If there\u2019s one genre of music in San Diego whose popularity shows no sign of waning, it\u2019s the blues. The city has numerous venues, festivals and top talent devoted to the blues, with several performers, including Whitney Shay, Casey Hensley, and Taryn Donath poised to take their music to the international level. The blues current success in the area can be traced to the foundation built by many veteran performers, still wowing audiences at venues around town. Such is the case with singer Michele Lundeen, who performs a special “Women in Blues” show at Humphrey\u2019s Backstage Live on March 6.
\n“March is Women\u2019s History Month,” Lundeen said. “I thought this would be a great way to showcase all the great music that women have contributed to the blues, from Etta James to Koko Taylor. She cites James “I Would Rather Go Blind” as a particular showstopper. “Most of my stuff is danceable,” she said. “That song, on the other hand, is a slower, emotional song, but the crowds love it.” She\u2019ll also include a few originals, including the crowd favorite, “I Need A Dog.” “That\u2019s a grinder, a tongue in cheek song that shows my sense of humor” she laughed. “I\u2019m not sure why that one caught on, but people ask for that song all the time.”
\nLundeen arrived in San Diego via Reno, circa 1996. Though now a veteran blues singer, initially she was more mainstream. “When I was younger, living in the Santa Cruz Mountains, I\u2019d always dreamt of playing music as a way to make a living. Later on, I took over a job in Reno, playing jazz and pop standards of the day, Jim Croce and Debby Boone, that sort of thing.” While she enjoyed what she did, in the early nineties she had an epiphany. “I used to get chastised a lot by band leaders because I was too expressive and would really belt out certain songs. I realized I gravitated towards a particular type of song, the blues. That\u2019s where my heart has always ended up.”
\nAlthough Lundeen has plenty of original music, she hasn\u2019t released an album since 2004\u2019s “Song Inside Me.” “I have about 30 new songs, some of which are already in my set,” she said. The lack of new recordings is down to the usual “lack of funds, time and getting around to it,” she joked. “But I\u2019m inspired, it\u2019s definitely time to get some demos ready.” She notes she plans on making one change to her game plan for the follow up to her previous album. “If there is one thing I should have done at the time, it\u2019s a tour,” she said. “I\u2019ve done some small bits of touring, but for the next release I\u2019d really like to get out there and get in front of new audiences.”
\nBeyond this Humphrey\u2019s Backstage Live date, upcoming appearances from Lundeen include March 22 at the Blues Against Hunger Spring Fest in San Felipe, Mexico and the Gator by the Bay Festival on May 9. In the meantime, Lundeen is happy with her choice to sing the blues. “If I can quote the great Charlie Musselwhite, “The Blues reminds us that we\u2019re human,” she said. “People can relate to it, it\u2019s accessible. It\u2019s easy to see why the music has lasted and is still so popular,” Lundeen mused. “The lyrics and the mood of the song reach parts of us that people don\u2019t think they can express themselves. I\u2019m happy that I can share a passion and promote an art form.” Michele Lundeen: Friday, March 6 at Humphrey\u2019s Backstage Live, 2241 Shelter Island Drive. 5 p.m. $5. humphreysbackstagelive.com.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If there\u2019s one genre of music in San Diego whose popularity shows no sign of waning, it\u2019s the blues. The city has numerous venues, festivals and top talent devoted to the blues, with several performers, including Whitney Shay, Casey Hensley, and Taryn Donath poised to take their music to the international level. The blues current […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":281132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Michele Lundeen to perform \u2018Women in Blues\u2019 show at Humphrey\u2019s","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}