Teeny Tucker

Teeny Tucker, the daughter of Tommy (“Hi-Heel Sneakers”) Tucker, is definitely on track to keep the blues alive with this, her third CD. Backed by a tight quartet headed up by guitarist/producer/songwriter Robert Hughes, Tucker purrs and roars her way through 11 songs; only one of them not an original—the old warhorse “I Got My Mojo Working.” After establishing a solid groove on the first track—“Ain’t That the Blues” (the sad saga of a young girl who, among other disasters, lost her mother to AIDS)—she’s soon recalling in “Daughter to the Blues” (over a slightly menacing “I’m A Man” beat) her daddy’s advice to “just sing the blues.” One of the hazards of being a younger woman pops up in the rousing “Old Man Magnet.” The band slows way down for a ruptured romance song, “I Wish We Could Go Back,” on which she equates the event with a storm she wishes she could have avoided, her powerful, soulful singing enhanced by co-writer Hughes’ mournful guitar solo. The title track features her with four back-up singers promising to spread the blues “all over this land”; and they’re also on hand to pep up the monotonous “Mojo.” On “John Cephas” Tucker pays homage to the late Piedmont blues guitarist. Nice job by all hands.