Anni Piper – Men Are Like Potato Chips
Sugar Daddy Records
9 tracks – 36 minutes
Anni Piper is known as the First Lady of the Blues in her homeland of Australia. She started playing bass guitar at age 14. At age 19, she received a Contemporary Music Degree. After giving birth to her son, she found it difficult to continue her performing career. But her passion for the blues that was initiated after hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan encouraged her to record what she considered a demo debut album, Jailbait, in 2004. But she was surprised when the all-original album was picked up by Black Market Music, Australia’s most prestigious blues label. The album led her to be named Best New Talent at the Australian Blues Music Awards and at the ABC Radio National “Fresh Air” contest. She also was 2nd at the Australian National Songwriting contest.
Subsequent releases have led to many other nominations and placed her as a finalist in the Australian Music Awards for Best Female vocalis, the UK Songwriting contest, and the MusicOz Awards. In 2008 she signed a contract with the USA label, Blue Leaf Records. In 2014 she moved to the USA and started touring throughout the US and was a semi-finalist at the 2019 International Blues Challenge. She now lives in Portland, Oregon. In the meantime, she also became a registered nurse working daytime hospital shifts and nighttime music gigs,
This is her seventh album. Her son, Flynn joins her on backing vocals with Anni on lead vocals and bass. Percussionist Jim Bott, drummer Bruan Foxworth, tuba player Chris Shutteworth, and trumpet player John Dover completes the band. Steve Kerin plays organ and piano on four tracks Joe Rump plays drums on three. In the notes, Piper cites that she has been making music for over twenty years and is “tired of that I needed to be careful not to be too sexy, and finally I said f*** that. I am sensual person, and I have been doing this too long to not release art that authentically reflects my personality”. So, get ready for a completely uninhibited release,
Eight originals open with a rocking declaration that “I am no angel, I’m your “Devil Bride” and explains “Standing at the altar, you’re expecting white. but my address is red and yest it’s latex tight. You won’t even notice the lack of a bouquet and a gleaming pitchfork is more stylish anyway.” She then exclaims She throws in several double entendres as she exclaims, “Today’s your lucky day, your appointments with the “Naughty Nurse” and offers her medical advice “Now I can’t diagnose you cause I am not supposed to tell you…but I can kiss you down under and you won’t wonder how we will treat you in Australia.” She advises “Men Are Like Potato Chips”. “They go to my thighs. They go straight to my hips and lordy when all is said and done, I can’t stop at just one.”
She says she is a “Cactus Girl” “so wet inside but you’ll never open me” and warns “don’t you try to touch my spines”. Ted Swanson plays Hammond organ on the song. Next, she describes herself as a “Cheetah” but “could change her spots” in a quieter, sultry voice and advises “a woman will treat you the way you treat her”. She explains her fears that her ex is a “Stalker” “wanting more than sex, to put his hands around my throat to show he’s in control, then he’ll choke the life right out of me. There’s no 911 call to this night stalker.”
She then rips out that she wants a “Match with a Sasquatch” as she “doesn’t find him scary, just likes him hairy”. “Nothing about him is small. My primate date is ten feet tall”. Tim “Too Slim” Langford guests on guitar on the sole cover of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery” and she delivers a very soulful rendition that stands out against the other songs on the album. She moves into a totally R-rated flare with “F.I.G.J.A.M” as she says I will tell you “how sexy I am” noting she has a “double major in brain salad surgery” and rattles off some explicit imagery.
Anni shows she has the pipes, shifting from deep sultry come-hither to soulful appealing vocals. Her bawdy songs bring to mind the hidden sexual lines many of the early blues performers like Memphis Minnie performed but falls more in line with rock performances than the blues. She even acknowledges in the last song “Oh my, this is not a blues recording!”
