Etta James - 'Tell Mama' (2026 Acoustic Sounds Remaster)

 

'Tell Mama' was recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama between August 22, and December 6, 1967.  It was produced by Rick Hall, and released in February 1968 by Cadet Records subsidiary of the Chess label.

Etta had spent recent times detoxing at the USC County Hospital and also had spells at Sybil Brand, the women’s prison in Los Angeles, for drugs offenses. Amid such turmoil, no one, not even Etta James, could have predicted that she was on the verge of recording 'Tell Mama', one of the finest soul albums of the 60s.

As the summer of 1967 approached, things did not look auspicious for 29-year-old.  In August, she arrived in Muscle Shoals, and in her words "I had tons of confusion and anger stored up inside...and ready to blow the doors off the studio."

In FAME Studios (where deep-fried Southern soul was the order of the day in '67) Rick Hall brought in his core "Swampers" rhythm section of Jimmy Ray Johnson and Albert "Junior" Lowe on guitar, Roger Hawkins on drums, Barry Beckett and Spooner Oldham on keyboards and David Hood on bass.  He also brought in a brass section of Gene "Bowlegs" Miller on trumpet, James Mitchell and Aaron Varnell on saxophone, and Floyd Newman on baritone saxophone.

The longest song on 'Tell Mama' lasts two minutes and thirty-four seconds.  Obviously, it’s a compilation of attempts to get an AM radio hit, like all R&B LPs were in those pre 'What’s Going On?', 'Music Of My Mind', and 'Dance To The Music' days.  

The record shouldn’t be a masterpiece, but Etta James made it one. She idolized Billie Holiday and learned from her that the deepest sadness and greatest despair could be found in the silliest, most cheerfully inane songs.  The pain’s in the singer, not the song. No one who listens to 'Tell Mama' could think that Etta, singing with such terrible heartbroken rage is really singing about mothers-in-law and dancing on Saturday night.

There's not a track on "Tell Mama" that isn't worthwhile, but the highest points are the propulsive, brass-heavy title song (a gender-shifting remake of Clarence Carter's "Tell Daddy") and the unfathomably deep "I'd Rather Go Blind." Though its single release exiled it to the B-side of "Tell Mama," this is clearly Etta's finest moment. The guitar intro immediately whets the listener's appetite. Once Etta comes in with "Something told me it was over when I saw you and her talking," it's time to dim the lights and immerse yourself in the depths of her despair.

When released the album successfully revived her career and marked her return to the Billboard 200 chart for the first time since 1964.

Etta James went on to make many more fine recordings, but none surpass "Tell Mama" for sheer quality.

Today's freeload is 24-bit/192 kHz (180-gram) vinyl rip of the Chess Acoustic Sounds Series, released this past March.  This is the best 'Tell Mama' has ever sounded.

For the freeload, who's your favorite female R&B/Soul singer?