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Queen Esther
Talkin' Fishbowl Blues
EL Recordings
By Marianne Ebertowski
 The biblical Queen
Esther was married to King Ahasuerus (aka Xerxes, 486-465 B.C.),
the ruler of the Persian Empire, and saved her fellow-Jews from
genocide at the hands of her husband who was ignorant of her
origin and rather ignorant in general, it seems. It's one of
those rather complicated and intriguing stories of love and betrayal
that can make the Bible such a fascinating read at times. I don't
know whether Queen Esther, the Southern-born, New York-based
and classically trained African-American singer-songwriter, based
her artist name on the heroine of this story, but in a
very modest way she is a savior too. What she saves with
her "Black Americana" as she refers to her music, is
the belief that music does not belong into tiny little boxes
labeled "race" or "hillbilly" or the modern
equivalents of those terms.
"We are all native speakers. Sing where you are, even
as it goes. Sing all the things that this life denied you. No
one owns even one note," says the narrator of Richard Power's
The Time of our Singing, this fascinating and heart-breaking
book about people caught up in music and torn between white and
black identities. With her debut solo album Talkin' Fishbowl
Blues, Queen Esther proves that she is a native speaker of
American music. Whether it is gospel or country or blues or rock,
she knows all of those black, white and blue notes well enough
to meld them into her own special dialect, and it sounds beautiful
no matter where your musical cradle stood.
Queen Esther is not a newcomer. She has performed and recorded
with jazz guitarist James "Blood" Ulmer and she can
be heard on Blues & Grass: The 52nd Street Blues Project,
a fascinating travel through (black) folk music featuring
Charles Burnham, Mark Petersen and Aubrey Dale. In New York City,
she can be heard regularly with JC Hopkins' 13-piece-band Champagne
Fountain of Joy. Having paid her musical dues in many respects,
Queen Esther set up her own record label EL Recordings, wrote
two handfuls of songs, found herself a bunch of experienced musicians
and dragged them into the studio. The result is awesome.
Queen Esther has the sort of voice that instantly gets under
your skin, a bit like Macy Gray's, only a lot warmer. Actually,
the one singer Queen Esther reminds me of most is the sadly neglected
white R&B Singer Evie Sands (http://www.rockzilla.net/ebertowski16.html).
The collection of musicians that escort this musical royalty
through the songs is as diverse as the musical styles Queens
Esther draws from. There's bassist Sebastian Steinberg from Soul
Coughing, guitarist Kelvyn Bell from Defunkt, Marvin Sewell who
plays with Cassandra Wilson and, much to my personal delight,
there's also Boo Reiners, the Demolition String Band's modest
but mighty guitar hero.
Talkin' Fishbowl Blues is the sort of album that keeps
you at the edge of your chair from the first notes of the self-written
"Promise Me" to the last chords of the staggering country
soul version of "Stand by Your Man." The rather heavy
R&B opener is loud and clear enough to prick up your ears,
but if you thought you could settle into a rather dark and heavy
groove, the cheerful candy pop quality of "Shine" will
drag you out of your grim mood immediately.
Queen Esther continues to shine on the Stones-meet-Macy Gray
title song, written by guitarist David Pattillo. Boo Reiners
and Pattillo are rocking away on guitar like Keith Richards and
Brian Jones, and the lyrics are hard-hitting and funny enough
to catch and keep your attention. After that, the country-inclined
listener will be charmed by "Taster's Choice," a soulful
country ballad with great lap steel guitar by Josh Roy Brown.
Now, this is the sort of song I would just love to hear on the
radio every day, every hour if possible.
With the mesmerizing "Love" Queen Esther takes the
R&B road again and lets Mssrs Bell and Reyners battle it
out on guitars. Love, love, love, ahhhhhhh Boo Reiners co-wrote
"So Real," with her Majesty, a blues/gospel track that
leaves a wide enough battle field for Reiners and producer Jack
Sprat to show off their remarkable guitar skills. The very cool
and wonderfully assertive "Leave Me Alone," a song
that rocks your socks off in the best Creedence Clearwater Revival
spirit, follows the funky "New York City," co-written
by Queen Esther with producer Jack Sprat and guitarist Marvin
Sewell.
"Get It Right This Time," co-written with Jack Sprat,
is the jazziest track on the album. Sprat's adventurous guitar
chords are reminiscent of James "Blood" Ulmer's. Ron
Sunshine blows everything to a peaceful ending on harmonica.
From here it's quite a musical step to "The Way of the World,
"co-written with Sprat and bassist Tom Rickell. This is
one of those mellow R&B ballads with great harmonies (the
Queen multiplied) and great guitar work by Jack Sprat and Craig
Dreyer on flute. This should be a hit!
The two most extraordinary songs are saved for the end. "Help
Me," an acapella gospel-based cry for help and a devastating
and intimate version of probably the most controversial country
hit of all times: "Stand By Your Man." Here it is,
just Queen Esther on vocals and Boo Reiners on guitars and it's
a version you won't forget. With Boo always a step ahead and
Queen Esther stumbling over his chord, but then taking control
of the situation till in the end it's Boo following her voice
with his guitar. If this version doesn't kill you, you're already
a corpse. Truly awesome!
Talkin' Fish Bowl Blues is the sort of album that should
top the charts and Queen Esther is the sort of artist that should
be on MTV blowing Beyonce and the sorry rest of Destiny's Child
off the screen. I guess that won't happen. I hope Queen Esther
doesn't care about that. Her album is a revelation for all those
of us who grew up in the sixties listening to rock and soul and
country, totally overwhelmed that so much beautiful music (co-)existed.
And unless a band of angels descends from heaven, squeezes their
wings clumsily into a recording studio and sings the hell out
of it real soon during the next two weeks, this is going to be
my album of the year!
www.queen-esther.com
Contact Marianne Ebertowski at ebertowski-at-rockzilla.net
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