Lou Pride, Soldier of Soul
MARCH 6, 2011—
There are no medals for Chicago soul singers.
The emotive gospel based music has always been shot down by the city’s blues scene.
Someone was tellling me the other day about Bono’s choice cover Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” at a U2 concert in Chicago and asked the audience to sing along. I was told he was met mostly with a collective “Huh?”
Last night Lou Pride stood tall on the stage of the American Legion Hall Post 42 in Evanston, Ill.
Pride is a locally overlooked 61-year-old soul singer who lives in north suburban Waukegan. He was appearing as part of the Bluegrass & Legends series held periodically at the roadhouse hall (ask about the commander’s raffle) in the shadow of the El tracks.
I had to check this out.
Pride sings with the playful grit of Clarence Carter, the curling, jazzy sway of Bobby “Blue” Bland and when he takes his falsetto out for a test drive he pays homage to his mentor Curtis Mayfield. In 1990 Pride recorded “Gone Bad Again” for Mayfield’s Curtom imprint.
Curtis Mayfield: American Treasure.
Pride delivered a dynamic 90-minute set fronting a four-piece band with one background singer. Wearing a natty pin striped suit, he sang while facing a World War II flag and a Korean War flag, 1950-53.
I sat by a dead fireplace named “Buddy.”
To get to the main hall the audience walked up a staircase that featured a mural of a sinking World War II fighter ship.
The soul show in American shadows was booked by bluegrass fan Chip Covington, who between 1978 and 1982 owned the popular Biddy Mulligan’s music club in Rogers Park. He’s been booking bluegrass in and out of the American Legion hall for the last 12 years. (Town Mountain comes to town on April 9, www.chicagobluegrass.com).
Covington sold Biddy’s to a great family from India who continued to book blues music in a club with an Irish name.
Biddy’s is also where I once bought a shot of Jack Daniel’s for Keith Richards who was watching the Neville Brothers while Chuck Berry was video taping the whole thing.
Things were a bit more tame last night. Pride (no relation to country singer Charley) covered original ballads like “I Had a Talk With My Baby,” and the hard Memphis groove of “Bringin’ Me Back Home” of which snippets were used in the 2007 Morgan Freeman film “Feast of Love.”
But the band hit full fire with “Chitlin’ Circuit” music, the mash-up of soul, country, gospel and good humor. With the foreboding beady eyes of Howlin’ Wolf, Pride free-styled rhymed with “yippie-a-yippe-yo, bow wow wow” in “Beware of the Dog” and the best call of the night was found in the deep groove of “Twistin’ The Knife.”
Pride gave a shout out to his late songwriter Bob Greenlee, who besides “Twistin’ the Knife” co-wrote “Long Arm of the Blues” and “Love From a Stone” for Pride.
Greenlee’s story is as compelling as a soul singer performing in an American Legion hall normally featuring bluegrass music.
Greenlee was a Chicago native who moved to the Daytona Beach, Fla. area in the 1960s. A bassist for the Midnight Creepers, he meshed soul with a melodic surf sound. Besides Pride, artists who were around central Florida during this period included vocalist Floyd Miles and Duane and Gregg Allman. They gigged at beach joints like The Bikini Room and the Wedge. Greenlee was also captain of the Yale football team and a 4th round draft choice of the Miami Dolphins in 1967. Greenlee went on to create King Snake Records and collaborated with the late Root Boy Slim.
Pride brought a warm dash of the surf-soul into his gospel-soul template. The interplay between Pride and keyboardist Ron Kovach was straight out of church. Pride grew up singing in the choir of the First Baptist Church in Chicago. The church was pastored by the Rev. E.J. Cole, the father of singer Nat King Cole.
Chicago gospel has always been from the heart and has maintained a direct connection with traditional influences that reflected the Southern migration (Mahalia Jackson from New Orleans, the Staple Singers from Mississippi, etc.)
Pride’s band also included singer Cathy Charity, rock-blues guitarist Paul Stilin, bassist Dwane Denton and drummer Ivory Harris. Denton and Harris also play in the Waukegan smooth jazz group High Altitude. I’m down with that. With all the deep soul twists I figured Pride normally has a horn section.
Pride told the audience of about 150 people that he had just returned from a festival in Europe, where the “Northern Soul” that is emblematic of Pride’s music is much more popular than in Chicago.
“We played for 5,000 people in Switzerland,” he said. “We’re doing the same show for you that we did for them.”
But this gig was truly memorable.
Hambone, the host of Hambone’s Blues Party (10 p.m. Thursdays on WDCB 90.9-FM; www.wdcb.org) was passing out cans of Miller High Life beer. College age kids danced in the back of the hall, near the soundboard. Former Chicago Blues Festival coordinator Barry Dolins relaxed on a piano bench. A handful of American Legion vets sat with their wives on metal folding chairs.
And although Buddy the fireplace was dark, my soul had been warmed.
FOR MORE on Chicago soul such as Alvin “Twine Time” Cash, Otis Clay, Curtis Mayfield, The Staple Singers and others please check out the MUSIC archives of this website.
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