Search Is Over

Deitra Farr shot to fame as the singer with Mississippi Heat, a Chicago all star band which rocked it's way around the national and international blues circuit in the early 1990s. This is a timely re-issue of her debut solo album, which has already been acclaimed as a modern classic and probably the best yet fusion of blues and soul. She is in the company here, of one of the great names in deep Southern blues/soul - Johnny Rawls, whose career goes way back to OV Wright. This album is very much Deitra's vision, though, and also features her strong songwriting abilities. Add some of the finest Chicago musicians and this is a recipe for a superb solo release. This album became the start of a successful solo career. Today Deitra is poised on the edge of an even wider success. Deitra was born in Chicago in 1957, and spent her childhood immersed in 60s-era soul music. Her initial inspiration to sing came from watching Diana Ross and the Supremes on TV. But she also loved Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin, and through her father became enamored of Lightnin' Hopkins, and Chicago stalwarts like Little Walter. She sang in the choir of the school she attended. When she was a high school senior her uncle, trombonist Nate Pryor, helped her get a singing slot with his group Central Power System. During that time, most of the musicians with whom Deitra worked played in a straight-ahead style - the north side favored the shuffle-based blues that became a Chicago speciality during the post WW2 years. Legends from that era - Sunnyland Slim, Louis Myers, Homesick James - were among Deitra's sidemen. Deitra has channeled the pent-up energies of years spent singing on others' shows and in others' bands. They explode on every track of this disk. That sense of liberation and triumph suggest that this is a culmination for her - that her 'search' for a musical context is, indeed, 'over. ' But anyone who knows this restless artist knows better than to paint so final a picture.