SIERRA GREEN is a mainstay of the New Orleans music scene. She’s been working the circuit since she was a teenager and she was soon wowing both the hard-bitten locals and the music loving tourists via her explosive take on classic soul and blues. Ms Green eventually won a residency at one of Crescent City’s premier venues – Frenchmen Street House where she was backed by some of NO’s top players – William West on drums, Mike Perez on bass, Paul Provosty on guitar, Brandon Nater on trumpet, Maurice Cade on trombone, and David Ludman on saxophone. Dubbed “the Giants”, they’re the band on Sierra’s latest long player – ‘Here We Are’.
The album was flagged up with the release, as a single, of ‘Break In the Road’ – Sierra’s cover of the old Allen Toussaint song. It’s maybe best known in Betty Harris’ 1969 SSS version , though Sierra’s team tell us that her take was inspired more by the Meters’ version.
The powerful version of ‘Break In the Road’ sums up what the 10 song album is all about. Like ‘Break In the Road’ , the music throughout is big, brassy and beefy – old school New Orleans soul, if you would.
Essentially, the set is a covers album – and the choice of songs shows you just where Ms Green’s coming from. So, ‘Break In the Road’ is an old Betty Harris/Meters’ song, but here you can enjoy plenty more songs made famous by classic soul sisters. There’s covers of Ann Peeble’s ‘Come To Mama’, Betty Wright’s ‘Girls Can’t Do What The Guys Do’ and Candi Staton’s ‘He Called Me Baby’. Some of the other chosen songs are maybe more unusual. Sierra delivers explosive versions of James Brown’s ‘It’s A Man’s Man’s World’, The Allman Brothers’ ‘Dreams’, Freddie King’s ‘Same Old Blues’ and Funkadelic’s ‘Can You Get To That’. Maybe the most esoteric covers though are versions of rock singer and member of the Revivalists, David Shaw’s ‘Promised Land’ and a take on UK-born now New Orleans-based entertainer Jon Cleary’s ‘Get Low Down’. The former speaks of social injustices; the latter is classic loose and slippery NO funky blues.
Yes, so plenty of variety on ‘Here We Are’ but all held together by the singer’s passion and commitment and the band’s complete understanding of the Southern soul genre. Between them they deliver fresh perspectives on some soul and blues classics and a selection of not so well known, maybe, more provocative items. Out now via Big Radio Records / Select-O-Hits.
