Thursday, June 7, 2012

CATFOOD RECORDS SIGNS SOUL/BLUES SINGING SENSATION BARBARA CARR




CATFOOD RECORDS SIGNS SOUL/BLUES SINGING SENSATION BARBARA CARR AND WILL RELEASE HER LABEL DEBUT CD,
KEEP THE FIRE BURNING, AUGUST 21




EL PASO , TX – Catfood Records announces the signing of soul/blues singing sensation Barbara Carr, and will release her debut CD for the label, Keep the Fire Burning, produced by Johnny Rawls and Bob Trenchard, on August 21. Catfood Records is distributed nationally by City Hall Records.

Recorded at Sonic Ranch Studios in Tornillo, Texas , Keep the Fire Burning showcases Barbara Carr’s magnificently soulful vocals backed by musicians that provide the “old school” backing her talent deserves: the members of Catfood’s house band, The Rays.  The group includes Richy Puga on drums and percussion, Dan Ferguson on keyboards, Johnny McGhee on guitar, Bob Trenchard on bass, and the soaring horns of Andy Roman (sax), Mike Middleton (trumpet) and Robert Claiborne (trombone).

Label mate, co-producer and Blues Music Award winner Johnny Rawls, along with Catfood Records owner Bob Trenchard have supplied Barbara with a solid 11 songs that allow her to showcase the essence of her vocal style to the max. The album’s opening track, “Hanging On By a Thread,” was also co-written with another talented Catfood Records artist, Sandy Carroll. Rawls even joins in the vocal fun on the tender ballad, “Hold On to What You Got,” a brilliant duet with Carr that rivals anything from the classic Stax/Hi era. Known for her sexy songs, Barbara tops them all with the sultry rendition of the title track, which will raise the heat index wherever it’s played.

St. Louis native Barbara Carr got her start singing like so many soul performers did - in church singing in the choir, before forming a family gospel group. She soon got into singing secular music, forming a popular local group called the Petites, which opened for artists such as Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Barbara got her first big break when she auditioned and won the job as a singer in St. Louis legend Oliver Sain’s band, which she held until 1972.

During her time with Oliver Sain’s band, Barbara Carr also secured a solo deal with Chess Records and released several singles for the iconic label (“Don’t Knock Love,” “I Can’t Stop Now,” “Think About It Baby”). When those didn’t sell like she’d hoped, Barbara stopped recording for a time to raise a family. After a short return to Chess in the early ‘70s, Barbara and her husband eventually formed their own label and began releasing a number of singles, mostly recorded at the legendary Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama . These resulted in the release of her first album, Good Woman Go Badin 1989, as well as several others in the ‘90s on several other labels, including Paula, and a very successful string of singles and albums that followed over the next 10 years on the Ecko label.

For more information on Barbara Carr, visit www.catfoodrecords.com. To download a hi-res color photo of Barbara, click on this link: Barbara Carr Color Photo

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