Keri Anderson And The Big Lonesome just played to a packed house at Nick’s last weekend. Kerri Anderson has been fronting this band for about six months. Blues, jazz, western swing, and Anderson’s own originals in the old time style from the 1920s and 1930s make up the Big Lonesome set list.
“A lot of it is old timey, and a lot of the western swing stuff is from the 1930s, like Bob Wills,” she said. “I do some other stuff in that band, like Amy Whinehouse and some Bjork, which is completely different from blues. But I try to do whatever I like to do. I go by songs.”
Ironically, Anderson started her Big Lonesome band as a pick up band. She was just trying to get as many good players for the intended side project for a one off show at Nick’s in Worcester, using a keyboardist, saxophone player, and a fiddle player just once. When her old band, Whalebone Farmhouse, dissolved in November, she turned Big Lonesome into her main project.
And her Big Lonesome unit is keeping her busy honing her set list, everything from western swing to rockabilly a la Wanda Jackson.
Anderson concedes that there is not a huge following for her western swing style band. She has only played it out six times. She would like to take it around, possibly to Boston rooms like The Beehive and Smoken’ Joe’s. It will take an audience with eclectic taste to appreciate her Big Lonesome band as it incorporates jazz, including songs like Johnny Mercer’s “Skylark.”
“What I’ll do is hear the best versions, the best takes, of the songs from the 20s, and then I’ll adapt them and make them into my own,” Anderson said. “As far as ‘Skylark,’ the version I do is pretty specific to a woman named Rachel Price(who recorded it recently), and it’s all rewritten. It’s nothing like the old version.”
Anderson’s own songwriting is inspired by love, breaking up, and pain. “It doesn’t always come out that way,” she said. “It can be a positive thing too. I usually get inspired when I’m going through a hard time in my life. A lot of people agree with me on that one who are musicians who write. There’s times when (she’s not going through a hard time) and I still can get some good lyrics out. It just depends on what I’m writing for. If I’m writing for a soul song, I’m going to get some lyrics that would work for that. The last ten songs I’ve written was because I was going through a divorce.”
Anderson is drawn to western swing, vintage blues, and early 20th century jazz because it all has a rawness to it. The old records were not over produced and are more involved than the skin deep music of today. “I like dirty, gritty blues,” she said.
Anderson takes this music to her audiences because she feels if someone doesn’t do it, that kind of music might vanish from our consciousness. “I think you have to keep it up, especially if you’re a singer or musician, and if you like that style, and if you like the old sound,. It’s something that just can’t be lost and gone for good. I just appreciate people that still sing that stuff and perform it.”
The Big Lonesome show last week at Nick’s Bar was packed. A comfortable, intimate setting, Nick’s atmosphere fits the vibe of her music. Anderson always tries to match her song selections to each club and the scene in Worcester. After playing out there for eight years she has her finger on the pulse of what people want.
“I was in a folk-blues band, and we played at Vincent’s, and we could probably play more places. But with specific material that’s for listening rooms, Nick’s is a good listening room.” Nick’s small room allows her to pack the place while her Big Lonesome band entertains audience members who are still in the early phrases of curiosity as to what she’s doing with it.
“I can’t really think of playing anywhere else in Worcester with this band, to tell you the truth,” Anderson said. “I’ll have to go out.” A larger city like Boston would have more people with eclectic tastes that could provide her a fan base. Anderson likes to sneak into her gigs the material she wouldn’t usually do. But she also would like to market herself under a specific genre. She is still working on lining up the right musicians for her Big Lonesome project.
Her three regular band members for Big Lonesome are guitarist Rocky Kramm, whom Anderson describes as a “phenomenal guitarist” from the southern states. Jerry Maday plays upright bass. John Donahoe plays saxophone and fiddle.
“I have quite a history with Rocky,” she said. “That alone says a lot of things when you work with someone for a long time. He’s got a really good finger picking style. He’s a really good leader for everybody else. He picks up the most music out of anybody. He can pick something up in a second.”
She also admires the multi-instrumentalist in her band, John Donahoe. “I love him because he can play sax and he can play fiddle. He’s gifted at just joining in and playing and being set in any kind of setting and atmosphere.”
Although western swing is not a mainstream genre, Anderson got into it when she was singing in a folk band, discovering it was birthed around the same time as early blues.
“I’m really more rootsie than anything,” she said. “Western swing came right along. A lot of the same guys played with a lot of the blues players that played in those bands of that time, like Bob Wills And The Texas Playboys. They worked in the same community. Blues was the hearty sound that originated from the area, wherever the sharecroppers were. Western swing was a spin off of country and blues.”
Anderson has a lot of influences and inspirations. She particularly likes Eva Cassidy, Etta James, Bessie Smith, and Big Mama Thornton. Anderson digs their grit and honesty. “They interpret the meaning of the songs into more of an emotional piece,” she said. “They’re really feeling the song. They’re really feeling the words. That’s what I look for in a good singer. I love The Staple Singers too. I think they’re one of the most amazing groups. I have to feel an emotional connection to the song, and I think the only way to do that is through the singer. The band has to be good too, but the singer strikes a chord for me first.”
Anderson received her true musical training when, at age 17, she moved out to Chicago to major in art and hung around the windy city’s notorious blues clubs. She also hung around blues singers in Boston too before moving to Worcester eight years ago. She played the Wormtown scene with a band called Whalebone Farmhouse.
“I hope my name keeps getting out there. I just want to keep performing and getting work and being able to swing it financially,” she said. “I’ve devoted a lot of time to that Whalebone Farmhouse band, and now that it’s ended, I wanted to do the stuff I want to do.”
Keri Anderson is on Facebook.