Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps Talk With DJ Jazzy Kat!

Teresa James and the Rhythm Tramps are on quite a roll. 

Her persuasive pipes slathered in honey and soaked in Texas-bred sass, keyboardist Teresa James and her band, the Rhythm Tramps, have long reigned as one of Los Angeles’ leading contemporary blues outfits, even though their uncommonly imaginative repertoire, much of it supplied by Terry Wilson, James’ husband, producer, and bassist, is by no means strictly limited to the 12-bar form.  Their 2019 CD Here in Babylon was nominated for a Grammy in the Contemporary Blues Album category. 

Rose-Colored Glasses, the band’s new release on Blue Heart Records, continues that proud tradition. It’s their 12th album and once again showcases Teresa’s enticing way with a lyric and Terry’s prolific songwriting talent, poured over grooves that’ll grab listeners and refuse to let go until the very last notes have rung. A coterie of Texas guitar greats guest on the set, including Anson Funderburgh, Lee Roy Parnell, Johnny Lee Schell, Snuffy Walden, and Dean Parks. “This new album is kind of veering a little bit more into soul,” says Teresa. “But to me, blues is more of a state of mind. It’s where you’re coming from. It’s the attitude and the heart that you bring to it.”  

By any yardstick, Teresa got an uncommonly early start on her lifelong profession. “There was always music playing in my house. My dad was a huge music fan. He had all kinds of musical interests, so I was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music.” “I studied classical music until I was about a sophomore in high school. When I was like eight or so, my dad taught me how to play guitar.  Those were the seeds which would eventually lead to a musical career including recordings with Walter Trout, Eric Burdon, Spencer Davis, Tommy Castro, Stephen Bruton, Randy Newman, LeeRoy Parnell, Neil Diamond, and more; plus live performances with countless others, including Marcia Ball, Levon Helm, Lloyd Jones, Delbert McClinton, and Eric Burdon & the Animals.  She has been a featured act on Delbert McClinton’s Sandy Beaches Cruises for more than twenty years.

Teresa ultimately left Houston at the encouragement of Terry Wilson and his buddy Tony Braunagel, who had relocated to L.A. Terry proved the perfect musical cohort for Teresa. “His songs are brilliant. I think he’s a really great songwriter. And we’ve collaborated on quite a few, but I think what I bring to his songs in the interpretation is just a good match. He knows the kinds of things that I’m going to be able to put myself into to expand them,” she says. “Over the years, we have definitely developed a partnership that works.”  Her band, The Rhythm Tramps, consists of world class players that have toured or recorded with artists including Eric Burdon & the Animals, Bonnie Raitt, Delbert McClinton, Jimmy Reed, Lightin’ Hopkins, Jimmy Vaughan, Johnny Nash, Smokey Robinson, Tom Jones, Tower Of Power, and more.

In 1998, The Rhythm Tramps released their debut album, The Whole Enchilada, on Jesi-lu, with Teresa and Terry’s studio cohorts including guitarists Watts, Schell, and Stephen Bruton. Braunagel and Herman Matthews manned the drums. Subsequent releases include Live (2000), Oh Yeah! (2003), The Rhythm Method (2004), and The Bottom Line in 2007. “The Bottom Line is a really good one,” says Teresa. “We still do most of the songs on that album, and that was the one where we got the BMA nomination.” Next up was Country by Request (2008), followed by 2010’s You Know You Love It, Come On Home in 2012, Bonafide in 2016, and the Grammy-nominated Here in Babylon in 2018, which was mixed by Ed Cherney with Jay Bellerose on drums.

As if the band didn’t keep her busy enough, Teresa has also done considerable vocal work on film soundtracks and song demos in Los Angeles. One of her favorite composers to work for in the studio is Randy Newman; she was one of the background singers on “Putin” from his

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Good afternoon. Good evening. It's DJ Jazzy Cat back on Catch Track Radio. I have Teresa and Terry James from the Rhythm Traps.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

We're great out here in Southern California. We're doing good.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Well, I want to thank you very much for I know you're a busy lady and the band has been blooming. You got a lot going on, but we're going to talk a little bit about how you got started and some of your influences, if you don't mind. Uh back in the day. Back in the day, dad was part of that. Your dad?

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Absolutely. I mean, from the he was the biggest music fan that I've ever known. I mean, from the minute the first thing he did when he woke up was turn music on. And that was the last thing he did before he went to bed. And um after my mom and he we're all from Texas. And after my mom passed, I moved him out to Los Angeles. He uh we built a little house in our backyard and and I, you know, I I could always tell if he was okay in the mornings because um I could hear his music blasting. Because he well of course he never put his hearing aids in.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

Oh, there you go. And I'm sure he was toe tapping.

SPEAKER_02 1:12

But he did turn me on to as a kid, man, as a he listened to all different kinds of music and I mean he turned me on to Bob Dylan and a lot of the Texas Troubadour stuff, uh great songwriters and and singers, Julie London. I mean, just it was it was a great musical education just being in the house.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Absolutely. That's the real deal. Did he listen to records or was it an A-Track?

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Uh well, records mostly in the house, you know, but then when A-Trax came out, I remember one time he and I drove to Mississippi to meet my mom and my brother at her parents' house and I fell asleep on top of the eight-track case, and he was like you had to listen to the same eight-track for like three hours.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Oh, it was on replay, right? Well th that needle had to be clean in order for it to be able to produce that, right? The sound.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah, I remember those back in the day. And you guys also something I was reading up on is uh living in London back in the 70s. What was that like?

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Yeah, I wasn't there. That Terry lived there in the 70s. He Well, no, you're you're gonna ace me here. Uh-oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

My mileage, my years. Um we w I I went over to do a record project, and a week or two before we got on the airplane to go to London, another project came up in and in the middle of the first project in London, a third project came up. So we ended up just getting stuck there, uh which wasn't the original plan, but we ended up being there five years and doing a lot of studio work and um putting a band together around Paul Cotsall from the band Free. And uh uh it was great because we were really young and London was a great place to be during the 70s with all what was going on, and we saw the genesis of uh the sex pist pistols the punk movement. And it was around that time when our band, uh the keyboard player, got asked to join the Who, and that kind of like okay, it's time to come back to the States, and we were missing the States and He was missing Dr.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Pepper, is what he was missing.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Mexican food and good cheeseburgers.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

There you go. Oh, nothing like a cheeseburger, Jimmy Buffett, right? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

But yeah, he and Tony Bronnegel were all Houston folks. They they they were the rhythm section that that moved to London together, and they um they ended up being the house band for the brand new Island Records.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Nice.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

So yeah. No, no, that was I I can't even imagine how exciting that must have been.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yep, and the Who, of course, were all fans of that, and the Beatles back in the day, definitely in the 70s, like you said, the movement that went on. What was the most interesting part, Terry, about putting the music together? Were you in a studio when you were in London?

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Yeah, well, there was several producers and songwriters and artists that wanted us to play on the projects. And um what was cool about it, there were so many diverse styles to work with. Uh there was a a singer from Iran, from Tehran, um Persian gal, she was an amazing whistler. She was buddies with Joel Baez, Bob Dylan, and and she was a folk singer, Iranian folk singer. And uh so I got to work with her and tour Iran. And so one night we'd be doing British rock with three Texans uh with a famous English guitar player, Paul Kosov, and and then the next night we're doing folk music or we're or playing reggae with a bunch of Jamaicans, Trinidadians, and South Africans.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

Wow, what a diversity.

SPEAKER_00 5:17

So the diversity was was really amazing, and there were a lot of great players, but us being from Texas and having just got off a tour from Johnny Nash playing reggae, uh we just got introduced to a lot of great players and songwriters uh that we wouldn't have maybe done if we had we stayed in Texas. You think well Texas was a great place to be from. There's so many great players, so many great songwriters that came out of the world.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

No, Texas was amazing because Texas, you know, had so many influences. Texas was owned but uh they you know, they have that six flags over Texas thing. And it's like you've got the French from like Louisiana, the Cajun thing, you've got a lot of Czech Czechoslovakian music, German music, uh of course Mexican influence, you know, and then just the the country, the southern thing, you know. I mean it was it was a great place for a musician to grow up and honestly there's so many great great players that that are from Texas. And I think that's why, because you grow up and especially when we were younger, you turn on the radio and and you'd hear you know, one song would be like you know, just regular old pop music, but then you'd hear some Jimmy Reed or then you'd hear George Jones or you know what I mean, it's just it was so diverse.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

I love that. And I think it's still to that that today I think it's still somewhat similar to that, right? I I would say it is.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

I mean, if you look especially at the blues world, so many amazing, famous and trend setting guitar players came from there, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Including you, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Yay!

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I want to talk about you're welcome. You're most welcome. I'm enjoying it. Oh, you're you're most welcome. I want to talk about there was uh talk on the town about a little bit of a Grammy nomination too.

SPEAKER_02 7:24

Yeah, 2019. We uh our uh album called Here in Babylon.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

Tell our listeners a little story.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Well, yeah, I mean it was just you know, we've always just been independent artists, basically, and at the time that we got the nomination, we didn't have a label, we didn't have a manager, we didn't have any kind of machinery. It was me and Terry. In fact, after we got the Grammy, we printed up stickers saying, you know, Grammy night, you know, Grammy nominee, blues, blah, blah, blah, you know, and and before we would go on the road, we would sit in the living room and just stick those stickers on the records ourselves. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 8:09

Well, you could have hired me as your PR, I would have done that for you.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Great. Well, very grassroots, you know, and and in fact, I mean we w we would always, and we still do, we always submit our albums for Grammy consideration.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Well, you're and honestly, but I mean anybody, you know, if you belong to NERS, you can do that. You know, if you have any kind of credits, you can join NERS, who's the you know, the home company of the Grammys, and then you can you can submit. And honestly, we were just submitting it just so that all the people that were voting would see our name one more time.

SPEAKER_01 8:42

Absolutely, absolutely you deserve it.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Well, but the fact that we got nominated I mean, in fact, when the the morning that they announced the nominees, we got a couple of you know, a friend of ours called at like eight o'clock in the morning and said, Congratulations, and I'm like, still asleep, of course, and for what? For your nomination, for what?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

You know you didn't know what was going on. Enough of coffee of the world.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

And he said, You got a Grammy nomination, and I went, Yeah, right. And I think I hung up on it.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Oh no, you did not.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

I swear. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So awesome.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

But you know what, Kat? It was so awesome because Terry and I have both been doing this since we were teenagers, and that's a lot of lot of lot of years, a lot of crappy gigs, a lot of weird recording sessions. You know, just you know, we just do it because that's what we do, and it just finally, after all that time, to be recognized that somebody's going, oh yeah, you're good. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Well, when I spotted you guys, I w I was listening and I definitely said, Well, I've got to add these guys into the rotation on the station because I don't know if you know this, but with that, people can actually go over and buy your album if I publicize your music on my station, and it'll be round all day, 24 hours a day. It'll get played in rotation.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Nice, thank you. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 10:08

Yeah, just a little insight for the both of you. I definitely am very intrigued by all of your, you know, your talents, your time you've spent, the hours, the story behind your full bio, everything. And I definitely I like that.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

You know what? When you decide that that's how you're gonna make your living, and you know, and when it's of course I mean it's it is amazing to me still that I get to make a living doing the thing I loved the most to do.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Sure. You know.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

So that's that's pretty freaking amazing. But um but when you do that, you g you do so many diverse things, you know. And I and I actually I as an artist have always tried to challenge myself to learn new th things and to keep working on my singing and like you know, I never went to school. I mean I studied c piano when I was a kid, you know, because that's what you do when you're a kid, you know. But I never took singing lessons. I just would always when I would hear about a new singer, I would go by their record and listen to them and think, Wow, that's weird. I wonder how they how does she make that tone? And then I would just sit and try to imitate, you know, just learn you know, by trying to imitate other artists, I learned my vocal skills better. You know what I mean? I learned the range of my vocal and what I could do.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

Sure, you were honing your own. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

Well, here's the thing is that every other instrumentalist has to learn their instrument. You know, you don't just wake up and start playing guitar or drums or horn or whatever. You have to sit down and practice and learn and learn and learn and singing. You just open your mouth and it sounds pretty good. Yeah, you you know what I mean? And you just think, okay, I'm ready. You know. And it's just it it's it's still an instrument, you know. I mean, I've done too many recording sessions where where um you know that you know, you sing it down, they go, Okay, that's cool, that's cool. Hey, can you try it more like this? Can you make it more like this, you know? And so it's fun for me, it's like a puzzle, you know, to try to dial in what's needed to make the song come across the best, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

I look at it as like an exercise. As you're explaining it to me, it sounds like an exercise that you have to master. Um, like you said, different levels, whether you're a higher register or a lower or in between that. Is it like an exercise, constant exercise?

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Well, yeah. And also it's like so you're going from a low note to a high note, and how do you want to go full voice, do you want to go head voice, do you want you know, and then sometimes there's songs that want to have a bunch of air in the tone, and sometimes you want a real sharp pitch. I don't know, I'm kind of obsessed with with it. In fact, during the pandemic the pandemic here in California, you know, we were shut down for really long time.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

No gigs, no, no nothing, you know, just remote sessions and stuff, and uh and I just I was freaking out because singing is such a part of how I how I deal with stuff. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 13:18

Oh yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

You're getting into a where yeah it's a very visceral thing for me, exactly. And so I actually started taking opera lessons over Zoom.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Oh wow, how interesting is that? What did you learn with that? That's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Well it was it was like one of the coolest things I've done. I love it. Well, you know what?

SPEAKER_01 13:42

The bathroom, right? They say the bathroom.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Right exactly. But no, the whole thing about opera, because they didn't they don't use amplification or they didn't. I don't know if they do now, but they never so the point of opera is to learn to get maximum volume.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

Hmm, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 13:59

You know, and so and it's a completely different way of using your oxygen and using your body for breathing and and it was this the most it was the coolest thing, cat, to be able to like sing these super high notes honking loud and just have ambient air.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

If you were to clear the house out and get the cats out of the house, that's that's what you do.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Oh that's true.

SPEAKER_01 14:23

They really hate They took their paws and covered their little ears. Oh my god, I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 14:33

Well it's But yeah, but you know, and so like tonight I'm singing with the big band, but and then the other night I was with a an uh kind of a soul band. I do I do all different kinds of stuff. I'm always I'm like I said, I like to challenge myself because I think that's how you stay young for one thing, and that's how you keep your instrument in shape too.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Absolutely. If you didn't have a little WD40, it wouldn't go anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:03

That's kind of true.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Yeah, you gotta keep it in shape, like you said, just like our bodies, but you know, it's part of it. I think it's wonderful, like I said, everything you guys are doing. Um, people are gonna want to know about your information and how they can buy your music, where they can follow you if they're in the area. Do you want to give that information out? I know it's a lot, um, but they definitely I think folks should hear you.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Oh, thank you. I really appreciate you you you giving us the opportunity here. Yeah, our music is available everywhere. I mean, it's on Spotify, Apple Tunes, uh, Bandcamp.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Do you have a YouTube channel?

SPEAKER_02 15:41

Um Yeah, we do. We've got we're all over YouTube for sure. In fact, I I need to go through and make sure that because it seems like every time it goes, I posted your song, and I'm thinking, great, that was the one time I forgot the words to the bridge, you know, kind of so those are the bloopers.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Those are the bloopers. That's it. You gotta put it under the bloopers. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

There you go. There you go. Um, but yeah, but uh it's available in in every format, and you're welcome, you know, like you can down you can download it.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Awesome. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

Lots of places, or you can just stream it. It's on Spotify, of course. And um and or you can go to you can go to our website, which is teresa james.com. It's Teresa with no H.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yes, I see that. T-E-R-E-S-A.

SPEAKER_02 16:31

Right, exactly. And that that's where we post our gigs and and things. Um I'm not always we don't have a web person, so we're we're still pretty self-contained around here. So we we don't have a web person, but um I try to keep it posted up on on what we've got going on. Well I'm excited we're going to Mexico next week to do a little benefit show, which is we do that every year. It's that's the cool thing about being a musician is that half the time your gigs are kind of a vacation, even though you're working hard.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah, you can't.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

You get to go get to go to cool places.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Yeah, and stay warm.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

That that makes up for all the $50 gigs.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

There you go. I got you on that. Believe me, been there, done that one myself. Well, you guys are any final thoughts? I know Terry's still in the background. Teresa, you're up first. Any final thoughts for anybody that's looking to become a musician or you know, starting out?

SPEAKER_02 17:27

Well, I mean, as far as you know, you really do have to put in the time. You know, you you really do. I mean, um for when people ask me about like singers, say, Oh, my daughter wants to be a singer, you know, what should she do? And I always just say, just tell her to sing and get to know her voice, you know. And the the advice that I would have for people up and coming in in music the world is to just play your own music, you know, be true to yourself. And when I say play your own, I mean if if you want to be an Aerosmith tribute band, that's fine. That's your that's your thing. But but don't try to be somebody that you're not. You know, we spent years chasing whatever was popular, you know, trying to like, oh, we'll we'll do these kind of songs, we'll pitch this, we'll pitch that, you know. And and when we finally just said, screw that, let's just be who we are and start doing our own music. And that's when things started happening. I think I think that the public picks up on authenticity.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

Absolutely they do. As a spectator, I could tell you that I love when somebody's original. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yeah, but also, I mean, even if even if they're doing cover songs, as long as they're putting themselves into it, you know, and not just I used to teach at a music college, and uh, you know, I would say, you know, anybody can sing a song correctly, you know, but it's what you bring to the song that causes it to make that connection with people.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

That's right, they're gonna gravitate. The pool will be there.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Yep. It's just it's very, very I think honesty in performance is the main for me, anyway, for this isn't it.

SPEAKER_01 19:07

I love the idea that you're original and I love the idea that you guys have such a backstory. I definitely think there's a book in the making somewhere.

SPEAKER_02 19:16

You know, I've been trying to write down some stuff because there's there's so many ridiculous road stories and studio stories, and just you know, and when you do it as long as we do, especially living in LA, I've done a lot of weird stuff for people that you would know their names and stuff. You know, I mean it's just it's there's a lot of stories. At any you ask any musician and they can tell you so many stories.

SPEAKER_01 19:40

Some of them are funny, some of them are really funny.

SPEAKER_02 19:43

Some of them, yeah, or are scary or scary. Yeah, and our son is now a musician, and our daughter married a uh musician, and so it's it's kind of fun. I was telling Terry the other day, it's fun when we talk to our son, we all have the same exact frame of reference. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, you're on the same page.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, we know exactly what he's going through when he tells us whatever's happening. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 20:07

And you could smile, right? Because you could be proud.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Yeah, well, yeah, and our son and our son-in-law are the rhythm section for John Fogerty. So if you go see John Fogerty, you'll see our kids up there.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Very nice, very nice. Well, they're more than welcome to come on to the show, too. Open invitation. Make it like the Brady Bunch, right? We'll include the cat. Exactly. There you go. We'll add it up. Well, I think there were sticks in the bunch, right? Is that how it goes?

SPEAKER_02 20:40

Uh you know what? I don't, I really don't even know.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

She said I don't know. Um Terry, do you have any final thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 20:49

I these aren't my final thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

No, I mean like true story. This is going on the bloopers, too.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

I you know, if you gotta be in the music business and there's nothing else you want to do, and you're absolutely in love with it, and this is your passion, and you don't want to be a plumber or electrician, which would be really a smarter avenue to to go, uh, then you gotta do it. If you this is what you want to do and you're not gonna listen to your parents, then you need to jump in 120% and go for it.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

That's true. You can't do it part way, you know.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Gotta be a hundred percent, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Well, i you have to throw your hat over the wall, you know, and just say, This is this is what I'm doing. I mean, I've had a million day jobs and straight jobs, you know, but not but not, you know, for a long time. But you know, it it it music is a passion, it's an ab it's like you do it for a living when you just know that you have to.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

You know, you can't just stick your toe in the in the Pond and say, Oh, okay, I mean I'm a musician. You know, you have to really immerse yourself and you have to feel it in your soul, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

Feel it in your soul. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

Exactly. It is it is for your soul, you know. But but it's a wonderful life, and we've had so many adventures. I mean, feast or famine, you know, but still I would not trade anything for all the wonderful people that we know and the music that we've made and the experiences we've had, the places we've been, you know, it's just it's our life.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

It's your legend. You guys are legends in your own time.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Yeah, exactly. A legend.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

In a good way. In a good way. I look up to you guys. I think it's wonderful. I think it's really good.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Well, Kat, you're the coolest man. Thank you so much for having us on the show and for for chatting with us. And it's been fun getting to know you a little bit. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Thank you. Oh no, thank you very much. You guys have a wonderful rest of the day. Again, thank you uh to everybody that's been listening in. They're gonna love your music as well. They're gonna go over and buy it, and we're gonna play some of it in the rotation on the station. So uh, Teresa and Terry, you guys are wonderful. Again, stay warm where you are and keep doing what you're doing. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

You're welcome. Have a great day, guys.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

You too.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Stay warmed. Bye bye.