EG Kight – Sticks and Strings
Blue South Records
10 tracks – 42 minutes
Eugenia Gail “EG” Kight was born in Dublin, Georgia. She first began singing gospel in her church and then playing country music, including sharing the stage with country legends George Jones and Conway Twitty. She quickly moved her music into the blues and roots category with a strong following in Chicago after being introduced to the vocals of Koko Taylor which led to her listening to other female blues singers. She started incorporating blues songs into her country music shows and found a strong reaction to those additions, which led to her re-inventing herself as a blues artist.
This is her tenth album release. She has previously been nominated fourteen times for Blues Music Awards including Album of the year, Song of the Year, and Female Artist. This album features one self-penned original, six originals co-written with her writing partner, Tom Horner, and two more originals cowritten respectively by Nanette Alexander and the team of Doug Jones and Johnny Neel. One cover, Gregg Allman’s “Come and Go Blues” is also included. The songs are all acoustic with EG on guitar and vocals with Ken Wynn also on guitar and dobro and Gary Porter adding drums, percussion and harmonica. Bass guitarist Sean Williams also joins on six songs.
The album opens with EG’s self-penned “Talk to Me” which has a harp lead with EG pleading “you put up a wall… talk to me or leave me behind”. EG delivers in in a sweet laidback voice. She then moves into a soulful “If You have No Reservations” as she asks if “you might make a reservation…I might be someone you need”. “Come and Go Blues” is next but EG’s laidback version is uniquely her own, while maintaining the context that Gregg presented.
She moves from come and go to “Already Gone” featuring some nice slide guitar work and harp with EG stating that “when I needed affection you were already gone…so go ahead and pack your bags”. In “All Things Considered” she is resigned that she is in a failed relationship and “reliving old memories with each glass of wine… all things considered I am doing fine”. EG’s mama, Miriam Kight provides backing vocals on “God, Goats, and Guitar”. EG says “I have been through some tough times” but those three things have gotten her through those times.
The music heats up a bit with the slide guitar and harp again driving the song as EG sings “the news is out, I heard it through the grapevine…”My Baby’s Hidin’ Something”…he pays me no attention he has someone else on his mind”. A smooth guitar leads the next song as she notes there are “Two Sides to Every Story”. “You can lie, lie until you are blue in the face, but sooner or later the truth will come out.”
She concludes that “Changes Coming Down” and “I Won’t Ever Give Up”. In the latter, she proclaims that ” I am not a superwoman.” “Everyone has bad luck one time another, but love keeps me going through”. With those two songs together, she delivers a positive message about her own mental toughness to weather through those hard times and perhaps providing all of us some consideration of how to look forward.
EG’s smooth sounds can remind of Bonnie Raitt. Her acoustic guitar work with her band delivers comfortable, easy listening. She certainly has the blues and knows how to express them both lyrically and with expressive vocals.
