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Toni Price says she doesn’t want a bio. Nothing against us
folks in the
media, mind you.
It’s just that
she has little -
if no - time for
the music
business. After
all, she’s in
the business of
music, and in it
for the love of
the music - in a
way that proves
she doesn’t just
talk that line,
but walks it,
too. Ultimately,
Toni Price wants
her music to do
the speaking for
her.
And her latest album on Antone’s Records, Talk
Memphis,
she does just
that, and in far
more than just
its title alone.
Like every Toni
Price release —
this one makes
seven to date —
it showcases a
voice that can
saunter up to a
song, put her
arms around it,
and say, “Honey,
you are now
mine!” And then
give those songs
to the listener
with her
patented
personal touch
and saucy/sexy
command in a way
that also makes
them part of the
lives of those
recipients of
her music. It’s
a gift, and Toni
has it, big
time.
Talk Memphis certainly speaks eloquently for Toni Price (as well as
rather sexily,
soulfully and
oh-so
musically). She
proverbially
travels to the
capital city -
if not the
fountainhead -
of Southern
soul, a place
where the
metaphorical
barbecue joints
serve that big
plate of R&B
ribs with such
side dishes as
rock and country
to round out the
meal with the
spicy tinge of
blues in the BBQ
sauce. It’s what
she does
naturally, that
roots music
thing that
transcends genre
— actually goes
back to when
musical genres
were something
to be mixed and
stirred together
— which is what
she’s been doing
all along, in
fact, with
variations on
her approach and
the tangent she
takes on each
album.
Request magazine’s Marty Keller nailed Toni’s deal in his review
of her 1999
album, Low
Down and Up:
“Sensual,
vulnerable,
bluesy, melodic,
and keen on jazz
phrasing and
Western swing,
Price’s
water-clear
timbre and rich,
flexible vocal
style are
outdone only by
her brilliant
song selection
and choice
backing
musicians.” The
same could be
said of
Talk Memphis;
any Toni Price
album, really.
This time she
and her longtime
production
partner Derek
O’Brien channel
the golden days
and landmark
sound of Stax/Volt
and Hi Records
(a feat others
also try these
days, but few
truly master as
Toni does on
this CD). She
pulls from Jesse
Winchester for
the title track,
serves up some
prime cuts from
other Memphis
writers like
Isaac Hayes and
Booker T. Jones,
as well as from
a little further
down the mighty
Mississippi, New
Orleans’ own
Allen Toussaint.
As usual, she
also gleans a
number from an
up and coming
talent on the
Austin music
scene, this time
Wendy Colonna.
And as always,
she includes
some numbers
from Academy
Award-nominated
songwriter Gwil
Owen, her
longtime friend,
who wrote four
songs that meld
perfectly in
style and
substance with
the classic
Memphis sound.
Talk Memphis is truly that good’n’greasy stuff that comes from down
deep in the
South, as well
as this singer’s
soul and hits
the listener
just as deeply.
It’s the real
deal, as you’ll
hear from a
listen. You
don’t need no
stinkin’ bio to
tell you all
that. It’s in
the grooves of
Talk
Memphis,
ready for you to
dig down into
and get high and
get off on and
really love.
Spin the disc
and it will tell
you everything
you really need
to know about
Toni Price.
But since we are, ahem, in the music business and in the
media game, I do
feel obliged to
give you some
information on
Toni Price….
“Toni Price was raised by a pack of wild corn dogs. Say
that,” she
suggested as the
opener of a
previous bio.
It’s pure Toni
Price, and silly
as it may seem
at first glance,
it tells you
something
essential about
Toni Price and
how she pursues
her music. Paul
Anka may have
written “My Way”
and Frank
Sinatra may have
made it his
signature song,
but neither
could hold a
candle to Toni
Price when it
comes to
actually doing
music one’s own
way – and
nothing but.
Talking to her one night outside the back door of the
legendary
Continental Club
in Austin, her
fans were
already lining
up at the front
door, ready to
pack the joint
(in more ways
than one) for
her Tuesday
mid-evening
“Hippie Hour,”
just as they did
for 14 years
running. Toni
didn’t need to
tour to make her
music for people
(and on
occasion, she
would hit other
Austin clubs,
other Texas
cities, some
festivals and
selected
out-of-town
gigs, but only
when she wanted
to).
Sure it was a little frustrating for those of us who agreed
with
Billboard
magazine’s
assessment that
Toni is “a
major-league
talent who
deserves to be
heard.” She
makes the kind
of music that
even a jaded
music journalist
can get
passionate about
— the reason why
we do what we
do, at least for
some of us — and
want to share
with the world.
But if an artist
can bring the
mountain to
Mohammed, as
Toni did every
Tuesday at the
Continental
Club, why should
she climb into a
van or a bus and
hit the road?
(Truth be told
that in her
early Hippie
Hour years, Toni
did in fact take
the Austin metro
bus to her
weekly gig. And
Hippie Hour was
such a success
for not just
Toni but the
venue as well
that Continental
Club owner Steve
Wertheimer, true
mensch that he
is, eventually
bought her a car
as a birthday
present.)
Hippie Hour was a genuine live music phenomenon — profiled
on NPR’s “All
Things
Considered” as
just that — but
it was also just
plain logical
truth about what
a phenomenal
musical talent
could achieve
(performing with
other phenomenal
musical talents)
by the sheer
power of musical
soul and
sincerity,
created for the
sheer joy of
what it that be
for both its
creators and
those who share
in it by being
there and
listening.
Toni has also gotten to make records that made critics like
me, and a number
of them to boot,
utterly coo with
delight. She’s
featured
legendary
musicians on her
recordings like
James Burton,
Dr. John, Jimmie
Vaughan, Junior
Brown, Ian
McLagan, Jimmy
Day and Johnny
Gimble, as well
as a blue ribbon
selection of hot
Austin players.
And Toni Price
has consistently
been the
best-selling
artist on the
Antone’s label,
which suggests
that doing it
her way may not
be a bad idea at
all.
I suppose you need some history even though I would second
Toni on the
notion that all
you really need
to know about
her is etched
onto the disc of
Talk
Memphis.
She was born and
raised in New
Jersey, landed
in Nashville as
a teen, tried
the country
major label game
and found it not
to her liking,
and then, after
visiting Austin
for South By
Southwest almost
20 years ago,
packed up and
moved to a city
where she knew
there were
people who loved
music for its
own sake just as
much as she
does. The late
and legendary
Clifford Antone
gave her a stage
from which to
introduce
herself to the
city at his
nightclub and
signed her to
the record label
that bears his
name.
I won’t exactly say that the rest is history, one reason
being that it’s
still recent
vintage, and
Toni is still
creating her
story. However,
it is safe to
say that Hippie
Hour became so
integrally woven
into the
cultural fabric
of Austin that
it is indeed
historical.
And now, alas for those of us in Austin, it is now history.
A few months
before the
release of
Talk Memphis,
Toni Price
picked up and
moved to San
Diego. It’s not
something she
has spoken about
to the media,
but I think I
have a good
guess as to one
reason why. Back
in the early
1990s, not long
after Toni
released her
debut album,
titled
Swim Away,
I wrote an essay
in a local paper
talking about
how swimming at
Austin’s Barton
Springs evoked
deep feelings
regarding my
lifetime love
for and almost
mystical
relationship
with the aquatic
realm.
About a week later, I received a card from Toni in the
mail. “Thanks
for the watery
words,” she
wrote inside it.
I think that
says something
about why she is
now in San Diego
— Austin’s
“Third Coast”
has no beaches
or ocean; San
Diego does — and
about the kind
of class act
this dedicated
bohemian is
underneath her
tie-dye
trappings.
We Austinites, being the sort of local chauvinists that we
are, have a
tendency that
can make some of
us who live here
a little crazy
sometimes, even
if we do love
this city: it’s
that some of us
would like to
think that
Hippie Hour was
one of those
“only in Austin”
phenomena. But
I’m confident
that once Toni
settles into San
Diego, finds her
special players,
and then sets up
shop at a local
club, the
devoted fans
will start
packing the
joint again as
often as she
plays. Because
that’s how
damned good Toni
Price is and the
sort of
emotional pull
and power she
creates with her
music.
And in leafing through one of her old press kits, I found a
quote that
epitomized just
how special she
is (and damned
if it wasn’t my
own): “When Toni
Price sings, no
matter what the
context, it’s
like she’s
fronting the
Good Lord’s
band, no matter
what the
configuration.
And that, folks,
is a gift to be
savored.” ‘Nuff
said.
Rob Patterson is
a veteran music
journalist,
writer and
editor whose
work has
appeared in
hundreds of
daily
newspapers, a
score or so of
alternative
newsweeklies,
and such music
publications as
Creem, Crawdaddy,
Circus,
Musician, Spin,
New Musical
Express,
Request, Pulse!,
CD Review,
Acoustic Guitar,
Country Music,
Stereophile,
Harp, The
Rolling Stone
Record Guide and
a host of
others.
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