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Madeleine Hall		Madeleine Hall		Madeleine Hall

Maddie, as I have come to call her in the past couple of weeks, has begun her re-emergence onto the local blues scene after an extended absence while raising her wonderful daughter, Raina.

I used to drop in on her shows at The Yardrock in Quincy on a regular basis. Recently I was fortunate to have caught her playing out at The Purple Eggplant twice in the past month. I had my camera gear and could not resist shooting her and the band because of that high energy she brings. We got to talking and one thing led to another. I asked her if she would be open to an interview, to discuss her re-emergence and what that experience has been like both personally and professionally, how the blues scene has changed in her absence, what her earlier and current influences are, etc. She said sure…and we were able to talk via the phone the following Saturday morning:

Good morning Madeleine…

Good morning, Terry…

Thanks for the opportunity to sit with you for an interview. It is nice to see your return to the Boston and New England blues scene…

Thank you.

How long has it been about, 3-5 years now?

Yeah. I can measure it pretty much by my daughter Raina’s life. Her birthday is this December (she will be 5). I think it is more like 5 and1/2 years.

She has your big, beautiful brown eyes then?

No actually, she has even bigger, beautiful, bluish-grayish eyes.

Are those Chris’s then?

No, it’s probably some kind of delayed genetic kind of thing.

Well, it likely skipped a generation then. She will probably inherit your vocals.

Thank you, you are kind to say so.

How has it been, stepping back on stage?

In the beginning, it was exciting, intriguing, really freeing. Now that I have been back on stage for a little while and it’s not that I have mixed feelings about it at all. The initial novelty of being back on stage is wearing off a little, you know. When you re-emerge for the first time, you know people really come out to support you at the start. But now the hard part starts, really re-establishing myself, with even a newer audience.

Yeah, because there are a whole bunch of people who have never seen you, your old core audience has changed, like me. We’ve gotten older, some have moved away, people have less disposable income with the cost of gas and housing, their entertainment dollars aren’t what they used to be. Many of the core clubs featuring blues have disappeared, like the Yardrock. Booking live music into clubs still continues to be a challenge.

Many of them, yeah, exactly.

So it has been very exciting, especially the re-discovery of the joy of playing music. Around the time, just before I got pregnant, it was kind of a survival thing. I did not have a choice about which gigs to accept pretty much, I had to basically accept everything. I was beginning to feel kinda burnt out, I needed a little something. What’s the word, a little break?

A sabbatical? That’s what we will call it, a Creative Sabbatical!

Yeah….a creative sabbatical..yeah exactly. But I was lucky enough to have that opportunity. It has been really different and exciting coming back, really nice.

Now given all that, your first couple times out and being back on stage has been really exciting. Now you have to work at getting back….What have you had to do to prepare yourself for your return? Everything from musically to vocally?

It has been kind of a work in progress actually. The main thing that I have started to do is make music a part of my daily life. Before I would wait for private parties or gigs, which I would only prep for a few days beforehand, then wait for the next one and repeat the process. Maybe a lot of musicians do this. I’d get geared up to improve my chops, do my scales, vocal exercises, but only before a gig or a private party. Then I’d go out and “hope” for the best.

Now if I want to get back to a place where I want to be, if I am going to commit to doing music, I decided I’d have to do this every day, a daily thing. So I would feel always prepared at all times.

Kinda like doing “vocal yoga”?

Yeah, something like that. Doing mixed scales is now part of my every morning. And singing to my daughter has changed my whole perspective on singing and music. It has been less of how “we are gonna get disciplined and we are going to do this many vocal exercises and these many of those in this amount of time at this time.”

So singing to your daughter has made it easier to prepare?

It has made it feel like a more relaxed thing. It had become this overly disciplined thing, where I was not feeling just the joy and flow in the music itself. It was all this “preparation.” I could not relax and enjoy and appreciate why I wanted to do this in the first place, if that makes sense.

So kind of like “rolling with the gift you got, just enjoying the ride”?

Yeah, having a bit more faith instead, always trying to keep the instrument or machine slightly well oiled. I am trying to “give it to god” a little bit more. Not feel like I need to be obsessed about preparation and being more controlled.

So your daughter is like this really cool captive audience?

(laughter, giggling) Yeah, she almost takes music for granted now because she is around it all the time. As you know her dad (Chris Stovall Brown) is a musician as well. Chris teaches music at home. She’ll see Chris and I practicing together at home singing and with the guitars. It is so commonplace that she will walk up and say, “Okay mommy, I think that’s enough practicing for now. Let’s play Barbie!!”

Once in awhile she will be around live music…she will say, ‘”let’s do something else” and the other kids are going “wow, live music!!”

Yeah, she is sitting there doing the yawns and the other kids are jumping up and down all over the place.

Yeah….exactly!!

I have always liked your voice. Even in that 5 year absence and given that you have sort of kept your voice oiled or at least lightly oiled during that time, what if any changes have you noticed in your voice or your music overall?

Yeah, there have been some changes.

How so?

I feel especially, in just singing and learning how to appreciate different kinds of music, even some that my daughter actually likes, bluegrass and even classical. Not that I have ever professed to or have ever dabbled in classical.

So you’re not going to be singing “country opera” anytime real soon?

No..no..(laughter). Just from having taking a “break from it all” and just feeling like there isn’t any pressure on me to sing, I have found that I was able to find my voice in sort of a different way, like as if it is coming from “softer places” now.

Softer places?

For a long time it was all about belting, singing really loud!! I had to gather every little ounce of energy, putting everything into it. I don’t know what the word is, I don’t know…?

Well, you are indeed a “visceral singer”…

Well, thank you…

Visceral meaning capturing every ounce of physicality….so to speak.

Yeah…like before I did not know how to sing without doing that…gathering myself into that froth…that’s what I mean that my art is still a work in progress….because I still don’t know to what extent I have been able to incorporate that new part of me into my stage act.

But that is a goal that I have, to be able to do different forms and kinds of music.

Obviously you can’t be too off the beaten path because I am playing primarily to rhythm and blues audiences…you can’t be up there doing Emmy Lou Harris…and someone from the back screams out “play the blues, play the blues”!!

(Mutual laughter)

It happens, oh it happens!! I saw Emmy Lou Harris in New Orleans a couple of years ago…have pictures of her…I’ll make up a print for you.

Thanks..that would be nice.

Where would you like to go if you are spreading your wings a little bit?

I have a wealth of original tunes I have written.

Oh really?

Some you have heard on stage. They are meshed within the kind of music that I play. A lot of people do not realize that they are originals, which is actually a kind of a good compliment in a way.

There is one song I do called “How Can I Love You?” I remember there has always been this one woman who has always insisted it is a Tracy Chapman song, a tune that she really loves…and always goes ”play that Tracy Chapman tune!!”

That is a compliment in a way as well.

Certainly. People generally feel that they have heard them before, which always has given me great encouragement.

Absolutely, absolutely…that they have this kind of classical appeal. Or that they strike a chord…or at bare minimum, even though someone might be off somewhat memory wise in recalling it, the fact is that it is indeed striking some sort an emotional chord for them…

Yeah, that’s just what I like, when that happens. That is what I feel makes a good song, striking that emotional chord.

In terms of what I want to accomplish in the future on stage, how I want to incorporate my new approach, in singing and songwriting is to collaborate with other musicians, blues and jazz musicians that have a versatility that I certainly do not have, at least with a guitar anyways. I want to do stuff that still fits within the R&B vain, but that goes off the beaten a little bit too, maybe stuff with a little country embedded, possibly stripped down to acoustic sometimes.

Have any of your vocal and music wanderings, musings, so to speak, slipped into the jazz arena, jazz ballads perhaps?

Not really jazz….but I did do “Willow Weep For Me” recently. That was quite a nice diversion.

Ooh, really….very nice!!

I have always appreciated listening to jazz…but never really tried to sing or had the full confidence to do so. I think that I would like to be able to do that.

I can see you doing that …

Thank you. That’s quite a compliment…

Yeah….in those smoky clubs…well there aren’t smoky clubs anymore, thank god. Especially for vocalists!!

Thank god!!

In terms if your re-emergence, what has been the biggest joy for you, personally and professionally so far coming back out?

Reconnecting with musicians…with the energy..the audience..the other players..getting locked in with them both….that almost euphoric kind of a feeling….that is so much bigger than yourself…I did not realize how much I was really missing that in my life until I re-experienced it

And is it, you had mentioned earlier in the conversation that you had gotten to a kind of a place where you had “hit the wall” creatively, my terms, and where you just weren’t enjoying it as much anymore, you weren’t feeling that joy that is so important.

Yeah, I was doing all the same songs….many people fall into that rut…I was no longer feeling the “core of myself”…like I had lost my “muse”. I was just out there doing it and doing it. Not that people weren’t responding to my music, but sometimes I would feel like I was beginning to really “fabricate” that “energy”…at times I would find myself thinking while performing, ”gee, I’d really like to be finishing that book that is sitting on my nightstand.”

Yeah, it is kind of like this. Sometimes I can see where it happens with musicians and vocalists…even while still putting on a tremendous show and the audience is still reacting and is going wild..I can look in some of their faces and see that they are kind of a little bit “elsewhere’ at times.

It shows a great intuitiveness on your part…I feel it is impossible for anyone to be 100% emotionally present at every moment ….all the time.

What do you think is your biggest challenge going forward right now?

The biggest challenge has been, well, I have played with a lot of musicians in the past…I have had my own band in the past…we rehearsed a lot. We’d get out there and it would be second nature to us as a band…so performing together came easily…we’d know what to do.

Now gigs are few and far between….that is the structure at least for now, as I am still home taking care of a child as well. I have to use different people. I have consciously chosen to work with those who are very accomplished and established in the field. Often they are out on the road with bigger names a lot, including internationally. Like Gordon Beadle, Marty Ballou and Jessie Williams, for example. The list goes on and on. Often they have minimal time to rehearse….they have just hopped off of a plane and had to rush to the gig.

And it has been a challenging thing, you know. I had to learn to call changes, be more communicative of what I want…it has been a big challenge for me, to have a band and be more of a band leader….

Having to be more assertive, to get across what you need in a short period of time….?

Yeah, I have found that to be a tremendous challenge. As a result sometimes I cannot do what I’d like to do…such as some of my originals (we need more time to rehearse for originals as a band). Maybe that is not such a bad thing…the audience hears songs they are familiar with….the band is really rocking up there and everyone is dancing and having a good time…and that is what’s just as important to me (and to them) as well…it is just where it is at right now.

And it keeps you pretty alert then!!

Yeah, definitely….it s good!!

From your view, with you saying gigs are few and far between now, has the local blues scene changed much and if so, in what ways? How is it different?

All along I have had a sense of how it has changed…through my husband Chris…he is a full time musician, teaches harp and guitar as well…it is how he makes his living. A lot of guys have day jobs as well. He has been telling me for years the depressing club scene out there, the blues scene in particular. When I actually got out there….it was like “oh my god!!”…so many clubs have closed or stopped featuring blues or rarely feature it. A lot of people are finding it difficult finding work.

There was the 1369 club, Ed Burke’s, Harper’s Ferry, Johnny D’s…many of those still existing are going for the “rock thing” and the “DJ thing.”

Yeah…clubs featuring live blues or even a couple of nights a month are spread out more…further apart physically and also there are less consecutive blues nights. Audiences are not as concentrated as much anymore. The Boston crowd, the south shore crowd, the north shore crowd…west of Boston crowds…were sizable, consistent, knew each other like extended families and were loyal to their favorite bands.

Musicians and bands are relying more and more on private functions. There are a few clubs that are at least starting to feature blues again.

There are many other competing influences, exponential increase in media choices, inflation, gas prices, not a lot of disposable income around for entertainment. Plus us blues lovers have always kind of been an older crowd…

Its true, true…even when I was younger (21) I was playing to people who were mostly over 40.

Yeah we have more money, but now we are getting older as a group. We go to sleep earlier now….

(giggle, laughter)

Only a couple of more questions…How did you get started the first time?

I was kind of a late bloomer…I went around to all the blues jams like at the Cantab, the 1369. That is where I met Chris …he was the house guitarist at the 1369…he was the first to encourage me…I took vocal lessons in the beginning for 10 years…from a Dante Pavone…since then I have taken vocal lessons from another singing teacher as well, a different form of training, not so much from the “throat”….so you can actually go all night long…rather than having your voice crash or be trash after the first set.

Even still I don’t always sing right…especially if I am not relaxed. But the lessons really helped in the beginning.

And I started playing gigs, probably before I should have…there were always musicians that wanted to jam, to play. it was really an exciting time for me……I was able to go into a studio…and even make a little demo…I started getting gigs right away…it was really telling about that time. There were lots of places…people would give you gigs…that was almost 20 years ago…

WOW!!

Now you have to have a promo package, a CD, lots of recommendations…before you just walked into a club and handed them a tape…and you’d get a gig. Now it is about packaging…marketing, it is also about how you look.

In the beginning I just sort of learned as I went along…I was working a lot, the Cityside, Fanueil Hall…and I sort of got better because I had to, because I was doing it…it helped me to grow quickly and probably subjected a lot of poor people…to well. You know, to me learning as I go.

What attracted you to the blues genre in the first place?

I grew up listening to soul, R&B and gospel…it was only in my 20’s that I began to know the difference between forms of music, rather than just simply gravitating toward what I liked…or what was pleasing to my ear…they always had the blues chords somewhere within them.

Who were your first big influences vocally?

I always loved Otis Redding, even as a little kid, The Staples Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Etta James…..I would just sit there and listen to them…and sometimes I’d just start crying…and going “ohhhhhh god!!”

I felt so moved by the music and wanted to sing it…I’d cut out little paper plates….and write my name and songs on them. I’d punch holes in the middle…and pretend they were LPs.

I always had this strong desire to bust out somehow…and be part of the entertainment world.

My father was a drummer and musician…a conga drummer…Afro Cuban music…he taught percussion. He studied with Baba Olatundji…he was pretty immersed in it.

That is pretty cool. your dad being a major influence musically…did you grow up around here?

Yeah, I am a real Cantabridgian (Cambridge)

Growing up, you said you listened to Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Etta James. Are they your primary vocal influences or have there been one or two in particular?

When I kinda discovered the blues, basically through the 1369 club, where I got my blues education, everyone knew about BB King of course. I started to discover a lot of obscure blues artists. It opened my eyes to how blues influenced everything… gospel, rhythm and blues, jazz, and how it is all connected.

I started listening to Big Maybelle, Koko Taylor, James Carr. James Carr was a big influence on me. Though I cannot profess to ever sing like him…

James Carr?

He was a contemporary of Otis Redding’s, similar in style..and just passed recently. They kinda came up together around the same time. I can never get enough of listening to him. He has that certain sadness, that lilt in his voice, that deep soul. He is one of my favorite singers. He could slay me with just one note.

He had those notes that sound like “hang dog eyes?”

Yeah…

Also Ike and Tina Turner, when she did the blues stuff, Betty Wright, Etta James. She was a big influence at the start.

Any one new that you like?

Eric Bibb…a singer-song writer, guitarist. on the bluesy side who also brings in a kind of a Africa thing, India Ari as well.

There certainly appears to be a lot more female vocalists on the scene now than there were 5 years ago. Of course there are your good buddies, Michelle Willson and Kit Holliday. Nicole Nelson is another person making a name for herself now.

Yeah that’s true…I have not really had the opportunity to hear Nicole. I hear great things about her.

I remember seeing Kit Holliday…20 years ago, at the 1369….she was a little wisp of a thing who walked in there with her bottles of water….she’d belt out a couple of Koko Taylor songs…with that incredible growl…I was just like “wow!”

Yeah..your right, that incredible growl. Just how does that voice come out of that body?..…you just want to go up, pry open her mouth and see if something’s down there!

Yeah…

Of course, Michelle is really wonderful!

I’d like to just go out and see them…tough to justify with only being able to get a babysitter a few times a month. I have to save that for when I am actually out playing…but I’d love to see them, maybe do something with them.

I’d love to see the 3 of you do something together. You, Kit and Michelle.

Yeah, me too. Vykki Vox used to put together these Ladies Sings The Blues series. I did a couple before with Toni Lynn Washington, Vykki and I believe Michelle. Those are really fun!!

That would be great….If you ever do another, I’d like to get in and photograph it…

Well…here is my last question…given all that we have talked about…what is your biggest hope. if everything works out…what would it look like to you?

Well….I have a dream!! I have a dream!! (giggling)

Okay, tell me your dream …

What I would love is doing work that is really gratifying musically to me, that is also appreciated by an audience….working with accomplished musicians…

You need to have “real work” to offer musicians in order to start a consistent, steady band that fits together, such that they could be mostly exclusive to you.

Somewhere down the line, like when my daughter is in school…I’d hope to have a steady band to work with me and write with me. I’d like to have a CD that reflects our energy onstage, reflects what I can really do. A mix of originals and covers.

I’d like to be working…have a following that appreciates what we are doing and comes out to see us. No grandiose plan or pipe dreams to be famous like when I was younger…if it happens, it happens. It’s more that it be musically gratifying…

That there is the “Maddie Sound”…that there be something that would be very recognizable, is rich and still in a creative way?

Yeah…that it brings out the best in me and that people will like it…

Well, I think they will.

Well. Maddie ..you don’t mind if I call you Maddie by the way?

No, That’s okay…people usually call me “Mad” for a nickname…you can call me Maddie , just use “ie’ on the end.

Yeah…I kinda like Maddie…I am probably going to call the article “Maddie’s Back”. Thank you for the opportunity to interview you. I look forward to seeing you out there and your continued growth.

I appreciate it. I am honored and the pleasure is mine…

For further info and schedule updates you can visit Madeleine Hall's website at:
http://users.rcn.com/drhepcat/MAD%20CD.html

Pictures courtesy of Terence L. Slagle
Email: terenceslagle@msn.com