Lulu and the Broadsides' New Album is the Sound of Musicians Having Fun

Lulu and the Broadsides

The blues and R&B band will debut its new album at Jazz Fest, Chickie Wah Wah

The subtext of Lulu and the Broadsides’ self-titled album is a big part of its selling point. The band features singer Dayna Kurtz singing songs that could have been obscure blues, R&B, and honky tonk B-sides, though few started life that way. The ease with which she and the band create that vibe for songs they dug up, songs she wrote, and songs they repurposed is one of the album’s charms, but it’s hard not to hear the real selling point being the sound of good musicians having fun together. 

Admittedly, that’s a vibe easier to pick up when you see the band live, where bassist James Singleton, drummer Carlo Nuccio, guitarist Robert Maché and keyboard player Glenn Hartman are obviously enjoying exploring the musical space they share with Kurtz. The songs not only don’t need novel or obvious musical flares, but such gestures would be wrong. The musical world that inspired the project is all about vibe, groove, and soul, and the band works together to deliver all three in a presentation that breathes, and where the members’ musical conversations say as much as the words do. 

The album opens with a version of Big Maybelle’s “That’s a Pretty Good Love,” which effectively serves two purposes. It establishes a fierce, credible voice that Kurtz consistently inhabits throughout the album regardless of whether she wrote the song or not. When she sings Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms,” the vocabulary is very different from the rest of the album, but she sings the song as if it were the woman in the first song in a humble moment with no audience and no reason to be brash. Kurtz performs The Stooges’ “I Need Somebody” as the same woman when she’s too revved up on shots, beers, and desire to be glib or brassy. Her own “Bigger in Texas” sounds like the same woman telling a story to her girlfriends. The lyrics themselves are very different, but the way Kurtz approaches them pulls them together.

That through-line is easy to draw because “That’s a Pretty Good Love” sets the musical tone as well. The song was the flipside of Big Maybelle’s biggest hit, “Candy,” so it’s not exactly obscure, but it’s not well known either. If you didn’t know the history, you’d still likely figure it was a cover, perhaps something left over from the cratedigging sessions that led to her Secret Canon albums. As a result of that project, Kurtz writes effectively in that classic R&B mode, so it’s hard to be sure if “How Do I Stop,” “Ice Cream Man,” “Razorburn Blues” and “You’re Trouble” are covers or originals. (Answer: All are hers except for “Razorburn Blues.”)

After “That’s a Pretty Good Love,” the album feels like a unified package, brought to life by musicians who know how to be part of an ensemble. Lulu and the Broadsides isn’t anybody’s sole gig, and nobody in the band is at an age where they’re looking to make it the center of their musical identities. It’s an occasion to have fun and play well with musicians who not only appreciate it but know what to do in an ensemble like that.

Kurtz is a part of it too. In a number of songs including “I Need Somebody” and the ballad “How Do I Stop,” she leaves room for her performance to grow in intensity and size as the song goes on. The first pass or two through the verses and chorus establish the heartbreak in subdued tones. She only hints at the pain in a syllable here, a phrase there, until the dam breaks with the band there to push her and support her as the feelings grow to a size where language can’t express them anymore. 

At the end of the song, you’re as conscious of the ensemble musical moment as you are of the story told by Kurtz’s lyrics and vocal, and that happens again and again on Lulu and the Broadsides. Love, lust, and loss figure prominently in these songs, and the tracks are a lot of fun as expressions of those ideas. They’re more fun though, as a snapshot of good musicians having a good night together. 

Lulu and the Broadsides play Jazz Fest on Saturday, April 30 at 4:15 p.m. The same day, Dayna Kurtz and Robert Maché will play the AARP Rhythmporium (seriously!) at 1:25 p.m. The album release party will take place on Friday, May 6 at Chickie Wah Wah.