By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates
ACOUSTIC BLUES
eisha Herron plays acoustic
blues with a guitar and a smokey,
evocative voice. Like many
female blues musicians, her vocals draw
from a range of gospel, soul and blues
influences and these genres swirl together
in her performances, whether it's the pure
country blues of "Sweet Home Chicago"
that she glides into a soulful rendition of
"Kansas City,"or a smooth version of "I'll
M
learned by ear. I didn't take lessons again
until I was at Columbia College, in 1989."
Meisha's organic approach to music is
reflected in her blending of styles and her
straight forward guitar skills. She avoids
flash in favor of emotion and chooses classic blues and R&B over pop- flavored hits.
But her assurance on stage has been a long
journey. "I was too shy to try out for band
in high school, even though I was always
Meisha Herron
Play The Blues For You" inflected with
gospel undertones. All of these influences
highlight Meisha's journey from a shy teen
growing up on the far South Side, to a
multi-layered performer.
"My mom is from Mississippi and I
always heard her singing around the
house. She'd sing gospel, nursery rhymes,
there was a lot of music in my family," she
says. Growing up in the Roseland neighborhood, she found several outlets for her
musical interests. "Church was the main
place I sang. I sang in the children's choir
and learned about melody." One day at
school, she saw Chicago folk singer Ella
Jenkins performing and she was
enthralled. "She was one of the first ladies
that I saw playing the guitar when I was in
elementary school,"she remembers. She
also started to absorb the assortment of
garage bands that played in her community. " In the '70s, Roseland was bustling
with garage bands and I was fascinated by
it,"she says. Neighbors would hold jam
sessions in open garages and Meisha listened to the heady mix of funk, soul and
blues with close attention. She finally convinced her mother to set up guitar lessons
for her when she was 11.
"I really wanted to learn the drums but
my mom wanted me to do piano. We settled on guitar. I started weekly lessons and
learned the chords really easily," she says.
But her real test came when her guitar
teacher suddenly died after about a year. "I
kept the guitar and the book and kept
playing. I just listened to music and
around musicians," she remembers. "I
wasn't confident then, I was happy to just
go to my room, listen to cassettes and
write songs.”
All of her solitary practice served her
well when she arrived at Columbia
College and learned key music lessons not
in her music theory courses but on the
street. "I was going into class when I heard
this band playing blues outside of school. I
told them that I played guitar but I didn