CD: Navigating Limbo

Home: Iowa

Style: Folk/Blues

Quote: "BeJae can do it all, but blues seems to be her specialty.”

BeJae Fleming, a veteran performer based in Iowa, would probably be best described as a blueswoman -- although this smoky-voiced singer-songwriter can easily cross over into folk, country and even some good ol' rock 'n' roll and sound like she invented it. BeJae can do it all, but blues seems to be her specialty.

Gut-level passion just pours from her rough-edged vocals as she belts out "Your Love is a Car," the one high-speed rocker with Victor Sanders' electric guitar giving it the instrumental horsepower. Then, there's more energy and passion, only slowed down a bit as she saves her bluesy tunes for the last half of the CD (15 songs in all): "Got Somebody" -- a slowdown Delta blues style where she's joined by Dave Moore's wailing harmonica and offers her own Maria Muldaur-sounding vocals and accomplished acoustic slide...which also serves as a gorgeous intro to the next song called "One More Try."

Then, there's the very standard-sounding, slow-burning acoustic/electric, piano-guitar-harmonica "Slip Through" -- a slinky, seductive song that conjures up visions of dark, smoky Deep South blues bars.

A note here about BeJae's vocals -- her energy and passion are punctuated by her weepy slide and she does have a distinctive sound, but there are times, as noted, she sounds very much like several other notable female vocalists: Marcia Ball, Kim Carnes, Lucy Kaplansky (yep! hard r's) and she even exhibits the elasticity of Jewel. Maybe versatility would be a good word to use here.

One of the CD's best tunes, if not THE best, is one she seems to have a LOT of fun performing. It's energetic, sexy, playful, seductive and very, very bluesy with some incredible, positively evil-sounding electric slide guitar from Bo Ramsey:

"I cover up my imperfections, I put my make-up on
Shave my legs all the way up. I put a short skirt on
I can make the boys like me with the same dress time and again
I can make the boys like me; I just can't make myself like them...
I got it down to a science, got it down to an art...
Well my mama taught me well; it's second nature to me now don't even have to think about it
It's so easy when you know how..."

BeJae's got the science of her craft down pat, but more than that, she's got the heart-felt passion that makes it second-nature -- and without even trying, she can make you absolutely love her!

Artist Website: www.trailer-records.com

(Trailer Records)