Album Notes

At the corner of College Street and Walker Avenue in Soulsville USA in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee, there's a building that was once an ice cream factory. The building is old now, the lettering and colors on its clapboard walls faded, its awnings crooked with age. It is an imposing building, beautiful and mysterious, with a patina that transcends time. Each time I pass the building, I stop and think of only one thing: What if the building were slightly refurbished and had a magnificent red neon sign glowing with the word, "Di Anne's." It would be Di Anne Price's martini/piano bar, where each night she would greet her loyal guests and sing in the way only she can while playing a grand piano by the light of a single candle. In fact, candlelight would be the only light in the club, with one placed at each large, rounded velvet booth. Di Anne would walk among the crowd in a long, low-cut black evening gown with beautiful diamond earrings. She would know most everyone by first name, and learn the first names of the numerous tourists drawn to the club. And with her voice, her aura, and the natural ease of her heart she would fill the room with love and during those moments, the world outside would not exist. Few do, but Di Anne Price possesses that kind of magic, both with her timeless voice and her unforgettable presence. Flanked by her band, he Boyfriends -- with Tom Lonardo on drums, Tim Goodwin on bass, and the incomparable Jim Spake sending his mesmerizing saxophone notes soaring to the sky -- Di Anne Price and Her Boyfriends would alternately bring the house to its feet with bawdy jazz and blues symphonies and melt the crowd back down with heart-tugging romantic torch songs. With each song on this new magnificent compilation, I take my self to Di Anne's, and the world outside indeed ceases to exist for that heavenly time. -- Tim Sampson


If there's a finer interpretive singer than Price anywhere else on the planet right now, please let me know. As it is, the fact that this local treasure can be seen pretty much any week of the year, usually for free, is a better reason to be thankful you live in Memphis than anything else I can think of.
by Chris Herrington, The Memphis Flyer, January 11, 2001