CEE CEE JAMES
Cee Cee James
THE VOCAL VOLCANO
WINNER OF THE 2014 SOUTH STAGE CELLARS/BRITT RISING STARS COMPETITION!
#1 BY FAN VOTE - 2014 BUFFALO CHIP BIG STURGIS GIG CONTEST!
2013 SONG OF THE YEAR WINNER - Blues Blast Music!
#1 Cashbox
#1 - Sixty Song Countdown WGLT Illinois
#7 All Time Blues - Airplay Direct
#8 Roots Music Report
#72 - Roots Music Report - TOP 100 Blues Albums of 2012
#8 Living Blues
BEST Foreign Singer POLAND
Alternate Root - Top 30 Women Burning up the Blues
WA Blues Society Best Blues Songwriter & Best Blues Vocalist Nominee
Klamath Blues Society IBC Winner / IBC Semi-Finalist
R&B Los Angeles Independent Artist of the Year
Top 10 Song - John Lennon Songwriter Award
Top 10 BluesBytes.com, Sunday Night Blues Project, BluesRevue.com, Troy Record, Blues411.com, Friday Night Blues Fix
Top Ten Mover at Burnside Distribution Corporation
2010 International Blues Competition Performance - "SHE SHOULD HAVE WON."
Don Wilcock - Editor-in-Chief, BluesWax.com
Cee Cee James is ON TAP FOR SUPERSTARDOM.
iTunes - All Music Guide by Michael G. Nastos
Cee Cee James is the GREATEST FEMALE BLUES SINGER since Memphis Minnie.
Delta Frank - The Blues Doctor, WGLT Blues Illinois
Take a lifetime of heartache and loss starting at birth and gift it with a lyric writing style that is filled with an honesty so vulnerable that it catches the most hardened heart off guard, knocking that back with a shot of WHISKEY DRENCHED VOCALS and a sweat dripping, take no prisoners performance, and you have one hell of a Blues Woman.
Dubbed the VOCAL VOLCANO by Robert Horn from the Washington Blues Society, Cee Cee has been singing and writing songs for 20 years gathering up stellar reviews and awards from all three CD's she has released. "SPIRITUALLY WET," her first pop/funk CD took home the LOS ANGELES INDEPENDENT ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARD and the first cut was honored as one of the TOP 10 in the JOHN LENNON SONGWRITING COMPETITION before she put the project to rest in 2002 after some intense life changes and fell face down and Soul up into the Blues.
Cee Cee's second CD, "LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL," co-written with Rob “Slideboy” Andrews, Cee Cee's husband and Slide/Rhythm player, consists of eleven original songs that take the listener down Cee Cee's journey of loss, heartache and soul awakening. "LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL" was released on FWG Records in late 2008 and then picked up and re-released by BLUE SKUNK MUSIC in February 2010, gaining worldwide press, distribution and radio play peaking at #8 on the National Roots Music Report, #7 on XM 74 BB Kings Bluesville, and #15 on the Living Blues Report; with the title cut - LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL, gaining the NUMBER ONE spot in the Y/E TOP 60 COUNTDOWN AT WGLT, Illinois.
In late 2009, Cee Cee was honored to win the Klamath Falls, Oregon INTERNATIONAL BLUES CHALLENGE and headed to Memphis, TN to compete in the January 2010 IBC finals where DON WILCOCK, Managing Editor of AlternateRoot.com wrote: "CEE CEE JAMES WAS THE MOST EXCITING AND ORIGINAL ACT AT THIS YEARS IBC. HER "LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL" IS AN UNDISCOVERED CLASSIC OF ORIGINALS WITH MASSIVE CROSSOVER POTENTIAL."
In May of 2010, FWG Records released Cee Cee’s LIVE CD entitled "SERIOUSLY RAW - Live At Sunbanks," recorded at the SUNBANKS BLUES FESTIVAL in Eastern WA. "SERIOUSLY RAW" contains a performance that as Bruce Edwards of MoBlues.org writes, "MY FAVORITE LIVE DISC, NOT ONLY OF 2010 BUT MAYBE OF THE CENTURY SO FAR!" Jim White of "Community Voices" continued - echoing what all of the reviews have said: "A FESTIVAL PERFORMANCE THAT UNCORKS PASSIONATE, LUSTY VOCALS IN FRONT OF A TOUGH, HARD-ROCKING BAND. RAW TALENT, POWERFUL PIPES, ALL OF WHICH ARE ON RELENTLESS DISPLAY IN THIS LIVE SHOW!"
"SERIOUSLY RAW," was also picked up by BLUE SKUNK MUSIC and released for distribution worldwide in OCTOBER 2010, peaking at #12 on the NATIONAL ROOTS MUSIC REPORT, rising to #1 on CASHBOX, and riding the top 20 in the XM 74 BB KINGS BLUESVILLE chart holding steady for 10 weeks! ‘SERIOUSLY RAW’ also brought Cee Cee the BEST BLUES SONGWRITER AWARD and BEST BLUES VOCALIST NOMINEE from the Washington Blues Society in 2010.
Cee Cee’s next CD "BLOOD RED BLUES", was produced by the legendary Grammy Award Winning Jim Gaines (Huey Lewis, Luther Allison, Neville Brothers, Santana, Spinners, John Lee Hooker and more). "BLOOD RED BLUES" is Cee Cee’s forth and most exciting CD to date and contains twelve original Blues/Roots tunes, co-written with Rob ‘Slideboy’ Andrews. The CD starts out with the title track, "BLOOD RED BLUES" where Cee Cee claims the wisdom of keeping her game in life clean, and ends with I’M TAKIN MINE where she sings about her long journey paying hard dues and now giving she’s givin’ those hard earned ‘diamonds’ in her soul. In between we find those diamonds’ ‘ in the form of creative, well crafted lyrics delivering messages about the beauty, healing power and depth of love in COVER ME WITH LOVE, COMFORT OF A GOOD HEART, FEEL MY LOVE COME DOWN, 100 WAYS TO MAKE LOVE and THICK LIKE BLOOD. In RIGHT TO SING THE BLUES she takes us into some painful tidbits of her life as she was coming up; and in WOUNDS she tenderly elaborates on that pain and the gift it brings. WALK ON takes us into our everyday struggle to deal with the glaring sadness in our society and in WORN OUT SINS she asks the Lord to help heal the old ‘worn out sins’ that she’s been carrying around for ‘oh so long!’ In LET’S ALL GET LOOSE she sings of our need to ‘get loose’.. “take off your makeup high healed shoes”... “smash your TV, video games”.. “run outside, let’s all get loose!”
Cee Cee’s lyrics are given from the fire of her BLOOD RED BLUES when performing and they allow her to bring the marrow of her bones, and the lay bare her soul to her fans to whom she has become a voice for their need to be raw, real and touch openly into their own aching truth of struggle and love. In her performances she keeps her fans riveted as she gives every last ounce of energy she has and then some, working to make the meaning of the songs come alive, bringing the stories to life with her arsenal of vocal power tools.
"Cee Cee James is one of the GREATEST BLUES ROCK SINGERS out there today. She's someone I call an 'old soul.' Cee Cee's songs are wonderful stories of her life experiences, and backed by Rob's strong Delta Roots/Blues Slide and Rhythm Guitar playing, they make a great team. Her style reminds me of our classic early female blues and rock singers. She's very passionate about giving a great performance." - Jim Gaines, GRAMMY WINNING Producer/Sound Engineer - Santana, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert Cummings,George Thorogood, Walter Trout, The Steve Miller Band, Herbie Hancock, The Neville Brothers AND so many more!
“This is no slick performer but a very real 'every-woman' who reveals her humanity, her strengths and weaknesses, her deepest secrets and inner emotions to the audience. Some performers wear their hearts on their sleeves, Cee Cee James tears out her heart on stage to give a little piece of it to the listener.” - Linda Cain, Chicago Blues Guide
EXPECT NOTHING BUT RAW REAL HUMANITY out of this Woman. Expect fearless humble bravado in her writing and her performances. Expect CEE CEE JAMES to be around for a LONG TIME.
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