Mary Lane - Leave Me Alone (2023)

Originally from Clarendon, Arkansas, where she began singing the blues with renowned blues artists like Robert Nighthawk and Joe Hill Louis, Mary moved to Chicago in the late 1950's, and then to Waukegan, Illinois, then back to Chicago. She met and sang with Magic Sam, Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James and other. She married bluesman Morris Pejoe and did some recordings with him. By the 1970's - back in Chicago and divorced. Mary was now leading her own band playing all over the West Side and South Side of the city. Mary Lane was not the first Chicago blues artist that I recorded but she was the first (and only) artist that the recording was to come out on my own label. I had previously participated in the recording of West Side bluesman Johnny B. Moore - who was then my favorite Chicago guitarist - and that recording came out on the Blues R&B label owned by the well-known North Side club called B.L.U.E.S. Then in 1994, I decided to start my own record label & record my favorite female blues singer - Mary Lane. The musicians on Appointment with the Blues consisted of all musicians who were regularly playing with Mary and were some of Chicago's finest. Bert Mell - who was the nephew of Robert Nighthawk - provided the rhythm. Cleo Bald Head Pete Williams - who played with Willie Kent and numerous others - was the time keeper. Jeffrey Labon - Mary's husband - who toured with A.C. Reed - played the rock steady bass. And floating over it all was the guitar work of the phenomenal Johnny B. Moore who had previously worked with Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor. The legendary piano man Detroit Junior and Mary do one song all by themselves. A few others were brought in to add something here or there including Mary's own daughter Lynne Lane - who is also an outstanding blues singer. The great Chicago harmonica player Little Arthur Duncan let us do several rehearsal's at his club on west Madison in the weeks prior. Blues drummer Twist Turner had a recording studio. ~Kirk Whiting