Artist:     Whitney Shay

Album:     A Woman Rules the World

Label:     Little Village Foundation

Release Date:     8.1.2018

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BUY DIGITAL

BUY PHYSICAL

San Diego-based Whitney Shay has been around stage, theater, and musical performances for almost 30 years, yet she’s still in her early 30s. Call it destiny, call it good genes or whatever else, Shay is the epitome of a rising star. Her mother introduced her to the stage at the age of three – an arena where she is clearly in her element. She has already won the San Diego Music Award Best Blues Artist twice. Praise from the legendary soul songstress Candi Staton has further elevated her reputation.

Nine years ago Shay moved from theatrical productions to fronting a band that played blues, jazz and swing material. She now performs over 200 shows a year in the San Diego area, gaining notice for her sassy style, stage presence and amazing knowledge of the material she performs. Here are a couple of examples of Shay’s views of music: ‘“I was listening to Robert Johnson before I ever heard Eric Clapton,” Shay said. “I know a lot of people who got into the blues after hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan. And when I listen to that stuff after hearing the originals, it just doesn’t move me the same way. I’d rather listen to the earlier stuff. Another reason why I listen to a lot of the old music is because I like good singers. With Auto-Tune and all this technology, there are not a lot of good singers out there. There’s a video that I’m obsessed that’s also from the AFBF, featuring Helen Humes, Willie Dixon, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, and T-Bone Walker called ‘The Blues Ain’t Nothin’ but a Woman.’ I love that one.”

With that background, it’s no surprise that she covers Dinah Washington, Denise LaSalle, Candi Staton, Jimmy McCracklin and Little Richard on this potential breakthrough album A Woman Rules the World. Shay also penned four originals for the project including “Empty Hand,” perhaps the best example of her vocal talents, displaying both grit and elegant grace without any hint of overwrought singing. She has the sultry, sexy nuances down but she’s a strong, no-nonsense woman too, as typified by the line in her original, the opening track, “Ain’t No Weak Woman:” “I may have had a weak moment but that doesn’t make me a weak woman.” She also covers Denise LaSalle’s antidote to James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” with the title track. Shay’s been buoyed by the woman’s rights movement and is proud to carry the banner, a thematic undercurrent for the album. Don’t be misled. This is not all serious stuff as you’ll hear as Shay belts out Little Richard’s dance number complete with the “whoos” in “Get Down With it” in closing.

It’s now getting to the point where most credible West Coast blues albums are produced by Kid Andersen at his Greaseland Studios in San Jose. Surely, Andersen is at the controls here along with executive producer, keyboardist, and frequent collaborator Jim Pugh. Andersen plays an array of instruments for the session aside drummer Alexander Pettersen (his bandmate in Rick Estrin & The Nightcats), “Sax” Gordon Beadle and bassist Kedar Roy. The horns of Beadle and trumpeter John Halbleib along with background vocals from Kid’s wife, Lisa are present throughout along with these guests: Brazilian vocalist and guitarist Igor Prado on “Love’s Creeping Up on You” and harmonicist Ali Kumar on harmonica for “Blues Down Home.”

This is Shay’s first album in six years, the first that features her own writing, and hopefully the first of many other forthcoming self-confident, bold statements from this immensely talented vocalist.

—Jim Hynes