haron Lewis is up in the hills just outside of Rome, Italy trying to score cigarettes. She’ s riding around with Vincenza, a local who’ s hosting her on this portion of her Italian tour, as well as stuffing her with chocolate gelato and homemade lasagna. She’ s slightly hoarse from the cold she caught in Siberia a few days ago and she’ s juggling our phone interview while she prepares for her next show. It’ s all in a day’ s work for an international blues woman. With the release of her vibrant new CD, Grown Ass Woman( Delmark). Sharon is spreading the sound and message of modern Chicago blues

By Rosalind Cummings-Yeates

Sharon Lewis

with the urgency that it deserves.

“ If I don’ t get paid to sing another note, I won’ t back down. I’ m going to say what I mean and mean what I say,” says Sharon about her no-holds-barred reputation for speaking the truth about blues culture. Never one to mince words, Sharon’ s forthright personality comes through her powerful vocals as well as her songwriting. The album’ s standout opening track,“ Can’ t Do It Like We Do,” a contagious celebration of Chicago blues culture, lays it all out for everyone to understand her points:“ I travel around the world / doing this thing we call the

blues / and everywhere I go / they try to imitate our groove / they can’ t shuffle like Billy Branch / can’ t slow blues like Magic Sam / if you think I’ m being a snob / you’ re right / because I am.” It’ s all rolled into an upbeat blues romp that’ s so much fun that the serious points almost melt into the rhythm. Almost but not quite.

“ Every time I played that song in Russia I got tickled,” she says.“ They didn’ t know what I was talking about.” But Sharon makes no excuses about the tune’ s topic.“ This is black music. It’ s a birthright. I’ m sorry, you can’ t claim it unless you have nappy hair,” she insists, referencing another lyric from“ Can’ t Do It Like We Do.”“ People will say,‘ I’ m a blues man.’ No you’ re not, you’ re a musician who plays blues. I’ ve lost friends and gigs behind my philosophy,” she admits.“ I’ m not militant and I’ m not racist. This music is my culture.”

It’ s a culture that Sharon values and champions nonstop, although she came to it later in life. Growing up in a strict Christian home in Ft. Worth, Texas, her missionary grandmother groomed her on gospel music and blues was the ultimate devil’ s music. She sang in church and never heard secular music until she was almost a teen. By the time she moved to Chicago as an adult, she still had a narrow view of blues. That all changed when a friend dragged her to the legendary South Side blues joint, Lee’ s Unleaded Blues. There, Buddy and Pat Scott wiped out all her assumptions and she became absorbed with music’ s power to heal and entertain. She realized that her nuanced, gospel- trained voice could also touch people outside of church and she started auditioning for local bands.

“ Steve Bramer discovered me in 1993,” she says.“ I answered an ad in The Reader

because they needed a singer. The band was called Under The Gun. I chose them because they did original music. I felt like I wanted to leave a footprint on this music.”

Originality continues to be a focus, Sharon wrote six of the 14 tunes on the album and guitarist Steve supplied another six, including the hard-hitting anthem“ Freedom.” With a chorus that charges“ Freedom can not be freedom / until freedom means freedom for everyone.” it tackles the violent reality that many people of color face, especially mother’ s of sons. But Sharon discovered that the song transcends many boundaries.“ That song has been so accepted. In Russia, they love it, it got standing ovations. Everywhere I’ ve played it, it’ s accepted and understood.”

Besides upholding the blues legacy as protest music, Grown Ass Woman highlights the strength of black women, from the blues rock of“ Chicago Woman,” the country blues of“ Old Man’ s Baby,” and the classic blues swagger of the title track,“ I wanted to celebrate black women with this CD because nobody else is,” she says.“ If we don’ t celebrate us, who else will? In this political climate, it’ s necessary, we deserve it.”

And blues fans deserve to hear Sharon Lewis. The CD offers up pure juke joint joy with“ Hell Yeah,” where her band Texas Fire smokes with horn-driven melodies and the soaring B. B. King cover“ Why I Sing The Blues” showcases Sharon’ s blues belting. Grown Ass Woman is a memorable package of social political relevance and skillful musicianship that demonstrates the importance of blues culture beyond entertainment.“ That’ s all I can do is put it out there,“ Sharon says.“ What they do with it is another matter.”