AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Angela Strehli

Artist:Angela Strehli Band
Song:Big Town Playboy
Album:Soul Shake





Blues singer Angela Strehli was a big part of the Austin music scene. She was a regular at the famed club Antone's and the 1987 CD Soul Shake is on their label. She currently lives in San Francisco and leads The Blues Broads. She was born Nov. 22, 1945 in Lubbock, TX. She went to school in Chicago to learn more about the blues and was in The Fabulous Rockets. Then she formed Southern Feeling with guitarists WC Clark and Denny Freeman. For many years, Angela was stage manager and lighting technician at Antone's in Austin, TX. She still performed occasionally and when Antone's owner Clifford Antone launched Antone's Records, Angela released the album Soul Shake in 1987. Though she writes some of her own songs, Big Town Playboy was written by long time Jimmy Reed guitarist Eddie Taylor, one of the great unsung heroes of the blues. In 1990, Angela recorded the album Dreams Come True with fellow female blues singers Lou Ann Barton and Marcia Ball. Those two are better known than Angela. If you like them, you will like Angela. Angela and husband Bob Brown now live in San Francisco and own the club Rancho Nicasio in Marin County. They book blues musicians all the time. One of their regular visitors is Tracy Nelson who has been around since the 60s. She signed with Delta Groove Music in 2011. Delta Groove president Randy Chortkoff suggested that Angela and Tracy record together. They started performing with guest singers like Maria Muldaur and Carlene Carter. But when Angela decided to make The Blues Broads a more concrete group, she recruited two great singers. They are Dorothy Morrison who sang lead on the 1968 Edwin Hawkins Singers classic Oh Happy Day and veteran backup singer Annie Sampson who also grew up singing in church. A CD/DVD package was released in 2012. The Blues Broads will be on tour later this year. Check them out if they are coming your way. Here's Angela Strehli with Kim Wilson, Denny Freeman, WC Clark and Jimmie Vaughan performing Big Town Playboy on Austin City Limits 1990.