Lorna Willhelm

Well, this little package from Miss Lana was quite a surprise. Turns out to be a Waco artist who has slipped through my OKOM radar.

I am a big blues fan. Sometimes it seems to me that almost all the music I like has a touch of the blues hiding somewhere -- country, jazz, R&B, rock, folk, etc. The blues is a universal spirit and it has many incarnations. Sometimes it is the rotgut burn of a Stevie Ray Vaughn, the fine smooth whiskey of a BB King, the champagne and cigars of a Duke Ellington, or the Everclear head butt of an Eddy Shaver.

This first CD effort falls into the dimly lit, smoky, fine wine category for me. Some reviews have drawn comparisons to Maria Muldaur, Marcia Ball, Lou Ann Barton. I hear those, but I also hear some Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks overtones with tight harmonies that would challenge the Lickettes themselves. And some Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee mixed in for good measure. Lorna's voice is thick and sultry, well-suited to the jazzy tunes chosen for most of the CD cuts. The playfulness of "Good Rockin' Daddy" and the pop-jazz-blues of her version of "Cry Me a River" stood out the most to my poor old ears.

The disc was produced by Dick Gimble and features some fairly prominent Waco area artists, several of whom teach music at McLennan Community College. I have had the pleasure of seeing Gimble and guitarist Kenny Frazier perform many times over the years with Waco jazz groups and Texas swing legend Johnny Gimble (Dick's dad). The music is slick (almost too slick at times for me) but faultless. That may be my only complaint on the CD. A voice like Ms. Willhelm's would benefit from a little more punch to the soundtrack. The fine saxophone work by Rob Page comes the closest to rightly complementing the voice.

Would I rush out and buy more CDs?? Maybe. Will I try to catch Ms. Willhelm at her next Waco gig ?? You bet. I think it would be fun to sit back in some dim light and maybe begin to feel a little good with the blues myself.

Visit Lorna's website at www.lornasblues.com

Written by James Odom, January 2002

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