James’ nominated album ‘a nice little gumbo’
Teresa James wasn’t following the announcement of the Grammy nominees back in December. Then her phone in Los Angeles rang, a call from back home in Houston, letting the blues singer know her 10th album, “Here in Babylon,” was nominated in the best contemporary blues album category.
“We never bother to look — just assuming somebody with more powerful machinery behind them would be nominated,” James says.
Or, for that matter, any machinery. James and her husband, bassist and songwriter Terry Wilson, operate with maximum minimalism. They recorded and released the album on their own. They have no manager guiding their careers and no publicist on retainer pushing their work.
“It’s pretty thrilling and kind of restores my faith in
the system a little bit,” James says. “Score one for working musicians. We didn’t do anything differently. We just do what we do.”
Houston roots
They do what they do quite well. “Here in Babylon” didn’t earn its nomination for its underdog story but rather for the soulful execution of a set of varied and fresh new blues songs. James’ voice — which has drawn praise from Bonnie Raitt and the late Levon Helm — is the centerpiece, but Wilson anchors the Rhythm Tramps, an astoundingly tight set of great Los Angeles session players.
James and Wilson have decades of professional music experience to their names, a pair of artists whose paths crossed back in Houston years ago.
James took to the piano as a child and grew up to feel pulled toward the blues. She recalls a coffeehouse gig by Lightnin’ Hopkins at the University of Houston and seeing Townes Van Zandt at the Old Quarter.
Wilson wandered further afield, spending a few years in the late-’60s and early’70s in New York and later London, where he played with acts such as Johnny Nash and Paul Kossoff. The Deer Park native passed back through Houston on his way to Los Angeles in the ’70s and met James.
They’ve been in Los Angeles for more than 30 years, working independently and every few years together on one of her recordings. They’ve let the quality of the music speak for itself, largely avoiding a lot of the promotional musts required by the industry.
“Starting out, we just put family first,” James says. “We played music and made records, but we didn’t just go out on the road and promote ourselves over and over. We raised our kids and stayed close to home. Now the kids are gone, and we’re still making the kind of music we’ve always wanted to make. And now I guess we finally can jump in the car and go.”
Gulf Coast sound
The sound on “Here in Babylon” boasts the sort of Gulf Coast mix required of blues bands in this region.
“There’s some blues and soul music; it all ends up in the blend,” she says. “I like to think it’s a nice little gumbo of different things.”
Wilson adds, “I guess there’s a kind of serendipity when you haven’t made it. There’s no baggage that can come with a hit record like ‘House of the Rising Sun.’ You can always move forward and change and develop what you’re working on. We don’t have to re-create something we did 20 years ago. When people say they don’t know why we’re not bigger, well, the good side is we get to do what we want to do.”
Sometimes that mix veers toward roadhouse blues, other times it’s touched by the sounds of New Orleans. There’s also some of the big brassy blues that blared from Texas bandstands decades ago.
“Growing up in Texas — maybe I just say this because it’s what I know — but it was always a melting pot for Southern music, Americana, blues, soul and country,” Wilson says. “We try to bring that to the music.”
What to wear to the Grammys
James will be back in Houston in just a few weeks. She and the Rhythm Tramps have a gig in April opening for Delbert McClinton at the Heights Theater. But for now their eyes are on the big show Sunday.
“There’s a little stress about what we’re supposed to wear,” Wilson says.
“But mostly we’re just enjoying it,” James adds. “Just trying to eat it up while we can.”