The art of feeling a song’s essence — color, range, control, and style — and giving it all to you is the domain of the great jazz singers, like Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan; and the great pop singers, like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt. Chris O’Connell has a voice that carries you up with her when it soars, soothes you with a mother’s loving croon, brings out the rockin’ rabble in you, and snares your soul. Her voice has both the gift and the years of work and polish. Now comes Be Right Back, her first solo release, a first her fans have waited for since she came out of the east with Asleep at the Wheel in 1971. It is produced with all the craft, time, and skill that you would expect from a master.
“We spent about a year just picking songs,” Chris wrote.
I first heard Chris O’Connell sing at the Longbranch Saloon in Berkeley, California, when she was the female vocalist with Asleep At the Wheel. The songbook relied on Western swing and country music, with a few notable originals by drummer Leroy Preston. O’Conell threw herself into (and sometimes at) the material. Her lovely tone and great range, romantic and sassy style, and heartfelt renditions of old torch songs grabbed attention and strong reviews everywhere, and so did the band – so much so that the Wheel moved to Austin, Tex., in 1974, having been invited by Willie Nelson. O’Connell stayed with the Wheel until 1986, when she quit to have a baby.
After her daughter’s birth, her career necessarily took shared seat status, and she recorded eclectically, though notably – such as the 1990’s Southwest Airlines’ commercials with Mary Ann Price and vocals with Tom Morrell and the Time Warp Tophands. She ultimately left Austin to return to Virginia, raise her daughter, and work as a veterinarian’s assistant.
Now this sometimes happens, though you should not count on it. There was a man — a Handsome Prince — who had been under O’Connell’s spell since 1971, at that funky Longbranch Bar in Berkeley, when he first heard her sing and was, by this voice’s enchantment, sent both to Heaven and to a young man’s more typical thoughts. He had not been able to get over the trance of that voice, though a millennium had ended, a century had turned, families had been raised, fires had been set and burned. . . and there is no such thing as magic.
“She always had tone that was different, distinct, easy to spot and easy to accept,” said Don Margraf, co-producer of Be Right Back. “She never took attention-getting, chest-beating, phony art liberties with the melody or phrasing. She did nothing, ever, to subvert intention of the songwriter. She just sucked you in with that beautiful timbre and shoved the whole message straight down your soul pipe, full dose, no chaser. She took you by the scruff and didn’t let go till she was good and finished.
“I had heard some records of women doing this. This was the first time I ever had the face-to-face experience of the whole collective unconscious being lasered in on me. She had direct access to the flood waters of all unpronounceable feelings and she poured them all over me like I was the only one who needed to know. “
And so, he sought her out, and encouraged her to return to California and to singing.
“I know, I know. I’m hopeless, one-eyed and hog tied,” Margraf continued. “But I know my shit and I tell you she’s singing better than ever.”
On BRB, O’Connell sings rock, blues, R&B, swing, jazz, folk, and roots music. She sings songs by some of today’s best songwriters and classic singers’ standards get treated with focus, clarity, and taste. She has greats working with her – eclectic virtuoso fiddler Paul Anastasio, legendary pedal steel boss Bobby Black , dynamo singer-songwriter Brenda Burns, monster guitarists Derek “Big House” O’Brien and Junior Brown , Cindy Cashdollar on dobro, telecaster genius Bill Kirchen, co-producer, fiddle and mandolin player Danny Levin, co-producer and smooth guitarist Don Margraf. (For the full lineup, read the CD credits.)
One of the most compelling cuts is Kevin Blackie Farrell’s “Skid Row in My Mind.” With the control, color and range of her voice, O’Connell turns a man’s song into an overwhelming descent into a woman’s fall into hell. She takes Elvis’ “Marie’s the Name” and torques it into a woman’s song as well, a first for this classic.
“Some of my oldest friends happen to be some of the best old song writers,” O’Connell said, “and we wanted to throw more light on them, have some fun with their work. We decided to connect certain musicians with each song, according to its tone and texture. We just put them in a room, tuned up and let the song breathe. These are all master players and each is a stand-alone star. It was a thrill to just see them together in a room, working their magic.”
With all the voice, range, and production excellence of this CD, Chris O’Connell brings a personal humility to each song. This kind of respect for the material, the room to let the music and players “work their magic,” is the mark of a thorough pro, and the way to create great music. For those who haven’t yet heard the material or the players, as well as fans, Be Right Back should be in your primary play list for a long while.
Be Right Back is available at CDBaby and at Amazon.
Chris O’Connell and the SmartAlecks will be playing at Armando’s in Martinez, CA on Saturday, August 2 at 8 p.m.
