view larger image
In the pantheon of American music, there are great performers of blues, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, pop, jazz, and country, but who can do them all except Toni Price? What makes Toni unique is that she knows only one way to do things -- her way. She sings only songs that she can sincerely relate to. She does not play a musical instrument; she is a musical instrument.
Toni sings with all the power of what she calls "a lot of pain I had to let out." "I'm about songs and singing", Toni says. "It's a two-way gift. I give my energy to people and they give theirs back to me." In this album, she says, she's "exploring further different kinds of American music." Nobody's doing it better.
Midnight Pumpkin, features the incomparable James Burton (guitarist to the greats, including Dale Hawkins, Rick Nelson, and Elvis Presley) on three tracks. One of these is by Austin legend Blaze Foley; the other two are by Austinite Shelly King. Malford Milligan, Austin's male vocalist of the last decade, who has sung with such formidable bands as Double Trouble and Storyville, joins Toni, his award-winning female counterpart, for a rousing version of Joe Tex's "I Want to Do (Everything For You)", that comes off like a testifying session at Al Green's Full Gospel Tabernacle. Toni also performs "The Right Kind of Man" and "We Just Couldn't Say Goodbye", tunes recorded by Miss Annette Hanshaw in 1929 and 1932, respectively. She then successfully fast-forwards half a century to material by hitmaker Jerry Williams and a truly golden oldie from the underrated band, Mother's Finest, "Thank you for the Love".
Austin American Statesman review
|