candye kane
Encinitas, California, United States
Music
Press
Blues-rock veteran Candye Kane returns with one of her stronger albums in recent memory. The basic premise of Guitar'd and Feathered is simple enough: each track pairs the randy blues diva with a different guitarist. Guests include Sue Foley, Junior Watson, Steady Rollin' Bob Margolin (who also produces) and others, but rather than bend Kane's outsized persona to fit each guitarist's style, Kane and Margolin keep her ragged-but-right vocals front and center throughout.
Highlights include the rueful, Boz Scaggs-like pop-soul of "I'm My Own Worst
Enemy," the Wanda Jackson-inspired rockabilly howl of "Crazy Little Thing" and
a surprisingly somber acoustic gospel blues protest tune called "Jesus and
Mohammed" that's entirely unlike anything Kane has ever done before and on which she recalls Judy Henske's theatrical, almost cabaret-influenced style. Many of the lyrics touch on elements of Kane's own life (based on the liner notes, it seems "I'm My Own Worst Enemy" was inspired by an online flame war) and her sexually aggressive persona, but it seems to be an older, wiser Kane on display throughout Guitar'd and Feathered, with an element of lovesickness that suits her.
- Stewart Mason / All Music Guide
- Allmusicguide.com
Guitar'd and Feathered?(Ruf ***1/2)
For Guitar'd and Feathered - great title - Candye Kane brings in a who's who of hot pickers to augment her regular band. Truth is, this down-to-earth blues diva doesn't really need all the extra guitar firepower.
Kane's talent and personality are as outsize as her figure. This time around, she doesn't flaunt the more out-there aspects of her sexually liberated persona, but she does, uh, broaden her already impressive range.
She still belts out the hard stuff like "When I Put the Blues on You" (with Sue Foley and Bob Margolin providing the six-string pyrotechnics) and rocks it up with Popa Chubby on "Crazy Little Thing." But she also brings a jazzy uptown touch to "My Country Man" (with Junior Watson) and takes a country-blues trip "Back With My Old Friends" (Dave Alvin providing the slide). She has some fun with her blues-purist foes on the girl-group-flavored "I'm My Own Worst Enemy," but her delivery of the R&B ballad "Goodbye My Heart" (both with her own fine guitarist, Heine Andersen) drives home the point that this is a serious, and seriously powerful, singer who lays it all on the line.
- Nick Cristiano/ Phildephia Inquirer
- Philadelphia Inquirer
Enlisting different guitarists for almost every song, Candye Kane has made the best album of her career with this set covering musical ground as varied as her collaborators. Back With My Old Friends, featuring Dave Alvin and Bob Margolin trading licks, feels like a classic blues from the 1920s while Jesus and Mohammed, with Bob Brozman, blends modern social commentary with an old-time gospel feel. I Done Got Over It, featuring Sue Foley, is a Chicago-style grinder while Crazy Little Thing, with Popa Chubby, rocks and rolls. There's old school R&B with Heine Andersen on Goodbye My Heart and some gorgeous swing guitar playing by Jeff Ross on I'm Not Gonna Cry. Kane's sassy singing is a joy to behold on all 13 tracks.
-Mike Regenstreif / Montreal Gazette
- Montreal Gazette
CANDYE KANE –– Candye Kane is a true neo-vaudvillian. She hammers out an amazing natural stage performance with variety of tunes that showcase her depth as a singer and true groove as a musician. Kane has seen the deepest blues and has worked the hardest nights while raising her kids as a single mom. Yes it’s her real name, and she’s known for her sometimes risqué stage shows that explore all of life’s pleasures equally. Featuring Bob Brozman, Popa Chubby, Dave Alvin, Junior Watson, Bob Margolin, Kid Ramos, Ana Popovic, and Sue Foley on the guitar, Kane’s voice is the booming force that utilizes the best of each player’s unique style.
From Maximum Ink/ Wisconsin’s Music Magazine for fans and musicians:
- Maximum Ink - Wisconsin music mag
Candye Kane has released several discs over the past decade and a half and is becoming known as one of the most powerful and entertaining female blues singers of her generation. She displays an impressive versatility, easily moving from rollicking jump blues to steamy torch songs to country punk to gritty blues rock. A few years ago, she settled in with Ruf Records and each subsequent disc has surpassed its predecessor. Her most recent, Guitar'd and Feathered, is no exception.
Guitar'd and Feathered finds Kane teaming up with a veritable Who's Who of blues guitarists,
including Bob Margolin (who also co- produced), Junior Watson, Bob Brozman, Jeff Ross, Sue Foley, Ana Popovic, Kid Ramos, Heine Andersen, Dave Alvin, and Popa Chubby. While their presence is more than welcome, this is clearly Ms. Kane's show. She's never sounded better. In addition, she had a hand in writing seven of the thirteen tracks on the disc.
Similarly to Kane's other releases, there's a variety of styles present ranging from the jumping opener, "My Country Man" (featuring Watson's tasty guitar) to the country blues of "Back With My Old Friends," backed by Margolin and Alvin to the rocking cover (thanks to Margolin and Foley) of Guitar Slim's "I Done Got Over It." The soulful "Goodbye My Heart" features Kane's regular guitarist Heine Andersen, as does the self-depreciating Motownish "I'm My Own Worst Enemy."
Other highlights include the country-tinged "Fine Brown Frame," where Kane is accompanied by Kid Ramos on acoustic guitar, the blues rocker "I'm Lonely," and the jazzy "We're Long Ago and Far Away," where Margolin lends solid support.
Kane's previous CDs, and her live performances, have featured a few ribald moments, but on Guitar'd and Feathered, she plays it pretty straight for the most part. However, the closing tune, "Crazy Little Thing," a lusty rockabilly song with a twist, should satisfy longtime fans.
Kane also gets terrific support from pianist Sue Palmer, Bill Stuve on bass, Billy Watson on harmonica, Tommy Yearsley on B-3, and her son Evan Caleb on drums. Guitar'd and Feathered is a strong effort by Candye Kane, maybe her strongest yet. If you've missed out on her talents so far, this is a great place to start.
- Graham Clarke / Bluesbytes.com
- bluesbytes.com
Discography
1985 A Town South of Bakersfield Part II (Enigma Records/compilation)
1992 Burlesque Swing (self released cassette)
1992 Let's Put The X Back in Christmas (self-released CD with Country Dick Montana of the Beat Farmers and Kim Wilson of The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
1993 Acoustic Variations (Local San Diego Compilation cd)
1994 Home Cookin' (Antone's Records/Austin,Texas)
1994 Rock for Choice (Enigma Records/Compilation)
1995 Austin Rocks! (Antone's Records Compilation)
1995 Knock Out (Antone's Records/Austin,Texas)
1996 Diva La Grande (Antone's/Discovery)(re released 2006 RUF records)
1999 Swango (Sire Records)
1999 30 Essential Women of the Blues (House of Blues)
2000 The Toughest Girl Alive (Rounder/Bullseye Blues and Jazz)
2000 Best of Doo Wop Box Set (Rhino Records)
2000 This House (A compilation CD for Nicole's House/The Nicole Brown Charitable Foundation)
2001 Any Women's Blues (Rounder/Bullseye Blues and Jazz)
2004 Whole Lotta Love (RUF records)
2005 White Trash Girl (RUF records)
2007 Guitar'd and Feathered (RUF records)
2008 The Blues Caravan (RUF records) DVD and CD
2008 Rich Mans War (compilation RUF)
Photos
Bio
Candye Kane – Still the Toughest Girl Alive
“The Toughest Girl Alive” is the name of Candyes’ original song and the title of her soon to be released memoir and stage play. It is also an apt description of the jump blues singer and songwriter from East Los Angeles who has earned this moniker the hard way. Nominated for a 2008 National Blues Foundation Award for Best Blues Contemporary Female (the highest honor for blues artists) and beating down pancreatic cancer the same year, Kane is one tough cookie. She has performed worldwide for presidents and movie stars, but her path to success was not always glamorous or easy.
Raised in a dysfunctional, blue-collar family, Candye became a teenage mother, a pin up cover girl and a punk rock, hillbilly and blues-belting anarchist by the time she was just 21 years old. Eight cds, six record labels, millions of international road miles and countless awards later, Miss Kane has proven to be a true survivor as she scrambled her way to the top of the roots music heap, creating a world renowned reputation that has spanned two decades.
A colorful mixture of the traditional and the eclectic, Kane cut her musical teeth in the early 80’s onstage with Hollywood musicians and friends, Social Distortion, Dwight Yoakum, The Blasters, X, Fear and Los Lobos, to name just a few. While raising two sons, this role model for the disenfranchised, championed large sized women, fought for the equal rights of sex workers and the GLBT community and inspired music lovers everywhere. Her fans are a mixture of true outsiders: bikers, blues fans, punk rockers, drag queens, fat girls, queers, burlesque dancers, porn fans, sex workers, rockabilly and swing dancers, grey haired hippies, sex positive feminists and everyday folk of all ages, flock to see Candye and hear her musical messages of love, hope and empowerment.
Kanes’ live shows are the stuff of legend. She honors the bold blues women of the past with both feet firmly planted in the present. She belts - growls - shouts - croons and moans from a lifetime of suffering and overcoming obstacles. She uses music as therapy and often writes and chooses material with positive affirmations that leave the audience feeling healed and exhilarated. A show that is part humor, revival meeting and sexuality celebration, she'll deliver a barrelhouse-tongue-in-cheek blues tune or a gospel ballad like Jesus and Mohammed, encouraging audiences to leave behind religious intolerance. She’ll slay the crowd with her balls out rendition of Whole Lotta Love or glorify the virtues of zaftig women with 200 pounds of fun. She often says she is a "black drag queen trapped in a white woman's body" and she dresses the part. Bedecked in bright colored feathers, sequins and rhinestones, Kane's performance is Mississippi by way of Las Vegas with a quick stopover in San Francisco.
Her last release, (RUF 2007) Guitar’d and Feathered, garnered rave reviews worldwide and earned her a West Coast Songwriting award for Best Original Blues composition. Kane will go into the studio again in 2009, to record her ninth cd for West Coast blues label, Delta Groove. The cd will feature her smoking live band that includes 26 year old guitar virtuoso Laura Chavez, Kanes’ eldest son, Evan Caleb on drums and bass veteran, Paul Loranger. This newest effort will be chock full of the songs of triumph and positive affirmation that have made Kane a favorite with enlightened congregations everywhere.
Candye has been included in countless Blues and Jazz Anthologies including the Rolling Stone Guide to Jazz and Blues and Dan Akroyds’ 30 Essential Women of the Blues. In addition to her music successes, she is an activist and philanthropist. In August 2008, she appeared in Cape Town, South Africa for the World Congress for people with disabilities with her United by Music show for special needs kids. This project provides performance opportunites, blues history lessons and songwriting instruction to young people with disabilities, encouraging them to write their own blues songs to help them overcome their daily challenges.
Candye is a fighter par excellence and her authenticity, determination and optimism are what keep her shows passionate, honest and irresistible. One evening with Candye will keep the crowds happy, optimistic and coming back for more!
Join the jubilation by booking a Candye Kane shindig today!
For Bookings: steve@piedmonttalent.com
www.piedmonttalent.com
People are talking about Candye!
An Older and Wiser blues diva
– All Music guide
A Blues Diva of the 20th century who can liven up any party without shedding a stitch.
- People Magazine
A serious and seriously powerful singer who lays it all on the line
– The Philadelphia Inquirer
Candye Kane has that big, brassy voice that has authority and sass; the kind of thing men like because its seductive and women like because its powerful – BB King to the San Diego Reader
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