The Blues Fix – Vocalist Eliza Neals

Eliza Neals stormed onto the blues scene a few years back and hasn’t let up. She is an independent artist who has been breaking down barriers and uses her talent to ensure the powers in the genre take notice. She recently released a powerful new record called Colorcrimes and returned to the site to talk about it.

Please press the PLAY icon below to listen to the MisplacedStraws Eliza Neals interview –

On her mentor, the late Barrett Strong – Well, Barrett Strong has been a huge influence to me. He was the only person, really, that took me under his wing and said, “Yep, I’m going to sign you to my label”. Out of all the people I’ve met, really pursued getting my music out there. He was one of the biggest believers in me. The first time I played the piano for him, he was just, just blown away. He just saw something in me that no one else has had really seen before. He went on a limb to help me do that, to get the music out, record it, teach me this, teach me how to record vocals and background vocals and how to do drums, how to produce as well as sing, in a certain way bring out what I already had naturally.

So the first thing he said to me was, “Well, you know, I grew up with Aretha in the church. She would sit at the piano and play songs.” He goes, “You kind of remind me a little bit of how she was when she was younger and played the piano”. I was like, “What?” He worked with Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight. So he heard something in my voice and the way I write songs, he really wanted to work with me. So he’s just been bringing that out of me, teaching me things about the old school way, how they did it. Don’t worry about how you look when you sing, just let it out. He would say funny things like “Let food fly out your mouth. Let your nose run while you’re singing. Just saying, don’t care what you look like. You don’t try to be cute”, but there’s so many things I can’t even tell you. it’s immeasurable what he helped me do.

On the evolution of her style – Well, I’ve recorded many different styles of music in my evolution. Starting up on the piano, just kind of doing more of a classic rock blues type song. Then when I hear the Stax and the horns and this and that, it does evolve. So through the years, I’ve cut certain songs and put them on the back burner thinking, “Okay, that’s going to come a little later. I’m going to work on that.” So some of these songs were cut a little bit ago, but Barrett Strong was always the one who wanted me to go to Stax and just record there. He knows James Stroud, all the people there from that label. He introduced me to them a while ago, years before he passed away. We were supposed to do a session there and things, but I learned about it. With all the different influences with the Motown and the soul and the blues and all the people, you listen to Aretha Franklin albums and you see. So I kind of put all that together on songs I already had cut, like on “Love Dr. Love” a few years ago and songs, I guess you would say some of the older stuff like “Colocrimes” I cut a long time ago with a choir singing, “Why can’t we live together?” When Barrett was living, it was one of his favorite songs I wrote. Then I revamped it live on stage at Bradenton Blues Festival.

I figured, you know what? “These words need to be heard right now”. looked at the band. I said, “follow me, just follow me.” I started writing it on stage. So like you said, things come and go. They come to my mind. I want to do more of a soulful, like you’re saying more of a soul blues vibe. Then I kind of put certain songs in a succession. If all those songs work together as I’m playing it back to me, then that’s the album. This was an album I wanted to bring more horns in, a little more soulful, more backing vocals and just give it more of that feel. It’s, I like to change up each album as I go and give people a little something different that is already within me. Just bring it out more.

On who joins her on the record – On “Colorcrimes” is my number on music buddy, Michael Puwal. He started out with me in 1997. I started when I was five and I got actually got him hired with Barrett Strong at Barrett’s Studio called Blarritt Records and it was in Southfield. Mike P, I call him Mike P, he was the engineer at the time. So we had worked together on one of my very first albums called I’m Waiting. I don’t know if you ever heard that, but that’s really piano-based songwriting with a lot of backing vocals and slide guitar. That’s my thing. His thing is slide guitar. So I said, “Mike, I cut the song again. I need some slide”. He did some vibraphone stuff on his guitar and it was just me on piano. Then I got Mark Leach who played with Buddy Miles. He played the B3 and then I got Justin Heidley on drums. He plays with Damon Fowler. He’s a drummer for Damon Fowler. So I was in Florida. So the whole thing comes together. I get to go to Mike’s studio. He’s from Detroit, but he moved to Nashville. Then he moved to Florida. So I kind of record with him a lot of the time. So I go where he is. So I’m in Florida half the time anyway. So we finished recording it there and I picked Mike cause he’s the best slide player I know. Excellent slide player.

On being the producer that has to combine songs recorded in multiple locations into one record – It’s difficult. You have to take what you had, and thank god Barrett taught me this, find the best musicians if they’re not already with you that you can for your record. He said, “No one sees on a record, but they hear the record”. Okay, so with that in mind every time I saw him do a session, he had no idea Kern Brantley, who now, well, after I used him and Barrett introduced me to him in the late 90s, he was Lady Gaga’s music director on Biggs. He’s played with everyone. So he would find the best people in Detroit and they’d play on all the sessions.

So I’m like, “Hmm, Okay, put that in my little book”. So, if you’re lucky enough to have the same people and everything, I think that’s great, but I tend to like to change up the sound, find different people in different states that I know that can do it. I just like to keep it fresh and exciting for me as well as the listener, but it is a difficult task. Whatever you have you have to make sure the songs are seamless. The vocal for me has tied everything together. After I sing it, and then if a song sounds like it needs to be worked up, I’ll add to it. I’ll just add more guitar, maybe add a new drum part, some more backing vocals, more organ, and I kind of make it, it’s like a puzzle. Then when that puzzle is done I listen to all the songs, and if they all fit in that one sequence, that’s going to be the album. So that’s how I do it.

On the song “Colorcrimes” – Okay, well, when I wrote that song, it seems like it never ends with this plight that we have all in the world, not only in America, everywhere. Not only is it racism, there’s bigotry, there’s sexism, it just goes on and on and on and being a woman, I’ve been privy to a lot of it. Being Armenian with blonde hair, which is dyed because I’m a dark-haired person. I’m an indigenous person. People right away. “Oh, you’re this and that”, by looking at me, how could you even sing blues? You know what I mean? They don’t understand, I’m a third-generation survivor of a genocide, Armenians were in a genocide.

So I grew up in a family, Armenian family, going through my grandma’s escaped the genocide and they have tattoos from the concentration camps. So right then and there, I’ve already been persecuted as a third-generation mentality, not personally, but in my genes. Then I’m in Detroit and all my friends are African American and I see what they go through. I’m part of that whole feeling and what the, black people go through on a daily basis. I pick up on everything other ethnic groups that have been persecuted upon. Even women, I’ve been persecuted upon for being a woman, you know. It’s like less money I was the one making the least amount of money in this wedding band I was in everyone all the guys were making like twice as much as me and I found out 15 years later. I’m not condemning anyone, but it’s alive and well.

Okay. So I picked this song, “Why can’t we live together?” It was much faster when I wrote it, just make time for life, come together. Let’s talk. We can do this. Every time I sing it, people start crying. I start crying. I can barely even sing the song. I said, “Now this song is ready”. I played it in a much slower cadence, it’s a triplet. I just came together with that beat and then with the organ coming in right in the beginning, that gave me the angst and the passion I felt because it brought me to tears. On my own, I couldn’t even get through the song live really till like the third time So I go this song has to be heard It has to be heard right now because of look what’s going on in our world.

On if she sees the racism and sexism changing in the current blues genre – It seems like it’s getting a little better. It was going really well. I broke into the blues in 2015 and since I’m an independent artist, we’re up against a lot of big whigs again, for radio play and stuff. So if my record comes out, when let’s say, oh gosh, someone on Alligator, who are you going to play? You know what I mean? So to be able to be played in the same show as these huge money-making labels and I’m just a women-run minority label out of Detroit with my partner who’s out of Jersey, who’s a Howard grad, minority. We’re a two-man show. So it’s an honor, but I think it’s opening up more.

I think more people are talking about this, not only from blues being the most reverend music created by African Americans who created all music pretty much. We are taking what they’ve taught us and putting it together in such a way that hopefully is presentable to the world. When it is recognized as something that people do like and respect. That means everything to me. When I received the Black Music Award here for blues entertainer a few years ago, that was like getting a Grammy for me. Because like I said, I’m an Armenian chick from the suburbs of Detroit. So I have learned how to take something and channel it in such a way that’s respected by not all, most, and hopefully I’m winning over some of the ones who don’t agree with it. Maybe they’re loosening up their belt a little or their ears and listening to what it is.

Marian Harris was a Greek girl in the 40s singing blues and her records never came out She was always hidden and it happened back, way back, way back. She was a greek girl doing blues and no one really wanted to put her out. So it’s a parallel there with me I feel but a lot of the major bluesmen, like Buddy Guy, Bobby Rush, they approve of me. They’re like, “You’re doing it. Do your thing”. So, okay, I’m good.

On her song “Banned in Jackson” – Yes, it’s true. I was banned in Jackson, Michigan. Somehow, there was some rumor that my skirt, whatever, it’s a vintage 70s dress. It’s very appropriate. I wear the right things for stage, shorts, pantyhose, the whole thing. Someone said I didn’t have anything on under the dress and she, whoever it was, I heard she had done that to some other women who have been there wearing a shirt that’s buttoned up. I won’t name names but someone did tell me it was a very big name in the blues that she had to dress cover her you know, so this is a thing there. This is blues. We’re not in a church. We are singing blues rock. Okay, so it’s ridiculous and the audience loved it. So I had no idea that I was banned, on the band list or whatever. So I wrote that song. John Lee Hooker would be like” hello”, so would Buddy Guy, and everyone who likes big thighs and short skirts. It’s the blues. Hello. It wrote itself. So I hope she hears it. No names and I can go back one day and sing it for her.

On touring plans – Well, we’re going to try to get November more booked up, but I am supposed to be going to France in September to do the Leman Blues Festival. So I’m going to book some more shows around that. Maybe in Spain and we can do the UK and do France. That’s a big festival in France. I’m really excited that September 14th, then October, we’re coming back this way and then November I’ll be in Florida. I have like 14 dates there. I’ll be playing Biloxi Blues Ground Zero. So if you go to my website, there’s a lot, a lot of stuff coming. It’s filling up. We’re getting more and more gigs festivals and concerts, I’m playing Buddy Guy’s again on June 28th. So I can’t wait for that. A rumor has it the Stones are in town, so maybe they’ll come by after who knows?

On her next steps and how she defines success – Well, let’s see if people can hear me on Sirius XM, Bluesville every day, I feel like, okay, maybe I don’t have to jump in the river yet. No, just kidding. I think that’s a big thing. It’s hard to get on there and I’ve gotten on there and I thank God for that and all the program directors and DJs playing it, they love the music there. So it’s great and then worldwide people like you spreading the word it’s more and more and more playlists more and more worldwide play. Getting on these charts that are hard to get on. It’s really good It makes me feel like people really are needing the music. I’ll tell you the biggest thing is when the fans write me and tell me how much it’s helped them and made them feel like waking up that day. That’s success to me. When people come to my show and leave happier, that’s success. To also be able to pay some bills. That’s success of all those things. If that can keep going, I’m good with it. I just want to be able to do bigger and better festivals, reach more people and keep it going on the airwaves, doing interviews with people like you, of course.

So we can reach everybody. We can reach more people than we even realize by doing these kind of things. I didn’t even realize the power. I was at Buddy Guy’s and a lady had flown in from where was it? It was Scotland. So she heard me on some, one of the independent Scotland, independent blues shows. She flew in to Buddy Guy’s to watch. That’s just one story. I had people from Brazil, Japan, China. I mean, they were all there. I mean, Buddy Guy’s is the most fun place to play. Thank you Greg Guy, Buddy Guy, the whole staff at Buddy Guy’s, they’re amazing.