The Art of Russell Pierce

When I first saw Janis on television back in the 60s I thought she was a hurricane on two feet. That voice wasn’t what you traditionally heard from female singers back then, soft sweet melodic renditions of songs. Not Janis, she belted out a song with all the energy of the best male blues singers and could even blow those guys off the stage given the chance. She sang a song in such a way that it felt like every word had a deep meaning to her, nothing was rote. She achieved a lot of fame in her short life of 27 years but was a tortured soul in many ways, ostracized by schoolmates and towns people. But that didn’t hold her back as she rocketed to notoriety. I wore out the grooves on her album, Pearl.