Cee Cee James

Born as Christina James in the great fertile Northwest of Portland Oregon among the tall fir trees, full rivers and beautiful moist green landscape, Cee Cee's Mother was forced to move the family to California when Cee Cee was five years old.  At 12 years old she had put together her first band and performed at the local church with a blond wig and bright green eye shadow.  Throughout the coming years she was in and out of rock/blues, cover/original bands and formed her first original blues band, Stone Blue in San Diego in the mid-90's.  By the late 90's she honed her song writing skills even more and began recording song demo's in San Diego and Los Angeles and in late 1999 her first CD, "Spiritually Wet," was released.

After a sad divorce in 2001, and the loss of her 2nd Partner to cancer in early 2004, she bid her long time Southern California musicians farewell, and by December had sold her house and was driving herself back to Portland, OR to metaphorically be born again, stepping into her true self as a woman and human being.

Feeling the continual push from her fans for a new CD, Cee Cee had planned to immediately begin writing and recording when she got settled.  By April of 2005 she had put together a strong band of stellar Portland musicians who very quickly began to get into some of the best blues clubs Portland had to offer.   However, the studio sessions for “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL” would continue to be out of Cee Cee’s reach until late 2007 after yet another move even further North into Washington State where the intense spinning vortex of change finally let go of her life and “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL” began to take shape.

Like the green moist Northwest where she was born and now come home to, “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL” is rich and full of soul provoking lyrics set into contemporary roots and blues based musical landscapes inspired by Rob “Slideboy” Andrews, Cee Cee's songwriting partner and husband.  Rob "Slideboy" Andrews cut his musical path playing bass in the Bay area for 35 years as a sideman for Filmore Slim, Luther Tucker and many other deeply traditional blues lineups.  He set the bass down when he married Cee Cee and began playing rhythm and slide guitar where his previously untapped natural songwriting skills began to come through.

Cee Cee had a heavy hand in the writing, production and arranging on “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL."  “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL" expresses that seven year chapter of change and includes a huge shift away from the pop and funk she had been previously writing and recording on “SPIRITUALLY WET.”  Hiking on Cowels Mountain in Santee, CA outside of San Diego in the late Spring of 2001, Cee Cee says "I heard Stevie Ray Vaughan whispering to me from the Heavens... "Go back to your roots girl.. go back to what you do best," which I intuitively knew was the blues, low-down roots and soul."  Beginning with the sad angst of lost love in the first song and title track, to the final victorious tribute about the man she lost to cancer in “Spirit of the Shaman,” "LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL" weaves Cee Cee's stark, vulnerable, and revealing lyrics, around her Cherokee roots and her life changing relationship with the desert.

Cee Cee’s soul and artistic influences are all over the map.  “Raw and Real,” is her criteria.  “Out of the box," as she calls it.  “Performances, music and lyrics that push the envelope of the soul straight down into the gut of life.”  Howling Wolf, Big Mama Thornton, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Stevie Ray Vaughan; then dippin’ into the soul of things - Mavis Staples, Ike and Tina Turner, Bill Withers, Ray LaMontagne, Chris Whitley; and of course the funk - James Brown, Prince and everything in-between; with a recent discovery which she finds 'amazingly stellar,'  JJ Grey and Mofro.  Cee Cee feels them all and it’s obvious in her ‘low down and gritty’ performances where as she says, “My thing is... in all my writing, singing and performance is to make the songs come alive for people.  To open up the mind, heart and soul with the fire of an intense gut wrenching performance full of vulnerability, honesty and truth.  What else am I up on that stage for?"   Cee Cee does just that and more, inspiring strong CD sales with her intense ‘take no prisoner' performances where the audience climbs inside the deep ache and gut in every note she sings and evokes on stage.

Cee Cee is truly hitting her stride with “LOW DOWN WHERE THE SNAKES CRAWL” receiving more and more live performance requests, a continually increasing fan base, CD sales, and radio play around the world with two of the cuts from the CD, “Love Makes Change,” and “I’ll Ask the Questions You Tell the Lies,” currently being played on XM 74 - B.B. King's Bluesville which hit #10 and #7 on the XM 74 Charts.

Audio Samples
	Black Raven	[ MP3 ]
	Love Makes Change	[ MP3 ]
	Make It To The Other Side	[ MP3 ]
	I'll Ask The Questions, You Tell The Lies	[ MP3 ]

Cee Cee James - Low Down Where The Snakes Crawl Style: Blues Cee Cee James has a voice made for the blues – deep, raspy and full of soulful emotion. Often compared to Janis Joplin, her voice and feeling for the blues have brought her scores of fans through her intense live performances, and is now captured on CD for the first time. Featuring 11 original tracks, Low Down Where The Snakes Crawl brings together a tight, well-rehearsed band with a strong, solid voice that is sure to blow you away.  Catalog #4516 (Released February 16, 2010)

$13.99

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