Metro Pulse/Music/Nan Citty & Blues Voice

What:
Nan Citty & Blues Voice

When & Where:
Thursday, Sept. 11, 6:30 p.m. at the Blount County Chamber of Commerce, and Saturday, Sept. 27 at Lucille's

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Nan Citty & Blues Voice jam with the best

by Paige M. Travis

The Wednesday night Blues Jam at Sassy Ann's is a great place to pick up a blues musician. Or five. Just ask Nan Citty.

Citty met the members of her backing band, Blues Voice, at the long-running Blues Jam, the weekly event that brings together the seasoned and amateur musicians of Knoxville's blues community. Citty initially came to the club to find out where she fit in to that mix.

The daughter of a musical minister, Citty returned to Knoxville three years ago after 14 years in Morristown. In addition to continuing her career as a therapist, she knew she wanted to sing. A friend suggested Sassy Ann's. "Go there, and you will find a band." Her friend turned out to be right, but not immediately. During the night, Citty heard plenty of talented players perform good songs, but none were the ones she'd had in mind. "When I thought of the blues, I thought of Billie Holiday," says Citty, whose warm, smooth voice tends to the torchy side. Citty started her first band in the eighth grade—the NanDoJans with the late Doris Whiting, who played with her sisters in the local Western group Silver Sage. Citty played in bands while she attended UT, but took a break for family and career.

Blues Voice guitarist Robert Higginbotham's story reflects a similar path. Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he spent many years in San Francisco and had played guitar since his teen years. He pursued a career in music seriously for a while. "I was playing in a band in San Francisco thatt was really good, but we couldn't make anything commercial happen," he says, his low and resonant voice evoking Dave Alvin of the Blasters. "I got tired of being poor." So the musician turned to the field of Internet technology, began his family and moved to East Tennessee. He's lived in Maryville for 14 years. Music found its way back into his life a few years ago. "Now that my youngest son drives, I can get out and do what I liked to do when I was a kid. So it's like coming around."

Higginbotham also reentered the music scene via Sassy Ann's. "I had a friend who was going there to play harp who was bugging me, so I was like, 'OK.'" He played in Blue Light Blues with Rick Rouse (currently of Shades of Blue) and knows the other members of Blues Voice from the scene.

Keyboardist Leo Schmied has figured into the Knoxville music scene "for decades," ventures Higginbotham. Schmied confirms he's been playing for "well over 40 years," a fact that makes him seem older until you learn he started playing at age four.

When she first showed up at Sassy Ann's, Citty wasn't familiar with the blues jam format or the songs most of the attending musicians knew by heart. But she's picked up some tips in three years.

"I've learned to jam. I used to like everything just the way it is," she says of her former preference for strict, by-the-letter performances. "To play with a jam, you have to pay attention to people. So there's no way to get off by yourself."

The band's first show was for a fundraiser held just after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Schmied planned the multi-band show at a now-defunct pizza place. Two years later, the band plays regular gigs at Coyote Joe's, Brackins Blues Bar and a recent CD-release show on the Star of Knoxville riverboat. The disc, titled Keep On Loving showcases Citty's emotional voice, Higginbotham's strident guitar and a variety of keyboard sounds from Schmied, plus the talents of Dick Qulia on blues harp, Charles Crisp on drums and Greg Benoit on bass.

Citty's brother Phil Lloyd earns the players' praise for his production work completed at his Morristown studio. He asked the band, "What do you want it to sound like?" They responded by handing him CDs by Delbert McClinton. They liked the way his discs were mixed, and Lloyd "pretty much nailed it," Higginbotham says.

The band's repertoire, reflected on Keep On Loving, includes songs by Higginbotham and a sampling of blues standards. The disc's covers are Bob Dylan's "Serve Somebody," Susan Tedeschi's "Just Won't Burn," and "Wander this World" done by Jonny Lang.

Schmied, who used to record hits for a karaoke company, says that back in the '70s, live bands were expected to recreate songs exactly like the album versions. His band played songs by Chicago and Tower of Power. "We had to do everything note for note, or we got laughed off the stage," he says. "Nowadays it's very open, very free."

Open and free—and somewhat unpredictable—is the nature of the blues jam, which appeals to the musicians and fans, whose requests for favorites from the blues canon will be satisfied. Musicians network with fellow players, maybe talk someone into sitting in on their next session or live gig. Blues fans sample whole or parts of Knoxville's blues bands as they take their turns on stage.

"Every night is different; every night is unique," Higginbotham says. That's why audiences and players keep coming back for more.