The Goo 1
Interview Words: Brendan White CARLA THOMAS Some
places are stepped in musical heritage, but few have contributed as much to twentieth century music as Memphis, Tennessee. A crossroads of blues, country and rhythm and blues; it is one of the birthplaces of that thing we call rock n’ roll. The list of famous sons and daughters is long and many have passed to the great gig in the sky but in July Dublin will see one of the absolute greats in the form of Carla Thomas, the Queen of Memphis Soul for the very first time. Carla was a child star and one of the first to record at Stax records, tearing up the charts with hits like Gee Whizz and B-A-B-Y and releasing an album of duets with Otis Redding. But she comes from a fine lineage of Memphis greats, her father was the legendary performer Rufus Thomas who in his early years travelled with the Rabbit’s Foot Minstrel Show, setting the template for multi artist shows like those at the famous Apollo Theatre. Now Carla is bringing her own version of this on the 16 road as Take Me To The River’, the All Star Memphis Soul Revue. The GOO had a chance to catch up with Carla ahead of her Ambassador appearance. It is a pleasure and an honour to meet you Ms Thomas! We can’t wait to see you for the first time in Dublin after all these years. What made you want to go on tour to Europe at this time? Well, many years ago we played across Europe, (the legendary Stax/ Volt Tour in 1967 with Otis, Sam and Dave and Booker T and the MGs) and we were the first R’nB acts to play in some of those venues like the Royal Albert Hall and L’Olympia, Paris and the crowds were hanging from the rafters! We couldn’t believe the response. I see how the music from my era, soul music, is really connecting with younger people today and there is such an appreciation of it that I just want to bring what we do to that audience. Can you tell me about the Thomas household growing up? I imagine with your father, Rufus, being so famous in the music business, that there were a lot of musicians around? It was busy! My mother was a nurse but my father was friends with so many artists because we just lived up the road from Beale Street (the legendary Memphis street, where many of the music venues were concentrated) and we would see Bobby Bland, BB King and Elmore James all the time. I learned how to preform just from watching and listening to them. You started in music so early when you were just a teenager and had a hit single at 18! Did you have to grow up quickly? Was it tough as a young woman in such a male dominated business? I was lucky that I had Jerry Wexler and Ahmet Ertegun (Atlantic Records directors) looking after me, so I played mostly on the east coast and less so down south.