ANN RABSON WITH BOB MARGOLIN
''NOT ALONE''
OCTOBER 16 2012
40:56
1 /I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song 3:50
2 /Le't Get Drunk and Truck
Hudson Whitaker 2:01
3 /How Long Blues
Leroy Carr 3:05
4 /It Ain't Love 3:02
5 /Guess I'm a Fool
Peter Chatman 3:41
6 /Caledonia
Fleecie Moore 3:40
7 /Let's Go Get Stoned
Armstead / Ashford 2:58
8 /Let It Go
Bob Margolin 3:47
9 /Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby 4:05
10 /Anywhere You Go
Roy Book Binder 3:28
11 /No Time for the Blues 3:17
12 /River's Invitation
Percy Mayfield 4:41
REVIEW
by j. poet
Rabson continues to forge her own unique path in the blues world with Not Alone, an album that features the guitar work and vocals of another low-key blues legend, Bob Margolin. It's not exactly an album of duets -- Rabson sings most of the leads and her piano playing is featured throughout -- but it's not entirely a solo effort, either, since Margolin only performs solo on a couple of tracks. What is clear is that both players are having a ball and their energy and good humor are infectious. The album is a delight from start to finish. Except for Margolin's "Let It Go" -- a bluesy rhumba marked by Rabson's rippling piano arpeggios and lyrics delivered in a wry drawl that bring to mind the philosophical ruminations of Mose Allison -- the tunes here are mostly familiar covers. Rabson reinvents the material with her surprising arrangements and on-the-money vocals. "Let's Go Get Stoned," the Ashford & Simpson tune made popular by Ray Charles, gets a downtempo treatment that celebrates excess with a gospel-flavored arrangement. Rabson delivers the Rev. Thomas Dorsey standard "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song" with a wry approach that manages to sound both spiritual and carnal, especially when she sings: "I can't say one thing and then do another, be a saint by day and a devil under covers." A boogie-woogie cover of Louis Jordan's "Caledonia" features Margolin's smooth, laid-back guitar work supporting Rabson's excellent piano work, while her ragtime reading of Hudson Whitaker's almost obscene "Let's Get Drunk and Truck" is a pure delight.
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Ann Rabson
April 12, 1945 - January 30, 2013
Blues Piano / Guitar / Vocals
Ann Rabson began playing and singing the blues in 1962. She performed solo and with various bands, including ad hoc ensembles known as The Annimators. For 25 years she was a member of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women.
Ann toured Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland, performing solo, with Saffire, and with piano legend Erwin Helfer.
Ann was nominated nine times for a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year. In 2008 she was nominated for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year; her first solo album, Music Makin' Mama, was nominated for Album of the Year in both the Traditional Blues and Acoustic Blues categories; her composition Elevator Man was nominated for Song of the Year; and her last album, Not Alone, with Bob Margolin, won the 2013 Blues Music Award for Acoustic Album of the Year.
BIOGRAPHY
by Ken Chang
"Music Makin' Mama" Ann Rabson played a considerable role in helping to revive acoustic blues in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughan era, both as a solo artist and with Saffire -- the Uppity Blues Women, the group she co-founded in 1988. Although she's best known as a boogie-woogie pianist, Rabson worked primarily as a guitarist for the first two decades of her music career, and she boasts the rather unique ability to switch from Chicago barrelhouse piano-pounding to Piedmont fingerpicking at the drop of a hat. Rabson's rootsy approach also draws heavily from the styles of female blues singers of the pre-war era, such as Lucille Bogan, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith. Like her contemporaries Rory Block and Bonnie Raitt, Rabson ranks as an important modern blueswoman who has brought tremendous crossover appeal to the genre.
Born in New York City in 1945, Rabson grew up in Ohio and started tuning into blues and jazz at a very early age. She picked up guitar at 17, and within a year was playing solo gigs and honing a repertoire inspired by the likes of Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Leroy Carr. In 1971, Rabson moved to Fredericksburg, VA, where she devoted the next seven years to playing music full-time. Though she eventually went back to working a day job (as a computer programmer), Rabson continued to perform and teach guitar lessons through the '80s. Incidentally, it was playing music part-time that allowed Rabson the chance to study piano -- in particular, the boogie-woogie styles of Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Amos Milburn.
In 1984, Rabson and one of her guitar students, Gaye Adegbalola, formed Saffire and began performing together around Virginia; they later recruited bassist Earlene Lewis to join the group. By the late '80s, Rabson, Adegbalola, and Lewis had committed to Saffire full-time and were touring regionally. The trio signed with Alligator Records in 1989 (they were the first all-acoustic band to record for the label), and a year later their self-titled debut album became a critical and commercial success. Rabson's composition "Elevator Man" (from Saffire's follow-up album Hot Flash) was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in 1992 for Song of the Year.
In addition to touring and recording with Saffire, Rabson has continued to work as a solo act and session player. After recording with a number of blues and folk musicians in the 1990s (including Steve James, Deborah Coleman, and Ani DiFranco), Rabson finally released her first solo album in 1997. Music Makin' Mama showcased Rabson's talents in a variety of contexts -- boogie-woogie, R&B, Piedmont blues, and ballads -- and earned her three more Handy Award nominations in 1998. M.C. Records released Rabson's second solo album, Struttin' My Stuff, in September 2000 to critical acclaim.
OFFICIAL SITE
''NOT ALONE''
OCTOBER 16 2012
40:56
1 /I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song 3:50
2 /Le't Get Drunk and Truck
Hudson Whitaker 2:01
3 /How Long Blues
Leroy Carr 3:05
4 /It Ain't Love 3:02
5 /Guess I'm a Fool
Peter Chatman 3:41
6 /Caledonia
Fleecie Moore 3:40
7 /Let's Go Get Stoned
Armstead / Ashford 2:58
8 /Let It Go
Bob Margolin 3:47
9 /Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby 4:05
10 /Anywhere You Go
Roy Book Binder 3:28
11 /No Time for the Blues 3:17
12 /River's Invitation
Percy Mayfield 4:41
REVIEW
by j. poet
Rabson continues to forge her own unique path in the blues world with Not Alone, an album that features the guitar work and vocals of another low-key blues legend, Bob Margolin. It's not exactly an album of duets -- Rabson sings most of the leads and her piano playing is featured throughout -- but it's not entirely a solo effort, either, since Margolin only performs solo on a couple of tracks. What is clear is that both players are having a ball and their energy and good humor are infectious. The album is a delight from start to finish. Except for Margolin's "Let It Go" -- a bluesy rhumba marked by Rabson's rippling piano arpeggios and lyrics delivered in a wry drawl that bring to mind the philosophical ruminations of Mose Allison -- the tunes here are mostly familiar covers. Rabson reinvents the material with her surprising arrangements and on-the-money vocals. "Let's Go Get Stoned," the Ashford & Simpson tune made popular by Ray Charles, gets a downtempo treatment that celebrates excess with a gospel-flavored arrangement. Rabson delivers the Rev. Thomas Dorsey standard "I'm Going to Live the Life I Sing About in My Song" with a wry approach that manages to sound both spiritual and carnal, especially when she sings: "I can't say one thing and then do another, be a saint by day and a devil under covers." A boogie-woogie cover of Louis Jordan's "Caledonia" features Margolin's smooth, laid-back guitar work supporting Rabson's excellent piano work, while her ragtime reading of Hudson Whitaker's almost obscene "Let's Get Drunk and Truck" is a pure delight.
OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY
Ann Rabson
April 12, 1945 - January 30, 2013
Blues Piano / Guitar / Vocals
Ann Rabson began playing and singing the blues in 1962. She performed solo and with various bands, including ad hoc ensembles known as The Annimators. For 25 years she was a member of Saffire—The Uppity Blues Women.
Ann toured Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland, performing solo, with Saffire, and with piano legend Erwin Helfer.
Ann was nominated nine times for a Blues Music Award (formerly W.C. Handy Award) as Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year. In 2008 she was nominated for Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year; her first solo album, Music Makin' Mama, was nominated for Album of the Year in both the Traditional Blues and Acoustic Blues categories; her composition Elevator Man was nominated for Song of the Year; and her last album, Not Alone, with Bob Margolin, won the 2013 Blues Music Award for Acoustic Album of the Year.
BIOGRAPHY
by Ken Chang
"Music Makin' Mama" Ann Rabson played a considerable role in helping to revive acoustic blues in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughan era, both as a solo artist and with Saffire -- the Uppity Blues Women, the group she co-founded in 1988. Although she's best known as a boogie-woogie pianist, Rabson worked primarily as a guitarist for the first two decades of her music career, and she boasts the rather unique ability to switch from Chicago barrelhouse piano-pounding to Piedmont fingerpicking at the drop of a hat. Rabson's rootsy approach also draws heavily from the styles of female blues singers of the pre-war era, such as Lucille Bogan, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith. Like her contemporaries Rory Block and Bonnie Raitt, Rabson ranks as an important modern blueswoman who has brought tremendous crossover appeal to the genre.
Born in New York City in 1945, Rabson grew up in Ohio and started tuning into blues and jazz at a very early age. She picked up guitar at 17, and within a year was playing solo gigs and honing a repertoire inspired by the likes of Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Leroy Carr. In 1971, Rabson moved to Fredericksburg, VA, where she devoted the next seven years to playing music full-time. Though she eventually went back to working a day job (as a computer programmer), Rabson continued to perform and teach guitar lessons through the '80s. Incidentally, it was playing music part-time that allowed Rabson the chance to study piano -- in particular, the boogie-woogie styles of Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Amos Milburn.
In 1984, Rabson and one of her guitar students, Gaye Adegbalola, formed Saffire and began performing together around Virginia; they later recruited bassist Earlene Lewis to join the group. By the late '80s, Rabson, Adegbalola, and Lewis had committed to Saffire full-time and were touring regionally. The trio signed with Alligator Records in 1989 (they were the first all-acoustic band to record for the label), and a year later their self-titled debut album became a critical and commercial success. Rabson's composition "Elevator Man" (from Saffire's follow-up album Hot Flash) was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award in 1992 for Song of the Year.
In addition to touring and recording with Saffire, Rabson has continued to work as a solo act and session player. After recording with a number of blues and folk musicians in the 1990s (including Steve James, Deborah Coleman, and Ani DiFranco), Rabson finally released her first solo album in 1997. Music Makin' Mama showcased Rabson's talents in a variety of contexts -- boogie-woogie, R&B, Piedmont blues, and ballads -- and earned her three more Handy Award nominations in 1998. M.C. Records released Rabson's second solo album, Struttin' My Stuff, in September 2000 to critical acclaim.
OFFICIAL SITE
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