I Want

Cathy Jean | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 15, 1998)
• Original Release Date: December 15, 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: womeninrock.org
• ASIN: B00000IYI6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,088 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #1 in Music > Indie Music > Blues > Contemporary Blues
  • #3 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Blues Rock
  • #22 in Music > Blues > Vocal Blues

Editorial Reviews

Label Comments

"Cathy Jean is a major talent who is destined for stardom!" --Howard DeWitt, Rock & Blues News

About the Artist

You have to have a certain attitude to be a great blues singer. Depressed at life, upset with your woman (or man), and prepared for the bad luck that inevitably comes with every decision you make-- these are the attributes you must possess to bring listeners into your sphere of misery. Not many female singers make the grade. They try for bold and brassy, but forget how to tone it down, resulting in a scream for help rather than a cry for mercy. The ones who do well understand that you must feel the blues, not merely vocalize. Cathy Jean relates well with the agony of defeat, otherwise known as the blues. On ‘I Want’, her second CD, she employs a lot of different styles to express her sadness with broken relationships, all of them effective. She starts off though with the rather deceptive ‘Be Glad’. Set to a rousing jump-blues beat, Cathy Jean tells her ex-lover to be grateful she doesn’t have a gun because he’d be six feet under otherwise. Great scat vocals an! d a bouncing blues harp underlie the humorous but sharp tone of the song. Very head-bopping music to begin the blues beguine. Strong conviction in the vocals also power ‘Unfinished Business’ where Cathy Jean threatens to punch the other woman’s lights out. Mark Wenner from the Nighthawks on harmonica plus a strong backbeat via Bo Diddley also keep your feet a’goin as well. It also has, as a musical in-joke, a snatch of ‘Who Do You Love?’ thrown in for good measure. In ‘How Many?’, Cathy Jean will get her revenge in a tit-for-tat way. Catching her man looking at everybody in a very loving way (including his mother- how sick!), she beleives the only way to get back at him is to get ever-so-close withh all his buddies. Very clever lyrics plus terrific sax keep you hoping he gets his just desserts. The mood turns wistful in ‘Why Don’t You See Me?’ written by Johnette Napolitano from Concrete Blonde. Cathy Jean turns in a beguiling vocal to underplay the yearning inside her. Very contained sax keeps the proceedings relaxed and tranquil. Other songs capture the various nuances of the blues from the Stonesy rocker ‘I’m Your Girl’ to the two-part ‘Hate Chants’ which pretty much lets loose every possible emotional rage you could feel towards a man who done you wrong. But it takes the last! song on the CD, ‘Blues Psalm’, to convince you of Cathy Jean’s talents. Simply sung to a lone saxophone, her plea to a higher being for the right to sing the blues conveys the power that this genre has to reach people. Her fervent prayer makes you care and hope that she is granted that request. Hopefully, this wish will always be received so that Cathy Jean will continue to make excellent albums. She joins such luminaries as Bonnie Raitt, Marcia Ball, and Koko Taylor, to name a few, in keeping the flame alive for blues singers. After all, she knows it’s not necessarily what you sing that’s important, it’s how you sing it. And that makes a loser in love a winner in the ears of the blues-loving listeners!” --Karen Liebowitz, Music Monthly Magazine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous mix of great music, May 29, 2000

By 

Rob Malinowski (Fallston, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Want (Audio CD)

Great CD! A real gem. Blues, jazz, contemporary all on one album: this mixture doesn't always work, but on this one it does. What a relief from most of the garbage out today. Talent oozes from this CD: from the songwriting to the musicians and finally the production. I've never heard of Keith Stafford before, I should have: he's great. Cathy Jean can sing! Other supposedly great female vocalist should take note. By the way the first I heard this CD it was by mistake when someone left it in my player at work. It was days later that I saw the cover and booklet and would like to say that not only is Cathy Jean blessed with an incredible voice, she's also very beautiful.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immitation is flattery, November 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: I Want (Audio CD)

For all this whining about Cathy Jean's CD cover and booklet: I just want to say that since the release of "I Want", I have counted 6 other blues artists who have copy-cated the pose on this CD cover for their own new records/releases!! Immitation is the biggest form of flattery! Now if that don't give you a clue as to how good an artist Cathy Jean is and that people are impressed... On this CD, she was obviously very angry with somebody and managed to put it all into clever lyrics. (Instead of just cussing at everyone like the music that we have to hear on radio today.) Track 13, "I Want Your Mother To Know/Rotten B." is a fun, cajun sounding example of how you can dance to the music while completely telling someone off. I love it! Keep on, girl!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A really great "gritty" blues sound, January 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: I Want (Audio CD)

The way I think the blues are best defined. In particular I enjoyed "Please Stop Seeing That Girl" & "I'm Your Girl". She can sing & she can write the blues the way that they are meant to be. I'm a big fan of Muddy Waters & John Lee Hooker also Bonnie Raitt & Angela Strehli and now I'm including Cathy Jean in that group. I really liked the music!