Bluesy wailer Brenda Patterson originally hailed from Arkansas and became a mainstay of the 1970's Memphis music scene... She recorded with several bands, including the rock group Redbone and the country/boogie band led by Coon Elder, and continued to perform regionally after her recording career ended. Here's a quick look at her work...
Brenda Patterson "Keep On Keepin' On" (Epic Records, 1970) (LP)
(Produced by Larry Cohn)
This album doesn't really have much of a "country" feel, but merits mention here because of Patterson's later work with the Coon Elder Band (below). In case you were wondering, this record doesn't sound much like that one -- Patterson seems to have been aiming for the same audience as Janis Joplin and/or Tracy Nelson, and drew heavily on her self-described "Holy Roller" white gospel roots. She's backed by the thumpy West Coast hard-rock/psychedelic boogie band, Redbone, playing in vaguely the same SF style as Joplin's old band, Big Brother & The Holding Company. To be honest, I found this disc a bit torturous, particularly her vocals, although the band does get in some funky riffs. Not my cup of tea, though.
Brenda Patterson "Brenda Patterson" (Playboy Records, 1973) (LP)
(Produced by Jim Dickinson & Brenda Patterson)
A rock-roots crossover set, with soul-tinged vocals and a bunch of hard-rocking cover tunes. Ry Cooder, Chris Ethridge and Rusty Young represent the more country side of the studio crew, though this is more of a "rock" record, it certainly deserves mention here.
Brenda Patterson "Like Good Wine" (Discreet Records, 1974) (LP)
Brenda Patterson & The Coon Elder Band "...Featuring Brenda Patterson" (Mercury Records, 1977) (LP)
(Produced by Jim Ed Norman)
Bandleader Coon Elder was a regionally popular figure in from Memphis, mixing swampy white soul with country twang and chunkier Southern rock... This was his only album, and was also a showcase for singer Brenda Patterson, who had previously recorded three albums as a solo artist -- her throaty, bluesy style draws this album into Tracy Nelson/Maria Muldaur territory, while Elder's roadhouse rock'n'soul has a slight Delbert McClinton-esque feel to it, a Southern bar-band, but with some Muscle Shoals soul coming out in the horn section... I suspects that working with an old-time mainstream Nashville producer like Jim Ed Norman is partly what gives this album its mellow feel, though there are still some gritty lyrics and a distinctly rootsy undercurrent. For country fans, highlights include "Send Him Home To Mama," the bluesy "Grinnin' My Blues Away," and their version of "I Ain't A Cowboy (I Just Found The Hat),"one of the great satires of the '70s urban cowboy scene. An eclectic album, and a nice picture of the shifting boundaries where longhair country met Southern rock. Although Elder never made another album, he kept playing locally around Memphis, sadly dying in a 2011 traffic accident.
