So Blue For You

"I love it here, the people are really nice. But you guys are getting so big now – all this traffic, it's insane,” Barbara Blue laughs down the phone as she zigzags through the Sydney grid. The American blues queen is happy to be back on our shores though, doing a run of dates to introduce audiences to her new record while hopefully tickling some new ears in the process. “I can persuade just about anyone to like the blues,” she crows. “People will say, 'I never liked the blues until I heard you,' and that's a great compliment. But people here, they really respond, and if they want to feel something, they dig it.”

However, overseas visits such as this are an irregular occurrence. Typically, if you want to find the bold voice of Blue, you'll have to pay a visit to Silky O'Sullivan's, a tuneful bar on the world-renowned Beale Street where she's held a five-night residency for the better part of two decades. “They're pretty cool about [the travel] – they kind of look at me as the ambassador, and it works for us; for me to make records, play shows and travel around the world,” Blue says. “Then if people get it, sooner or later they'll come to Memphis. They want to see Elvis, they want to see Sun Records, they want to see Stax. There's been a lot of great music that's come out of [Memphis].”

But although there's so much history filling the streets, Blue says that the current scene can be a bit hit and miss for visitors to the iconic city. “Yes and no,” she remarks when asked if blues still fills the streets. Real blues that is. “It really depends on where you go. But a lot of times people get disgusted by what they hear because the blues ain't always played like it should [be]. I'm not sitting there banging out Robert Johnson y'know, but I can do it justice. Some days people might want to hear Hank Williams, other times they might want some Patsy Cline, but they're blues people – we make it work.”

Born and bred in Pittsburgh, Memphis was only meant to be a short-term plan for Blue. “I was taking a trip with a friend of mine; we were going to New Orleans Jazz Festival,” she recalls. “Then after the festival finished on the Sunday I said, 'Let's just drive in a big loop home to Pennsylvania and go through Memphis'. My friend wasn't feeling well and I ended up at Silky's, singing, and at the end of it they offered me a job. I was back there a month later. I told my parents I was leaving for six months and I've been there for over 15 years.”

Now firmly planted in the city, Blue keeps the music quality high on the streets of Memphis – in between cutting plenty of albums of course. She's even put two down at Willie Mitchell's Royal Studio – the same place that Al Green, Solomon Burke and OV Wright have recorded. “That building's really got the mojo!” she exclaims. Her most recent work Jus' Blue, will be released in the States following this run of tour dates. But what's exciting for audiences Down Under is that we get to hear the songs first, with some local assistance for good measure. “I'm working with Mojo Webb as a three-piece band,” she reveals. “It's my first time working with those guys – I've heard they're great so I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully it will be a rocking good time.”