Barbara Carr

Daddy B. Nice's #20 ranked Southern Soul Artist

"Footprints On The Ceiling"

Barbara Carr

Composed by Sidney Bailey and John Ward

November 15, 2012: NEW ALBUM ALERT!

Keep The Fire Burning (Catfood, 2012)

Recommended Singles: "Come On Home," "Keep The Fire Burning"

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See "Tidbits" below for the latest updates on Barbara Carr. Also see "Tidbits" for Daddy B. Nice's review of Barbara Carr's latest CD, Savvy Woman.

To automatically link to Barbara Carr's charted radio singles, awards, CD's and other references, go to "Carr" in Daddy B. Nice's Comprehensive Index.

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Daddy B. Nice's Original Critique:

Barbara Carr toiled away in obscurity, working a day job in an electronics factory for two decades, to emerge in the nineties as a seasoned R&B singer with an R-rated repertoire and the "chutzpah" to bring it off onstage. Along with artists like Peggy Scott-Adams and Denise LaSalle, she's helped to define the tough, spirited heroine of Southern Soul.

"Footprints On The Ceiling," with its vividly suggestive title, was Carr's first true breakthrough, the title cut of the CD of the same name (Ecko, 1997). "Bone Me Like You Own Me," a year later, came up with an equally startling title and more of the same, uncompromising club blues. The two LP's solidified Carr's reputation as a certified Southern Soul blues-woman and established a template that younger singers like Sheba Potts-Wright, An-jay, Jackie Neal, Little Kim Stewart and La Keisha follow to this day.

Carr reworks blues progressions you've heard a thousand times before, engaging the material without an ounce of pretense, never stretching or straining for effect, and it's easy to overlook her mastery of contemporary blues because she refuses to draw attention to herself. For Carr, it's all about delivering the material--no strings attached.

Co-authored by Sidney Bailey and Ecko Records' prolific juke-joint wunderkind, John Ward, "Footprints On The Ceiling" stands a little above the rest of Carr's catalog if only because it's a maverick, once-in-a-lifetime piece of songwriting.

"He knows just what to do in bed.
His kind of loving is just my style.
He turns it on and drives me wild."

The elixir's not so much in the melody--a standard blues--nor even in the specific lyrics, which by the way are priceless.

"My bed is falling.
The walls are weak.
And I know soon,
My roof is bound to spring a leak.

He's got me screaming and squealing,
And leavin' footprints on the ceiling."

It's the song's metaphor--the image of the "footprints on the ceiling"--that tickles the imagination long after the listener has heard the final bars. Along with "Bone Me Like You Own Me" and "As Long As You Were Cheating," Carr's "Footprints" is as strong a statement for a woman's raw and uninhibited sexual drive as you'll find in Southern Soul--and that's saying a lot. But "Footprints" does it all in a fifties-style arrangement as serene and natural as Grandma rocking back and forth on the screened-in porch at sunset.

--Daddy B. Nice

About Barbara Carr

Barbara Carr was born Barbara Crosby on January 9, 1941. She sang gospel in a family group called the Crosby Sisters while growing up in St. Louis, then began singing R&B in St. Louis-area groups (most notably saxophonist Oliver Sain's band) as Barbara Carr, adopting her husband's name.

Eventually, Carr was signed to Chess Records, where she recorded a series of singles in the sixties without much success. She continued to work with Sain's band and other St. Louis groups through the seventies, and in the eighties Carr and her husband formed their own label and produced more singles, most recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.

The years of material became the basis of Carr's first LP's, issued on Barr-Carr and other small labels from 1989 to the mid-nineties. Finally, in 1997, Barbara Carr hit the chitlin' circuit big time with Footprints On The Ceiling (Ecko). 1998's Bone Me Like You Own Me solidified her reputation as one of the premier blues belters in Southern Soul. More CD's and two Ecko compilations have appeared with admirable regularity since.

In the new millennium Carr has continued to refine and broaden her oeuvre, releasing a steady stream of new material, most notably: "I've Got A Love Jones (For You Baby)," "Make Me Feel It Like You Feel It Too," and "Hootchie Dance." Carr moved from Ecko Records to Mardi Gras Records for her 2003 release, Talk To Me.

Barbara Carr Discography:

1994 Good Woman Go Bad (Paula)

1997 Footprints on the Ceiling (Ecko)

1998 Bone Me Like You Own Me (Ecko)

1999 What a Woman Wants (Ecko)

2000 Stroke It (Ecko)

2002 On My Own (Bar Car)

2003 Talk to Me (Mardi Gras)

2006 Down Low Brother (Ecko)

2007 It's My Time (Ecko)

2009 Savvy Woman (CDS)

Song's Transcendent Moment

"Just like a bull in a china shop,
I go hog wild and I just can't stop.
My heels shoot straight up into the air,
Hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier."

Tidbits

1. May 26, 2007. Barbara Carr returned to Ecko Records for her well-received Down Low Brother CD in 2006. Tracks favored by the deejays of the Deep South were "Down Home Brother" and "Ain't Nothing In The Streets That You Can't Get At Home." Another radio-friendly song, "You're A Liar," became your Daddy B. Nice's favorite and a fixture of his Top 25 Songs of 2006.

Reuniting with Ecko Records' John Ward appeared to revitalize Carr. "You're A Liar" boasted a steaming rhythm track and an uncompromising, no-nonsense vocal that rivaled anything Carr has ever recorded.

And Carr has another Ecko CD on the way. A cover of Billy "Soul" Bonds' "Scat Cat Here Kitty Kitty" is already getting airplay on cutting-edge chitlin' circuit outlets. This is a great remake, as good or better than the original. The song's lyrics (written from a woman's perspective) lend themselves to female interpretation, and Carr (in my opinion) imbues them with a credibility even stronger than Bonds'. The CD, It's My Time, is scheduled for a June 2007 release. DBN.

2. November 26, 2007. Here is an excerpt from a Daddy B. Nice column on Billy "Soul" Bonds' "Scat Cat, Here Kitty Kitty," which ran in the "Corner" in November and December of 2007:
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It was that grievance (in "Scat Cat"), that sense of being wronged, that I believe struck such a chord with fans, and particularly women. And when Barbara Carr issued her cover of "Scat Cat, Here Kitty Kitty" (Ecko Records) in 2007, the contrast with the original was illuminating. Covers of good songs always are, but hearing the Bonds-composed words sung by a woman gave the song new and added force. It was no longer a man telling a story second-hand; it was the woman herself--or such was the conceit of the record.

And when Barbara sang verses like,

"All this neglect and disrespect,
I can't take that from my man.
Why just the other day,
A man said I was still pretty."

--Not only was it more direct; it was rougher, tougher and more bitter in all the places where the Bonds version had been possibly a little too sweet. And yet, the credibility and power in Carr's words reflected back on the artistry of Billy "Soul" Bonds. And when you went back to Billy's version, so sugar-coated compared to Barbara's, you heard things you hadn't heard before. You heard more of the substance which had been there all the time.

DBN

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3.

August 16, 2009:

BARBARA CARR: Savvy Woman (CDS) Four Stars **** Distinguished effort. Should please old fans and gain new.

If You Liked. . . You'll Love

If you liked Aretha Franklin's "Rescue Me," you'll love Barbara Carr's "Footprints On the Ceiling."

Honorary "B" Side

"You're A Liar"