Bluesqueen

The Wilson World                                           July 3, 1997                                           Blues Page
Sara Jordan:
      Queen of Knoxville Blues
By Glynn Wilson
     Perhaps it's something about the nature of the geography of Knoxville that distinguishes its musical taste. The great literary non-fiction writer John McPhee called the Appalachian region "suspect terrain," an area that cannot be explained by plate tectonics. It's not the moody bayous of New Orleans or the Mississippi Delta, after all, or the metropolis of Chicago, where Blues grew up and thrives. Knoxville has no such environmental inspiration.
     But, even without Beale Street's bright lights, Knoxville does have a local queen of the blues, and that, unmistakably, is Sara Jordan. A dynamic performer with more soul in her little finger than most so-called divas have in their entire person, Jordan is the proud owner of an unshakable powerhouse--that is, her chameleonic voice. (Comparisons to another blues queen, Koko Taylor, are not off the mark). Wailing her heart out in classic blues numbers, she can come on as sultry as a melting August sunset or as strong as effulgent bolt of heat lighting. And she accepts her regal title with natural humility and grace.
     "It's by default," she says. "There are women around who can sing. They're just not singing the blues."
     Why? For one reason, Jordon says, is that it's "like finding a needle in a haystack" to get a blues band together and keep it together. For another, the local music business is "male dominated." Then the number of venues are limited, and they don't stick to traditional blues.
     As a purist, Jordon finds Knoxville audiences more interested in Southern rock than real, live blues.
     "They don't want to hear Robert Johnson, T-Bone Walker, Buddy Guy or Muddy Waters," she says. "They want the Allman Brothers. I don't mind playing other stuff. That's fine. But it's not where we really want to be."
     The we in this case is her band, the Jordan Project: Jason Lockwood and Geoff Trabalka on guitar, Paul Curry on bass, Billy Dean Attaway on drums. Together they host a blues showcase on Thursday night at Manhattan's in the Old City, with different musicians sitting in with the band each week. Several of those great musicians are more than ready to offer their praise for the queen bee. Says Labron Lazenby of "The Boogeymen," now hosting Wednesday night's Blue Jam sessions at Sassy Ann's: "(She's) simply fabulous." Billy Valentine, Knoxville's equivalent of Jimmy Hendrix, Jr., calls Jordon's presence "powerful."
     "Sara Jordon is a Love Goddess," regales respected local bass and guitar player Jonathan Reynolds. "She has a voice (that's) eight feet wide."
     Jordan was born 41 years ago in a log cabin in Wayne County, Ky., and moved to Knoxville at the age of 5. Her initial exposure to the music she now lives and loves came from church, and she credits God with making her the singer she is today.
     "Everything I have comes from God," she says. "My reputation, my voice, everything."
     As a reformed alcoholic who has been dry for 15 years, she feels "extremely lucky" to be around for her grandchildren, to "leave a legacy for them. They rank right up there with my music," she beams.
     There's another legacy Jordon would like to champion: impressing upon Knoxville what the blues is really all about. To Jordan, the answer lies not in the nature of Knoxville, but the nurture. "It's an education thing," she says.
     On the music continuum, blues resides somewhere between jazz and classical. While classical music is highly structured, where mistakes are shunned, jazz can reach improvisational heights, to a point of musical freedom. An improvisational jazz musician can play all around the score and the audience may never know. Blues is more structured than improvisational jazz, yet allows more freedom than classical. After all, blues formed the basis for rock 'n' roll, and has its roots in Gospel--which is, of course, the family tree under which Jordan's own roots run deep.
     By way of a philosophy of the blues, she says it's purely "a feeling thing--it's as simple as that. If you can't feel the music it's just notes."
     And when, on a hot and humid Thursday evening this summer, Jordon cuts loose and leads her impromptu band through a classic like "Little Wing," you'll know it's much more than just notes. Knoxville may rest on suspect terrain, but there's nothing suspect about its queen of the blues. Sara Jordan is the genuine article.
Copyright © Glynn R. Wilson 1997 All rights reserved
July 3, 1997
First published in Metropulse, Knoxville's 85,000 readership alternative weekly.

Journalism | Home | Fun Stuff