Robin Rogers: "Treat Me Right"

Oh, mama, BlueNotes is in love. Yes, she's a blues singer. Anything else just wouldn't feel right.

I've been listening to the newest (released last week) and finest CD from Robin Rogers, who's been polishing her music for decades with a life of turmoil and pain. It's just been in the past few years that she hooked up with the Charlotte, N.C., Blues Society and began to channel her sultry pipes into a career with focus.

The album is "Treat Me Right" (Blind Pig Records), the pipes are soulful and gritty, sultry and sensual. The songs, mostly original, are all lovingly caressed by Rogers' expressive voice.

But to label her music blues might be a little misleading. And possibly understating her reach. It's blues, R&B and soul with some fine jazz sensibilities. It ranges from brooding ballads like "Dark Love" to the R&B-flavored "Treat Me Right," in which I swear I can hear a little bit of LaVern Baker, through the very soulful "Ain't No Use," a passionately moaned story of love gone wrong. As if there was any other  kind in the blues.

(A BlueNotes digression: If you've never heard of or heard LaVern Baker, look her up and listen. You're in for a real treat. Remember her giant 1954 recording, covered by everybody but me, "Tweedlee Dee"? Or perhaps you remember my personal favorite, "Jim Dandy," from 1957. Not old enough? That's your problem.) 

Then there's "Color-Blind Angel," her haunting tribute to civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, murdered in 1965. Rogers won second place for it in the blues category of the 2007 International Songwriters Competition. 

In fact, the album is consistently good -- no matter what she sings, Rogers pours herself into it. She's tough and tender, sometimes both at the same time.    

 I think what I like best about it is that it has an old R&B flavor -- tough vocals, sassy horns, clever storytelling -- that helped bring BlueNotes into the world. And i could dance to it.