQ and Blues in Minneapolis on the 19^th.  She’s also returning to the Pacific Northwest in September with a performance at the Leavenworth Blues Festival in the Evergreen State. Whether blues fans purchase a virtual copy online or a CD at one of her live shows, fans of up-tempo blues from a woman’s perspective won’t be disappointed.  

Eric Steiner is the Editor of the Washington Blues Society Bluesletter and the immediate past president of the Washington Blues Society.  He served on the Blues Foundation Board of Directors from 2010 to 2013, and he is a frequent contributor to the Chicago Blues Guide.