Timothea's new record, No Nonsense is an aptly titled selections as they come. From the first song a cover of Guitar Slim's "It Hurts To Love Someone" to the end of the disc, a bluesy reading of Donovan's "Season Of The Witch." Timothea sings it like she means it.
This is a great old-school rhythm and blues record. The organs ring out and fade, and the guitars cut and chord like a razor in a pimp's shoe in some low -down bar. The back-up singers coo and shout like ex-lovers making fun of the way you kiss, And Timothea sings with the authority and world-weariness of a woman that has in the words of one of her songs "Been There Done That."
And she has. She started out singing in her aunt's bar in Westwego, Louisiana- across the river from New Orleans- when she was a teenager, and then fell in with some of the soulful kings of New Orleans blues and R&B like Earl King, Johnny Adams and Walter "Wolfman" Washington. She built up her chops in such memorable clubs as Dorothy's Medallion, singing next to the 300-pound strippers go -go dancing in a cage.
Such formative friendships are evident in the authority and experience in her voice. She tells off her man in "No Nonsense": You can't by me and put me up on an ol' doll shelf/ I'm here to tell you / This ain't no Barbie and Ken/We're real human beings." Other songs in this vein include "Been There Done That." Where she decides not to go back to her man who's in the fast lane…traveling way to fast."
No Nonsense also contains several breezy, easy-flowing party tunes. The good - natured atmosphere of "New Orleans Baby" and it's yearning for the man who is "like that Mississippi River//Never know when my liver's going to quiver," goes over like a dip in a pool on a hot day. Paul"Lil' Buck" Senegal's lead guitar smoothly floats over the arrangement here and locks with Russell Batist's solid drumbeats. "Hooray for Mardi Gras" is another addition to the great tradition of New Orleans carnival songs, with lyrics that are simple but rhythms perfect for dancing in the streets behind and in front of floats.
In addition to doing her own tunes and collaborations-she's long written songs with Walter"Wolfman" Washington-her selection of cover songs is superb. She takes the rare Earl King tune "Some People" and makes it sound effortless and relaxed. Her final one-two punch wildly juxtaposes "Season Of The Witch" song with a menace and warning that benefits the spooky song, with Eric Clappton's "Presence Of The Lord" offered as a slightly gospel number with soaring vocals.
Timothea covers a lot of basis on No Nonsense, and she works with the knowledge of a seasoned pro well - experienced in the Memphis, Muscle Shoals and New Orleans Sounds. The record never sounds contrived or fake. It's full of soul and blues of all kinds
David Kunian
Blue Soul Records
P.O. Box 750482
New Orleans, LA 70115
Phone: 504-896-2471
Fax: 504-897-2567
www.timothea.com ,
nosiren@bellsouth.net
For Booking contact:
Glinda Mantle @ Ellis In Wonderland
518 South Rampart Street
New Orleans, LA 70113
Phone: 504-525-0000
Fax: 504-525-0329
www.ellisinwonderland.net
gmantle@ellisinwonderland.net
