Cindy Daley belted out blues beauties, R&B gems at The Tap in Haverhill Mass.

Cindy Daley cranked out plenty of blues, R&B, and even some funk last night at The Tap in Haverhill, Massachusetts. All of Daley’s song selections were laced with her unusually rangy vocal yelps, coos, and phrases. Daley belted like a banshee at certain points, and she likely made some new fans, as patrons couldn’t unglue their eyes after she rode her range to some incredibly high notes.

Daley’s usual guitar and bass players couldn’t make it to last nights’ show, so she tapped bassist Ron Bellman and Mission Of Blues guitarist Steve Todesco to help her make it through the night. They didn’t let her down.

Daley opened with Bonnie Raitt’s “Love Me Like A Man” and her own personal rasp rode up and down the scales with ease, without ever losing any character and richness in her timbre or her seductive siren call. She also has a way of varying how far from her mouth to hold the microphone when she’s holding a note to get greater effects. And she got great effects.

Todesco laid out a grindy, gritty groove. His phrases are powered and bluesy. The Rhythm section of Bellman and Daley’s usual drummer Joe Bellomo proved themselves steady Eddies when keeping interesting the rocking chair beat of “Kansas City,” given life with choice accents and colors. Todesco brought a ten gallon hat of a lead guitar solo with lots of chunky phrases. Here, Daley only hinted at her power and range and it was enough to fill the song with pleasant bluesy charm.

Daley tackled Stevie Wonder with enough belt in her rasp to channel Wonder’s feel. Listening to what Daley can do with a song is a real treat. Her phrasing is personal, powerful, tasteful, and heartfelt. She never over sang last night, even though someone with her power easily can. Ah, the art of restraint in these powerhouse singers.

Daley delivered the slow dance number “I’d Rather Go Blind” by using the rhythm section’s platform to launch her vocal take. Kudos to Bellman and Bellomo for keeping it so smooth and steady. Todesco was able to hit a lot of sweet, pristine highs without using bends and sustains. He just let the melody flow out. “Me And Bobby MaGee” showed off Daley’s range and emotive qualities on this tune Kris Kristofferson originally wrote for Janis Joplin in the late 1960s. Comparisons to Joplin are not unwarranted in terms of feel and power, but Daley has her own voice and she finds her own emotional high points in a song.

Warming up for the second set, the three piece got to show off some clever, tasty solos. Bellman got a knobby, bouncy sound out of his four string and he was a driving force with a lot of laser like focus on pinpoints in his lines.

Words cannot describe how Daley mellowed and sustained the vocal notes in “Rock Me” at the start of her second set. Daley simply has to be seen and heard live to be believed. Her voice was able, even, to raise “Shaky Ground” above it’s usual bar band cliché tedium.

“Come To Mama” was an appropriate funk number to cover last night as the clean guitar break matched the force of Daley’s precious voice techniques and the rhythm section swung like hammers to drive it home. She sang “Born On The Bayou” by Creedence Clearwater Revival more like a gospel song in her richness and it worked with the swampy atmosphere conjured by Todesco on his six-string. The whole band was groove-tastic on James Brown’s “I Feel Good” and Aretha Franklin’s “Chain Of Fools” and again, you just had to hear Daley when she sang out with tremendous lung power “You told me to leave you alooooone.”

Daley was quite even-handed when she sang the remarkable ballad “When A Man Loves A Woman,” smoothly, gently controlling the rollercoaster of range and emotions. She closed out with the fun, dance song “Mustang Sally” and she was easy going enough to let a very buzzed young man she nicknamed “Dude” to sing it with her, before she told him not to drive. Daley isn’t just mega talented. She’s a class act.
www.cindydaley.com

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