Denise Lasalle - Always The Queen

I have long been a fan of Denise Lasalle who died in 2018 and I've just finished reading her autobiography 'Always The Queen', written with David Whiteis. She grew up in rural Mississippi in poor circumstances, moving to the town of Belzoni  in 1947. She married young (twice) and has little good to say about her early relationships, but moved to Chicago where she met Billy 'The Kid' Emerson, who introduced her to Chess records. Nothing came of that but she gradually built a name for herself at Westbound and, later, ABC, Malaco and Ecko records. Her 1971 record 'Trapped by a Thing Called Love' was a bit hit and other successful and sometimes controversial records followed, including 'Married, But Not to Each Other', 'A Lady In the Street', 'Man Sized Job' and 'Someone Else Is Steppin' In'. By far her biggest hit in the UK and Europe was 'My Tu Tu' better known as 'My Toot Toot, a cover of a Rockin' Sidney zydeco hit. She set up the Crajon record label with her then husband Bill Jones. Her later marriage to James Wolfe lasted 40 years until her death and she set up several businesses in her adopted home of Jackson, Tennessee.

Denise was a regular performer at soul and blues festivals and she raises the interesting question of whether her music is 'blues', 'soul-blues' (a term she says she invented), 'southern soul' (which she doesn't much like) or just 'R and B' (which now means something quite different).. In later life she was was often called the Queen of The Blues but, although very proud of that, she is sceptical about the term. She says that the blues now appeals primarily to whites and black people do not like the term because it represents hard times and being downtrodden. She even set up a group called National Association for the Preservation of the Blues to try and reclaim blues, or soul-blues. 

She was a songwriter, record label owner and business woman and the book shines a light on many of the artists associated with southern soul and blues, including Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Z Z Hill, Latimore, Bobby Rush and Marvin Sease - even Bob Dylan - as well as various producers, most notably Willie Mitchell.

I first saw Denise in 1993 when she appeared at the Mean Fiddler on a Malaco show which also starred Little Milton and Latimore. Later I saw her several times including at Porretta in 2014 where she opened her set, aptly, with 'Still The Queen'. I also saw her at the Crescent City Blues and Barbecue Festival later that year (pictured below). She was interviewed there and was unrepentant about her often X rated lyrics, saying that they reflected real life. She remained a fantastic performer until the end. 

Sadly she suffered increasing bad health during her last couple of years and had a leg amputated. She died in January 2018, but there is uncertainty about her actual age. Her year of birth is usually cited as 1939 or 1941, but subsequent research showed that it may well have been 1934.