So what has our friend Cee Cee James been up to lately? Well, she's been touring almost non-stop, even making a trip overseas to Europe earlier this year. She also just released a brand new CD, Blood Red Blues, that is poised to make some noise in the blues world. Coming off two great releases from a couple of years ago, Low Down Where The Snakes Crawl and Seriously Raw: Live at Sunbanks, Blood Red Blues is well on the way to topping both of them in critical reception and sales, a pretty impressive feat.The new disc features some of Cee Cee's most intimate and personal songs, like "Wounds," "Worn Out Sins," and "Right To Sing The Blues." She really pours out her heart and soul on these songs. There's also some great rocking tunes like "Let's All Get Loose" and "Feel My Love Come Down," plus some tunes in praise of the power of love, like "Cover Me With Love," "Thick Like Blood," "100 Ways To Make Love," and "Comfort of a Good Heart."
Cee Cee sounds fantastic, really taking it to another level on her vocals, and her husband, Rob "Slideboy" Andrews, is his usual awesome self on rhythm and slide guitar....weaving in and out and around these songs like a blues-fused serpent. Lead guitarist Rocky Athas is also first-rate...he and Andrews complement each other perfectly, and the rhythm section (Chris Leighton - drums, Dan Mohler - bass, and Susan Julian - keyboards) are outstanding, as are the backing singers (Cee Cee, Stanley Crouse, Vicki Atkins, Danunielle "Pie" Hill, and Kimberlie Helton).
If you're a fan of Cee Cee's, more than likely you already have her new disc. If you're not familiar with her, give it a listen. You will want to hear more.
As if she's not busy enough, Cee Cee also appeared in the upcoming movie, We Be Kings, which also stars Magic Slim and Grana Louise. In between festival gigs, movie shoots, recording sessions, and overseas tours, Cee Cee also found the time to answer Ten More Questions from Friday Blues Fix. We are grateful that she took the time and we hope you will be, too. Check it out.
In one word it was FAST. I’m used to
taking my time, mulling over my melodic progressions, sitting with the
instrumentation as it gets laid down, feeling if the lyrics are being properly
supported and colored by the musical instruments, adding and taking away things
that aren’t working - overall just being able to relax into the production
process of each song. However there was no time for this with Jim due to
us needing to get it done in the time frame for the budget we laid out.
So we jumped through many hoops of personal dedication and focus to "get ‘er
done" and I don’t feel the music suffered one bit for it. Had I not done
plenty of arrangement and production work on my own in years past, I don’t
think I could have made our release date. Because of the past studio and
recording experience we both had, when Jim said jump, we knew where to jump to
and quick! LOL
Is there anything different
about this album from your previous releases, as far as production, songs,
performance-wise? If so, did you go out of your way to try to do things
differently or did it just work out that way?
We never go out of our way to make anything
different! LOL It just “is what it is,” with our music truly
representing our growth as artists and the personal inner life paintings and
expressions being revealed in the songs. We are both obviously performing
stronger on this release, our songs revealing a deeper strength of character
and for me even more of the beauty and ache of the poignant truth of love and
life - which is one of the most beautiful gifts of getting older.. seeing more
and more through the veils of illusion.
Very. At times when I listen to or sing
those songs in my own private space at home or in the car, I still cry. I
feel I will always cry as those lyrics continue to dig in and work to heal the
small child and the woman who experienced the situations that caused those
lyrics to be written. Ah, but what is art without the "experiences" that
form it? Nothing but a pristine, white, perfect blank page; or a
beautiful round lump of gray smooth clay. Rather beautiful.. but there's
nothing there to relate to. Blank slate beauty and perfectionism are
illusions that commerce thrives on - but that's another topic for another day
or maybe not! LOL
I can tell you that speaking of "cathartic," this will be cathartic! I play Ruth, the Mother of Bianca Ryan.
Bianca plays a young girl in the film living at home who wants to be a singing
star. My husband in the film is her abusive, alcoholic stepfather who
doesn’t give a shit about her and picks on her and puts down her ache to follow
her dreams. I was Bianca when I was younger as I had dreams of being
something big, in my heart.... famous.. I ached to win the race.. some kind of
race seemed to be aching to be run in my chest. During my teen years, I
had an alcoholic stepfather who abused my mother and the drama was so intense
that no one dared follow any dreams. It was only about survival and
hoping my mother would not be killed in his drunken rages. There was more
than one abusive stepfather in my life and finally at age 17, I got
away. Bianca does the same thing. She runs away. Her Mother
is supportive of her dreams. My Mother was too but there was too much
going on for her to really be of any help to me. Same with Bianca.
So the word "cathartic" is very apropos for my role in this film.
Should be quite an easy one for me to just step into as I understand my role
from all angles including the misery of the Stepfather lost in his demonic addiction.
My Stepfather who was an alcoholic put a gun in his mouth when I was in my
late 30’s. Talk about a wrenching experience for me. That will
never stop cutting me in two.
How did you end up in the
movie? Did you audition for the part or were you approached?
I saw a post on Facebook in regards to
supporting the Kickstarter fundraiser for the film and so I pledged to be an
extra in the film and then wrote to the guy personally and offered myself up to
be more than just an extra. He went and checked out some of our YouTube
videos and he wrote back telling me he was blown away and there began the
conversation to bring me into a stronger role. I felt extremely strong
about submitting myself for a bigger role.. something in me said "do it
and do it now and don’t hold anything back....." It felt like driving
force of destiny.
You did some acting when
you first started out……..is that something that you would be interested in
doing now, or was this just a one-time thing?
I’m totally interested in acting always have been...
always will be. Every song for me is a "Broadway performance," every
song is a "play." A chance to "act out" the story of the song... make
it real... drive it home. I become the song... and I open up my
heart and soul to channel the energies the story of the song wants to
bring. It might sound strange but the song becomes the master and
I’m just the puppet.
Here’s how to sum it up in a nutshell.. the days
on the road, in the van, in the hotels... the fatigue, the constant lugging
around of the gear and the suitcases, is like a very hard childbirth
labor. Then when you hit the stage it seems the whole world has come out
to see your baby and can’t wait to show you their love and appreciation for the
birth. They are not distracted by the women or men in the crowd, or at
the bar smoking or watching any TV in the venue or playing any video games or
shooting pool.. they are there, at the stage totally engaged in your every
move, every note you play and emit; and they applaud and scream like you are
God's gift to mankind. That’s the difference.
Tons!!!! We have so many more CD’s to release
and so much of the world yet to tour. We are far from being out of
magical musical journeys.
You've been in the music
business for a number of years, and played with a lot of different musicians
during that time…..are there any cool stories or experiences that you would
like to share?
Well I do think the coolest story for me
personally is getting to perform at the Sunbanks Blues Festival in eastern
Washington in Sept 2009, and the challenges that came with it that I had to
overcome. We got opening slot at 5pm on a Friday night. The crowd
was still recuperating from the night before, it was about dinner time, and as
well, not a lot of folks there knew who I was. On top of that, it was
hotter than the Sahara in the heat of summer and I was not feeling well.
So I decided to let the Volcano erupt and get ‘um out of their tents and
campers and cabins. We played a 90 minute set straight through with a 2
song encore and I never let up on ‘um for a second. I pulled out every
stop and the band rose up to the challenge. It worked. They came
and they screamed and they danced and they lost their hearts and minds in the
HOT Lava. A year later the CD that was born from that crazy fest - Seriously Raw: Live at Sunbanks, that
had been released in the Spring of that year, had been riding the Roots Blues
Charts Top 50 for weeks on end. By year end it was named on an amazing
amount of Top 10 Lists. Bill Wax, XM BB Kings Bluesville spun "House Of The Blues" - one of the songs from the CD, and every time he did, I sold a
CD. So I guess there was some kind of magic juju juice in that Lava I was
spewing that day!!! LOL Whatever it was, I’m very grateful.
 |
| Cee Cee with husband Rob "Slideboy" Andrews |
Well much to the surprise of our fans who will
be reading this, we most likely will the studio again next spring. (hee
hee). We are working on a new sound and we feel excited to get in and lay
these new ideas down. This will not discount anything we have already
done, it’s just a new layer of creation that is aching to be born. It
will also open up many more opportunities for us for performance around the
world. We also have something special up under our sleeves that we are
working on and with God’s Grace and guidance it will come into birth sometimes
soon!
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