Denise Lasalle (US)
Ulik mange andre bluesartistar som berre brukar songar som andre har laga, er Denise Lasalle ein seriøs og talentfull tekstforfattar. Sjølv om hennar soul-blues stil har sterke moderne og urbane ovetoner, er det best å tenkje på Lassalle som en moderne Bessie Smith, for det er ho verkeleg er.  Ho skriv artige songar full av "frekke holdningar" og desse holdningane tar ho også med seg på scenen.  Utanfor scenen er Denise svært imøtekommande med autografjegerar og journalistar.  Hennar første store hit kom i 1971 med "Trapped By a Thing Called Love" og "Still The Queen" viser at ho framleis er regjerande dronning av soul-blues.

Les meir...
  The Jackson, TN-based LaSalle was raised in Belzoni, MS, (also home to Joe Willie "Pine-Top" Perkins some years earlier but she got started singing in local churches around Leflore County. She was born July 16, 1939, as Denise Craig. Growing up, she listened to the Grand Ole Opry radio broadcasts and then in Belzoni, lived across the street from a juke joint. LaSalle's early influences, from the jukeboxes around Belzoni and over the radio, included Ruth Brown, Dinah Washington, and LaVern Baker. LaSalle moved north to Chicago when she was in her early twenties and would attend shows at the Regal Theatre, always returning home to write songs. She got to know blues musicians and began giving her songs to them, until one day a Chess Records executive stopped by at Mixer's Lounge, where LaSalle was working as a bar maid. He listened to one of her songs and took it down to Chess Records, and the company later signed her as a vocalist, but never recorded her. Two years later, LaSalle recorded and produced her own record with the help of Billy "The Kid" Anderson, the Chess executive who'd originally shown an interest in her. After the record made some waves on local radio, Chess stepped in and purchased the master and took it to Europe. Meanwhile, LaSalle continued writing songs and sitting in with blues musicians around the Chicago clubs.

LaSalle's first big hit came about in 1971 when her "Trapped By a Thing Called Love" broke on the radio in Chicago and then Detroit. That record was for the Westbound label and then she signed with ABC Records in 1975, cutting three albums in three years until the label was sold to MCA. After MCA dropped her because of the label's "difficulty in promoting black acts" at that time, she continued performing as much as she could in Chicago and Memphis. In 1980, a Malaco executive called to ask her to write a song for Z.Z. Hill. A positive relationship with the company was quickly developed, which resulted in LaSalle recording 11 discs for the label, including “Lady in the Street”, (1983), “Right Place, Right Time”, (1984), “Love Talkin'”“(1985), “Hittin' Where It Hurts”, (1989), “Still Trapped”, (1990), “Still Bad”, (1994), and “Smokin' in Bed” (1997). While her Malaco sides are probably her most important recordings, other than the original of her early-'70s hit "Trapped," she still releases excellent gospel crossover material, including “This Real Woman” (2000) and “There's No Separation” (2001) on Ordena Records.  Denise is back with a vengeance with her new 2002 Ecko Records release “Still The Queen” proving that she is indeed the reigning queen of soul blues.