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Issue 6-42, October 18, 2012

 In This Issue

As a child, the power of the church flowed through Zora Young’s blood with as much force as the mighty Mississippi River itself.

Involved in matters of the church on a daily basis, that time spent in the House of the Lord would also help to shape the adult that Zora Young grew to be.

But there was also another factor – conscious or not - that helped determine the path that Zora Young would travel down when it became time for her to choose a vocation.

For you see, Zora Young also had a touch of The Wolf coursing through her veins.

So if you take the true essence and spirit of gospel music, poured over a stiff dose of Howlin’ Wolf on the rocks, what you get is the immensely-talented Zora Young - a true purveyor of Chicago blues in the finest sense.

Born in West Point, Mississippi before relocating with her family to Chicago when she was 7 years old, Young’s formulative years where a lot like those of other would-be blues artists at the time – especially those in Mississippi – and included healthy doses of time in church, while also keeping the ‘evil blues’ at bay and out of the family homes.

“My mother took me to church every day. I went to church a lot,” Young said. “Some of the people that I was around, like my babysitter and some of my friends, young and old - they really liked this music (the blues), but they tried to hide it because their parents didn’t allow it. The theory was that if you didn’t go to church, you didn’t go anywhere.”

So go to church is just what Zora Young did. And while spending plenty of time at the Greater Harvest Baptist Church, Zora Young also found that she had an undeniable talent for singing.

“My mom and dad met in the choir when they were kids and they sang in church,” Young said. “And everybody in my family was a good singer. I think it’s just in my background and my blood, being able to sing.”

While it wasn’t like she wanted to pull against her family’s wishes at the time, Young could not help but be intrigued by the powerful spell of the blues, oddly enough, also because of family ties.

In this case, it was a distant relationship with the one-and-only Howlin’ Wolf.

“I do remember seeing him come to visit us (in West Point, which was also the Wolf’s stomping grounds) when I was a very little girl,” said Young. “I also remember him working down there on the corner at a little blues club.”

And just like Young’s mother, Chester Burnett’s mother didn’t approve of blues music, either.

But that didn’t mean that either family was not happy with all the success that Howlin’ Wolf was working so hard to achieve.

“They were kind of proud of him, because he was doing his thing,” said Young. “Even today, my daughter is a minister, but even today you ride one or you ride the other. In other words, you don’t quite get the respect from the family unless you come all the way over to the Lord’s side. But no, Wolf’s family was proud of his success.”

When Young was old enough to do some things on her own, one of the first things she did was to start singing R&B. And she found the experience totally liberating.

“It was freedom … free at last. I really think I just wanted to rebel, to do something different,” she said. “Not that I didn’t like singing gospel, but I had spent so much time doing that, I was ready to see what was on the other side of the fence, maybe.”

Once she did put singing gospel and R&B on the back-burner, instead choosing to unleash her considerable vocal prowess on the word of the blues, Young did not totally abandon playing the music she grew up on; instead, she just simply incorporated those styles into her new musical love – the blues.

“I tell you what, if you listen real close to some of the tunes I’ve written, you can probably tell that I come from a church background,” she said. “A lot of my songs deal with morals and that’s what you get a lot of in church – morals.”

Sunnyland Slim probably has never really gotten all the credit that is due him when it came to taking a young blues player under his wings and helping them find their way. While a lot of the older bluesmen at the time where concerned with losing their gigs to an up-and-comer, Sunnyland was just the opposite and went out of his way to offer help and advice to anyone who asked – including to Zora Young.

“He cut my first 45 (RPM), as he did with a lot of people. I wanted to sing the blues and I wanted to go to Europe. And I knew he played the blues and produced people,” she said. “And I knew he tried to help the young ones coming around. He was the grand-daddy of the blues. He taught me some important things, like how to treat your band and things like that. But people had a great deal of respect for him. He was the oldest cat around back then. You know, he took Muddy Waters to Chess Records. He helped Little Walter, J.B. Lenoir … the list goes on and on.”

Sunnyland did help get Young on the path to becoming an established blues artist and he also helped show her that for a blues player, time spent in Europe was indeed time well spent.

On 2009’s Sunnyland (Airway Records) Young expressed her appreciation for all that the late, great blues-playing piano man did for her.

Her last studio CD, 2009’s The French Connection (Delmark Records) is a tip of the hat to her love affair with the country of France.

“They just let me do what I wanted to with what I had to work with (on The French Connection). I had French musicians playing on the album, so that meant that I played pretty much the stuff that they knew,” she said. “And they had some pretty nice things goings on. By that, I mean they knew a little gospel, a little country … some blues, things like that.”

Taking her supporting cast into account, it’s poetic justice, indeed, that the finished product was named The French Connection. “They let me come up with the title and that’s what I came up with,” laughed Young. “It does make sense though, because for years I’ve been going over to Europe and playing.”

At first glance it may seem a bit odd for a Chicago blues player to cut an album of tunes with French musicians, but for Young, that was not the case at all.

“They have a lot of respect for American blues music. And they know everything – they really do their homework,” she said. “They can tell you who played on what and what artist cut what track, so I’m impressed with that.”

“The guy that produced the record for me (Bobby Dirninger) really loved Bob Dylan, so that’s how the Dylan tune (“Tonight I’ll be Staying Here With You”) came about. I’ve known Bobby for over 20 years and we’ve played a lot of shows together over the years and have developed a great relationship over that time.”

Young has really worked to earn the adoration that she rightfully gets from her European fans by touring the continent an astounding 30-plus times. She is also quick to point out why all her trips to Europe to play the blues have been made possible.

“Cats like Sonny Boy Williamson and Willie Dixon, they really helped pave the road for Americans to go over there and play the blues. There’s just always been something about the way the Europeans really love and have great respect for the blues,” she said.

Young has had a long-standing working relationship with Chicago’s Delmark Records and it is obvious she has a special reverence for the label’s founder and guiding light.

“Bob Koester is just a walking encyclopedia. Sunnyland introduced me to him many, many years ago. But to talk to him …he just knows so much. I wish I could have a tape recorder when I talk to that man,” Young said. “He’s a historian in the way that he keeps tracks of things, plus he’s got records that nobody else has. If you can’t find something, just try him. He’s just an amazing man.”

Delmark issued 2000’s Learned my Lesson, along with Tore Up From the Floor Up in 2005 and also The French Connection.

Always with a writing pen nearby, Young is currently concocting material for her latest project.

“I’m writing stuff … I’m getting ready to put a function at the junction, if you know what I mean,” she said. “I’m definitely going to be recording some of them, but I don’t know the names of them and all that stuff right now.”

Also an accomplished actress, Young took to the stage and played the role of the legendary Bessie Smith in the production of The Heart of the Blues.

And as she later learned, Smith - the “Empress of the Blues” - was a particular favorite of one of Young’s closest family members.

“My grandfather, who would have been about 85 then, walked across my dining room and saw a Bessie Smith record and I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He said, ‘That’s Bessie! That’s Bessie!’ But he knew her from down around Memphis when she was a big star,” said Young. “So I was impressed with that. But I always had a big respect for Bessie Smith and all that she had to go through. They were some rough girls back then.”

The state of Mississippi has not been able to claim Zora Young as one of its residents for a good long time now. However, that doesn’t mean that memories, and lessons of life learned down south, are not still a big part of her daily routine.

“The biggest migration of all (from Mississippi to Chicago) started in the 50s, with people heading north. It all really started in the 1920s when the river (Mississippi) flooded. They moved north out of necessity because they didn’t have anything left down south. Plus, they needed jobs and thought this (Chicago) was the land of plenty and promise,” she said. “But it seems like most of the people living in Chicago have roots coming from Mississippi, even if their generation has never been to Mississippi. I always say we moved it (state of Mississippi) up here with us. That means your kids have habits and traits from your culture in Mississippi, even if they have never saw the actual state of Mississippi. My own kids have never seen Mississippi in their life, but if you met them, you might think they were born and raised there. It’s in them. It just is.”

Young, who is on the eve of a five-week tour of Turkey with Billy Branch is no stranger to cultures all across the globe, having spent the biggest part of her blues career singing all over the world.

And that kind of lifestyle suits Young to a T.

“That’s what I really love about traveling – learning the different cultures and adopting some; just seeing the difference in people and welcoming it,” she said.

With the kind of voice that can at once both move mountains with its majestic force and also bring tears to both eyes with its gut-wrenching sincerity, blues fans should consider themselves lucky that Zora Young long ago decided to share her talents with the masses.

But even if she had never been a featured former at the Chicago Blues Festival numerous times, nor had she ever played on a stage anywhere in the world, Zora Young would still be singing.

After all, it is etched in her very DNA.

“I always say that singing is therapy. You sing and when you finish, you don’t have the problems you had when you started,” Young said. “And I don’t even mean singing professionally. Singing will definitely keep you off the therapist’s couch.”

Visit Zora's website at http://www.zorayoungmusic.com