Big Cynthia (21st Century)
Daddy B. Nice's #41 ranked Southern Soul Artist
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Big Cynthia (21st Century)Daddy B. Nice's #41 ranked Southern Soul Artist |
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"Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman" Big Cynthia (21st Century) Composed by Cynthia Walker
Big Cynthia Passes AwayBig Cynthia (Cynthia Walker) passed away on January 3, 2017. The southern soul performer, although only 47 years old, had recorded for Ace and Avanti in the 90's and a number of different southern soul labels through the first two decades of the 21st Century. The daughter of R&B pioneer Junior Walker, Houston native Cynthia was the quintessential "big woman" of southern soul, renowned for her girth and her many songs extolling the pleasures of being "big." Cynthia had just scored dual #1 Singles at SouthernSoulRnB in December of 2016, with the tunes "Come Saddle Up" and "Swing Out," a still-to-be-released duet with Big Pokey Bear.--Daddy B. Nice See more about Big Cynthia's death at Soul Tracks. See more about Big Cynthia's death at the Big Cynthia Fan Club page. 
December 4, 2016: From Daddy B. Nice's Corner:
Daddy B. Nice's Top 10 "BREAKING" Southern Soul Singles Preview For. . . -------DECEMBER 2016------- 1."Come Saddle Up" / "Swing Out"-------Big Cynthia / Big Cynthia featuring Pokey Bear You either love or hate the repetitive guitar riff of "Come Saddle Up," the apt instrumental equivalent of Big Cynthia's vocal style. Cynthia never met a note she wanted to bend, which has arguably limited her appeal over the years. (One of the longest-tenured artists in southern soul, this daughter of Junior Walker and current godmother to the Louisiana southern soul scene was recording for Avanti and Ace in the 90's.) But I succumbed to "Saddle Up" after a couple of plays. The energy is too electric to do without. And man-of-the-moment Big Pokey joins Cynthia on "Swing Out," submitting an especially "grainy" and vintage-sounding vocal. (No You-Tube as of this posting.) Listen to Big Cynthia singing "Come Saddle Up" on YouTube.
January 12, 2013: Listen to Big Cynthia's official new video singing "She's Working That Nookie Thing" on You Tube. ********** October 1, 2012: Read Daddy B Nice's New Review of Big Cynthia's It's My Time CD. Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven. *********** October 1, 2012: BIG CYNTHIA: It's My Time (Big Cynthia Enterprises/CDS) Five Stars ***** Can't Miss. Pure Southern Soul Heaven.
All of a piece, wisely thought out in terms of selections, Big Cynthia's new CD, It's My Time, is as pleasant as slipping into a pair of freshly-laundered blue jeans. Big Cynthia's new music is a revelation, seasoned yet easy-going, with a special flair born of experience and confidence. Uhhhh. . .With one exception, a disastrous opening track in which Big Cynthia subjects the listener to her hard-nosed booking policies. (To all Southern Soul artists who succumb to the urge to rub your loyal paying fans' faces in the behind-the-scenes workings of the music business, your Daddy B. Nice begs you to ask yourself: Did Johnnie Taylor or Marvin Sease ever do that?) But if you can forgive (or fast-forward through) the false start, you'll float away with Cynthia on a musical excursion that strikes all the right keys in its abilities to please. The album really commences with Big Cynthia's remix of "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman," first recorded on her album of the same name in 2002 (Britney). The song is Big Cynthia's impassioned declaration of identity. "Ain't nothing like a big woman To wrap your arms around. She may not be a size 12, But she can sure get it on down. A big woman can cook your food. Even wash your hair. She can even bring you breakfast, Breakfast to your bed." Over the years it has evolved into Southern Soul's anthem for all big women. Last spring Big Cynthia redid the song--showcased thematically on this CD with opening and exiting tracks--with a laid-back but swinging, slightly more uptempo, hiphop-tinged arrangement. Listen to Big Cynthia, Tyree Neal and Big Bro singing "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman (Remix)" on YouTube. Tyree Neal supplies the likable groove and male foreground dueting, while Big Bro's rapping verse endows the song with a contemporary, relevant feel. The result is stunningly casual and Pied Piperish. Cynthia wisely gives the remix's first verse to Tyree. Then, when she comes in on the second verse, it's doubly pleasurable, a familiar tune first and Big Cynthia second--the main course. The Neal family, Louisiana's First Family of the Blues and Southern Soul, is all over this album. The late beloved and influential Jackie is noted by Big Cynthia as the ultimate "small girl (who) needs love too." She hovers over the CD's proceedings like a muse. Another Neal sibling, Charlene, shows up on another track co-singing with Cynthia, and yet another--Big Bro--contributes husky, testosterone-charged backgrounds to others. But it is Tyree Neal who is ever-present throughout the set, singing, writing, arranging and playing. Big Cynthia's It's My Time is Tyree Neal's coming-out party as much as Big Cynthia's. He's collaborated with performers on quite a few Southern Soul singles, but never on an album-length project with an artist of Big Cynthia's longevity. Ultimately, Tyree Neal (who co-produced with Cynthia) takes Big Cynthia's music to a higher level, bringing in new elements in the way Bigg Robb heightened and focused Carl Marshall's "Good Loving Will Make You Cry." For example, Tyree is by Cynthia's side on the next cut, "She's Working That Nookie Thing," a fast-climbing single on the latest Southern Soul charts featuring yet another big-man vocal by a singer/talker named Big Josh. The fuller, more textured sound carries over to the cajun track, "Zydeco Round Up," showcasing two more "bigs"--Big Josh and Big Jerry. "Eating Ain't Cheating," a Big Cynthia standard originally done with Mr. David on the Tony Mercedes-produced Doing It Big album (2006), checks in next. Cynthia sings all the naughty innuendo with fearless aplomb. Next Big Cynthia tackles contemporary Southern Soul's number one song, Ronnie Lovejoy's "Sho' Wasn't Me." The cover won't gain any best-singer enconia. Cynthia even has a little trouble hitting perfect pitch on more than a few notes, and yet the song has an integrity that fits in with the overall sound and ambience of the CD. And so it goes. Hiphop, zydeco, witty and keen Southern Soul voice-overs and references and Big Cynthia's own themes of big-lady liberation intermingle with a comfort level rarely seen in Southern Soul. Two new songs (both written by Cynthia Walker, as are all the tunes on the album), one with Tyree Neal ("Big Leg Woman") and one with Charlene Neal ("You Drive Me Crazy") segue into a "thank-you" song and a reprise of "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman." Big Cynthia's It's My Time isn't going to overwhelm anyone with the Big C's staggering talent or intensity, and fans new to Southern Soul may even wonder what all the fuss is about. What It's My Time is all about is simple, seamless, mid-tempo fun. This music doesn't require a genius to sing, and Big Cynthia never strains vocally to be somebody she isn't. Forget what strangers or those dreaded "haters" might call Big Cynthia's "limitations". This is a performer completely comfortable in her own skin and her own place in the Southern Soul universe. --Daddy B. Nice Big Cynthia's It's My Time at CD Universe Big Cynthia's It's My Time at iTunes *************** September 28, 2012: NEW ALBUM ALERT Sample or Buy Big Cynthia's IT'S MY TIME CD. *********** Note: Big Cynthia also appears on Daddy B. Nice's original Top 100 Southern Soul Artists (90's-00's). The "21st Century" after Big Cynthia's name in the headline is to distinguish her artist-guide entries on this page from her artist-guide page on Daddy B. Nice's original chart. *************** Daddy B. Nice's 21st Century Profile:Success has eluded Big Cynthia (Cynthia Walker), best described as a "B"-side younger version of Denise LaSalle, as she's bounced from indie label to indie label (Avanti, Brittney, Malaco (distribution deal), Tony Mercedes, Hearon) since the 90's. Even within the chitlin' circuit, her fame is limited and her catalog lacking the kind of defining single that catapults a career into headliner status.
Nevertheless, the daughter of Junior Walker has defied the odds that relegate the vast majority of soul divas to the sidelines, recording with regularity while tenaciously staking out her two favorite issues--the empowerment of "big women" and the promotion of Millie Jackson-Dorothy Moore-Denise LaSalle-style raunch. Since the death of Jackie Neal, Cynthia, with her prodigious energy and determination, has become by default the southern soul queen of Louisiana and southeast Texas. Walker's vocal chops, although workmanlike and seasoned, are nothing to write home about, falling closer to the cerebral skill of Millie Jackson than to the jaw-dropping expertise of LaSalle or Moore. But what Big Cynthia lacks in raw singing talent she makes up for in "want-to" and songwriting acumen. Her songs invariably display the folksy authenticity and humor of the best Millie Jackson material, and her catalog as a whole boasts a remarkable thematic integrity. None of this counts for much in the mainstream R&B world, where (as in Black Box's "Everybody Everybody") stoutly-built singers are routinely shunted aside for small, sexy, video-friendly dancers, even when their vocal tracks remain. In the sculpted muscles-pecs-breasts-thighs culture of mainstream R&B, obesity is a badge of shame and just one more reason to dismiss the Southern Soul movement. And while misogyny and all manner of expletives are considered tools of the trade in the hiphop world, the kind of grown-up, sexual explicitness that Big Cynthia purveys is seen as embarrassing. With all these counts against her, it's hard for a Southern Soul fan not to take up Big Cynthia's defense. Her "flaws" are part of Southern Soul's unconventional allure, and when Big Cynthia proudly proclaims, for example, that "big girls" can make love just as well as "small girls," she's taking a stand the Southern Soul world views as admirable. Listen to Big Cynthia singing "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman" on YouTube while you read. The titles and dominant lines of Big Cynthia's tunes tell the tale. Not only do they reflect the bravado associated with big girls; they often reveal the paranoia and second-class sexual status with which plain women struggle. "If I told you that I want you / In the worst kind of way, / Would there ever be a chance / That I could have you today?... / If I let you have it tonight, / Will you respect me in the morning?" (From "If I Let You Have It Tonight, Will You Respect Me In The Morning") And. . . "I've been single a long time / Sleeping alone in a king-size bed / But I'm tired of playing with myself / Because now it's messing with my head." (From "I'm A Lonely Woman") "You can be a lady in the day / And a freak at night... / It ain't nobody's business / How you pay all your bills. / Don't let your left hand / Know about the right. / It's nobody's business / Who you pop it to all night." (From "I Didn't Lie, I Just Didn't Tell It All.") "Never let your friends / Know everything about your man. / Looking on the outside / He looks like the Clean-Up Man... / All those --- and those fresh alligators, / You thought he looked good, / You thought he was a Mel Waiters... / Eight dollars an hour/ With no --- and ---- / But let me get to the good part / He couldn't even slow-roll it." (From "You Didn't Take My Man, You Took My Problem") In Big Cynthia's view, the world of big women is not only emotionally precarious, it's also more sexually wide-open and liberating. "I like the man / That's good in the sheets, / But I like it even better / If he carries a little freak. / I'm not scared / To do what I do. / When you going to wait too long? / I want to kiss you where I miss you." (From "Freaky With You.") "I took this man home the other day, / And it was about eleven o'clock. / And you know, he told me / He had to be home at twelve. / I was like, 'What was really the reason / For you coming home with me?' / Because, baby, I ain't / The kind of woman that likes a quickie. / You know, I'm a big girl / And you can't just / Hit it and quit it. / I want you do a little bit more / Than just 'stand up in it.' / But ladies, I sent that man home / Looking like a glazed doughnut / Around the mouth / 'Cause he was all up in it... / Just wash your mouth (I told him) with Listerine / And she (your wife) won't know a thing." (From "Eating Ain't Cheating") This last piece of libido elicited a shocked response from an Internet listener: "Who is Big Cynthia? Is she a Lesbian that is cheating? Or is her man advocating that if you eat after the cheat, rinse with Listerine and she won't know a thing? Do peeps in 2011 still not REALIZE you can catch/spread diseases orally? Jesus can't get here fast enough in these LAST DAYS." For directness, even Chick "Stoop Down" Willis can't beat Big Cynthia's matter-of-fact advisement to "Put them lips / Under my skirt" in "Eating Ain't Cheating." The three best songs in Cynthia's repertoire are arguably: "Get Freaky With You" (Best arrangement) "You Didn't Take My Man, You Took My Problem" (Best pure song, features Mel Waiters) and... "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman" "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman" is Big Cynthia's impassioned declaration of identity, transformed into an anthem for all big women. Remarkably, in a genre which devotes an entire "shelf" to the topic of big and/or fat women, Cynthia's song stands as the only representative for the topic of big women on the 21st Century Top 100 Countdown. Recently, the song has been redone with a laid-back, hiphop-tinged arrangement, in a slightly faster tempo, with rapper Big Bro and Tyree Neal, brother of the late Jackie Neal. The remix should spread the song's popularity. Listen to Big Cynthia, Tyree Neal and Big Bro singing "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman (Remix)" on YouTube. To read more about the theme of "big women" in Southern Soul, including Bobby Rush's original "Fat Woman" recordings, go to Daddy B. Nice's original Big Cynthia Artist Guide. --Daddy B. Nice About Big Cynthia (21st Century) Big Cynthia Discography
Song's Transcendent Moment "She can do anything
Tidbits 1.
If You Liked. . . You'll Love If you liked Tony Troutman's "Your Man Is Home Tonight," you'll love Big Cynthia's "Ain't Nothing Like A Big Woman." Honorary "B" Side "She's Working That Nookie Thing" |
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