Claudette (Bluz Queen) King

Claudette King, dubbed the "THE BLUZ QUEEN" the youngest daughter of our greatest living bluesman, B. B. King, is a star in the making. - My Publicist

When your father is genre master B.B. King, inheriting just a fraction of his soul and talent can take you anywhere. Enter Claudette King, youngest daughter of B.B. and one of modern blues’ hottest sensations. With several BMA nominations under her belt and a unique take on lyrical storytelling, it’s clear that Blues’ newest King is a California girl. - Michael Andronico

Singer Claudette King is proud to say she gets it from her daddy. The sassy blues singer is the daughter of blues and Rock & Roll Hall of Famer B.B. King.

- Quassan Castro -Essence magazine

Blues singer Claudette King performs at Harrah's Reno on Sunday night, Nov. 6, 2011, in Reno, Nev..Photos by Cathleen Allison. - Nevada Photo Source

Right out the box you know this is going to be a good one with organist Tim Brockett's "Can I Walk You To Your Car," George Brooks' horn arrangements are killer, - Bob Putignano

There’s a new voice making waves, belting out melodies of blues, soul, and rhythm and blues. Don't miss Claudette King, daughter of blue legend B.B. King. - reno-tahoe.com

If your father is B.B. King it sure can open a lot of doors for you; then again the expectations are preternaturally high. Claudette King has been wowing audiences in San Francisco since the mid-1980's and has graced the stage of the Monterey Blues Festival, but has somehow maintained a relatively low level of recognition for her work. All of that should change with the September 21, 2010 release of King's debut album We're Onto Something. - Wildy's World

There has been a lot of buzz surrounding Claudette King in light of her two Blues Music Awards nominations for 2011-- - Dorothy L. Hill Bluessource.com

Claudette King grew up listening to her father's music and attending as many of his concerts as she could, to spend time with him. Now, years ... - n p r Music

The last half of the Sixties was a particularly good time for B. B. King, whose star in the blues firmament first appeared in 1951 with the black-audience hit “Three O’Clock Blues.” A blues revival helmed by the Paul Butterfield band in the States and the Rolling Stones in England spurred white college students into investigating King’s vast talents. The Mississippi-born guitarist who’d once worked in the cotton fields hit it big with his Top Twenty pop chart smash “The Thrill Is Gone.” His popularity increased still more with an appearance on television’s Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Not least, in his personal life, he celebrated the birth of a baby daughter, Claudette. - Radio Submit

When your father is B.B. King and you choose to enter the music realm, you’re either supremely confident or a little batty.

Claudette King, the youngest of the guitar legend’s 15 children, isn’t crazy, but she does possess a voice that should engender plenty of self-assurance.

For more than two decades, King performed in clubs throughout northern California and even opened for her father.

But it wasn’t until this week that her mischievous bluesy rasp was officially released on record in the form of “We’re Onto Something,” released on the Blues Express Inc. label.

The other new event in King’s life came nine months ago, when she became an Atlantan, moving east for a few reasons: To be closer to her 28-year-old son, Steven Parella, who is completing a master’s degree at the Morehouse School of Medicine. To advance her music career. And “to search for a husband,” she said with a throaty laugh. “If [I don’t find one] here, the search will continue!” - ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

Surely most musicians have at least some notion of making their father proud of their achievements. One suspects that the youngest daughter of the legendary B.B. King might have at least a twinge of apprehension in this regard when she recorded what is, essentially, her debut album. There is plenty of reason for B.B. to nod in approval, because Claudette King has released a pretty darn good album of blues, jazz, and soul.
Claudette King's We're Onto Something

Unlike her father, who has spent most days of most years of his long life out on the road, Claudette King chose to wait until after she raised her children to begin pursuing a music career in earnest. There was an aborted recording session in the late 1990s with members of Etta James' touring band, and apparently a European record that is virtually impossible to find, but We’re Onto Something is the announcement of a talented and mature vocalist with gifts of nuance, expression, and soul.

Actually, King chose to use four of the backing tracks from the '90s here, re-doing the vocals to match her greater stylistic fluency of today. The album opens with two of these cuts. Keyboardist Tim Brockett's "Can I Walk You To Your Car" bears more than a passing resemblance to Claudette's father's "Let The Good Times Roll." She sings it with panache and punch, but it's essentially a warm-up song that should probably have been left in the can. Guitarist Bobby Murray, long-time associate of James, wrote "Whole Lotta Nothing," which is a much better song, and allows King to be a bit more playful and relaxed with her vocal.
Songs of Heartbreak

The great songwriter/producer Dennis Walker teams with guitarist Alan Mirikitani (as they did on Bettye LaVette's fantastic A Woman Like Me a few years back) to give King some meaty original material, too.

Walker and Mirikitani don't let King sing of a lot of happy relationships with men. Invariably, with one exception, they put her in places of regret and sorrow, and King nails the mixture of confusion, anger, sadness, and independence called for in these songs. "Too Little Too Late" is the first song here that reveals her as an exceptional singer; every time she sings the chorus, she subtly changes the emotional emphasis through her delicious ways of teasing out consonants and drawing out vowels. She sounds like a woman inhabiting the lyrics, wrestling with the feelings which come up when she has made up her mind to refuse her man's plea for one more chance.
A Dog Like You

"We're Onto Something" is the exception which proves the rule, an infectiously upbeat Stax-sounding soul song which gives King a chance to revel in the joy of love for a few moments. After a detour for an older recording of Walker and Cray's "Playing With My Friends" which, despite an engagingly greasy guest vocal by Frankie Lee, isn’t going to replace her father's classic version, Walker strikes back again for "This Ain't How I Planned It." Here we inhabit a jazzy soul space in which King reminds us of a cross between Esther Phillips and Carla Thomas. Jim Pugh's liquid organ and Mirikitani's subtle guitar fills give King a warm space to express her unexpected regrets.

"A Dog Like You" is a more aggressively playful riposte to a man who doesn't live up to his original billing. King coos, belts, seduces, slaps, weaves and growls her way through this admittedly lesser song. "Boogie Some" is a very convincing invitation to mutual pleasure, with a slow, deep groove and stinging guitar wrapped around mostly a one-chord vamp. "Rock My Soul" is another Murray composition, and the best of the four older recordings included here. It has a real Stax feel to it, and King sells the somewhat trite lyrics. Walker co-wrote "Isn't Peace The Least We Can Do" with Pugh. It's a ridiculously fast but tight jazz-blues number with a gospel message. The band should have been given more of a chance to stretch out here, but in only 3:16, the song sort of disappears before it can really grab hold.

That's not a problem with "Easier Alone," the album closer, a slow, mournful jazz ballad which gives King one last chance to reveal a trick she hasn't used yet. Two of the verses are sung here in the female equivalent of falsetto; it turns out Claudette King can cover quite a range of notes. But she's not showing off; the higher register allows her to tell us more about the mixed emotions contained in the song's message of moving on with her life after the end of a relationship. She's not really convinced it will be easier, but it will be necessary, and she's going to do what she has to do.
Steve's Bottom Line. - Steve Pick