Etta James

The seasons come and go; the sun rises and sets; the music world turns around again. But Etta James endures, barely glancing as fads change and flavors-of-the-month drift by like dust specks in the breeze. This Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer is built of stronger stuff. More than a singer, Etta James is an elemental force of nature.

Put simply, Etta is one of the most emotionally charged vocalists God ever put on this earth. And after five decades in music, Etta is still looking over that next hill, finding excitement, writing songs better than ever and exploring new lyrics and new sounds. Love's Been Rough On Me, her fourth album for Private Music, demonstrates that her gifts remain untouched by time and circumstance.

"I'm still just being myself," says the living legend. "I can't chase after fads. When disco came along, I knew that it was gonna come and it was gonna go. Why should I try to sound like the singers who are on the radio today? I've made my mark by being me."

" It's better for me that way. I want to show people that I am an artist and that I am not going to be pigeonholed; I do not want to be categorized and I don't want a label put on me. I won't stay in a little box- I want to sing what I want to sing."

She has done it all- r&b, blues, pop, jazz, rock, and even rap. On Love's Been Rough on Me, Etta mixes together a potent blend of rootsy, r&b blues with a touch of Nashville.

"The Blues and country are first cousins," she explains. "What I look for in a song is for the story to be for real. I like a blood and guts kind of thing. That's what you find in country lyrics."

Etta turns the John Berry hit "If I Had Any Pride Left at All" into a devastating moan of abject desperation. Lee Roy Parnell's "The Rock" becomes a tough blues statement, full of wisdom and smoldering defiance. Jeannie Seely's classic "Don't Touch Me" burns with an ember of lust in Etta's throat. It's so easy to get lost in her sad contemplation of the Gretchen Peters title tune that the lyrics sound like they were custom designed to fit the soul matriarch's personality. Once Etta has sung a song, let's face it, it's been sung definitively.

Love's Been Rough On Me kicks up some rock 'n' roll dust, too, notably when Etta swaggers through "I Can Give You Anything" and does some no-nonsense tough talking in "Love It or Leave it Alone." She lets her blues chops show on "Cry Like a Rainy Day" and sways in the soul-drenched romance of "Hold Me (Just a Little Longer Tonight)."

Longtime fans will smile at the inclusion of "I've Been Loving You Too Long," for Etta has shown a special fondness for the songs of Otis Redding throughout her career. But even her most ardent followers might be surprised by "Done in the Dark," a song that is the equal of anything she has previously written. Etta's name is already on some bona fide classics, including "Dance With Me Henry," "Something's Got a Hold on Me" and "If I can't Have You." An ex-lover's name is listed on her famous "I'd Rather Go Blind"though it's another masterpiece from her pen. This album shows that she can still create them.

These days, I can do maybe a song a year. That's not really writing a lot. But I'm gonna do more. Because Barry Beckett was so pleased with this one, I've got it in the back of my mind that maybe Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Clint Black, Travis Tritt, or one of those guys just might make some noise with it. I think that's what all writers want".

Beckett is the producer who has guided much of her output during what she calls her "rebirth." She dates this from 1984, when she sang at the Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Soundtrack performances in films like Back to the Future, Heartbreakers, and Rain Man, plus a barn-burning appearance in Chuck Berry's movie Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll served notice that she was back and on fire again.

The next step took place in Nashville. After seven years without on album, Beckett produced the Seven Year Itch LP of 1988 and reawakened her recording career. Two more Nashville albums ensued, followed by her 1993 induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy award for Best Jazz Vocalist in 1994 for Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday, her W.C. Handy Blues Female Vocalist of the Year honor of 1994, and her acclaimed 1995 autobiography Rage to Survive.

All of this reminded the world that Etta James is an American national treasure. Between 1955 and 1975, Etta created a dozen Top-10 R&B smashes and more than 25 chart hits. They include such monumentally soulful performances as "All I Could Do Was Cry" (1960), "At Last" (1961), "Trust in Me" (1961), "Stop the Wedding" (1962), "Tell Mama" (1967), and "Security" (1968). She was nominated for six Grammy Awards and saw her classics enter the repertoires of such greats as Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, and The Rolling Stones.

The powerful music that Etta created in those days was nearly overwhelmed by the tumult in her personal life. As Rage to Survive made plain, abusive men, financial problems, and heroin addiction threatened her every step of the way. It was a painfully confessional book to write, she says, but she has no apologies for it's startling candor.

"My only regret is that it showed only the hard side, the rage and survival side. Now that I know how it is done, I'd like to write another one, a memoir showing the soft, maternal side, the sense of humor. There were so many funny things, so many great things that people need to know about. There's never going to be another bunch like we were. We are the people that paved the way for the younger people today."

When Etta James weeps, the world cries with her. And when she laughs, it is an affirmation of life itself. If she does do another book, rest assured that it will be entertaining, for few of her peers can tell stories and reminisce with such marvelous verve, unflinching honesty and downright charisma.

"I'm not one to dwell on what went on in the past," she cautions. "I mean, I know who I am and what my place in history is. But the best part is, that I can still do what I want to do."

That means making some of the finest music of her career. Her Private Music debut of 1994 was Mystery Lady, an album saluting Billie Holiday. It earned Etta her long-overdue Grammy. In 1995 came Time After Time, an album of pop standards. In between those two collections was Live From San Francisco, capturing her salty, soulful zenith.

It was the first live document of this extraordinary performer to appear since 1963's Etta James Rocks the House. That was recorded in Nashville, as was her big hit single "Pushover." In the many years since, Etta has repeatedly turned to Nashville songs, recording her versions of the hits of Hank Williams, David Houston, The Louvin Brothers and others. Then as now, she does them on her own terms. Like Ray Charles and Solomon Burke, Etta doesn't try to "go country," she simply tries to bring out the "soul" in the genre's great lyrics.

"I don't know what people are going to call this album. It's not country, country. One of our friends said it was 'country soul.' I don't give a darn what you call it. I just want the people everywhere to like it, to like Etta James and to like the songs, because I do."

"I've always felt comfortable in Nashville. I look at Nashville like I did many years ago, as a down-to-earth place. Nashville is just For Real."

And so is the incomparable Etta James.