11 minute read
Irma Thomas
Soul Queen of New Orleans
by Sandra Scalise Juneau
SINCE HER FIRST RECORDING, Don’t Mess with My Man in 1959, every time Irma Thomas belts out one of her Rhythm & Blues hits, you know it’s coming from the beat of her heart. But when Irma sings River Is Waiting, you can feel her voice being lifted in prayer from deep inside her soul. In fact, at any of her performances, when asked to sing a special request, whether Gospel or R & B, Irma is steadfast in her refusal to mix songs from the genres. With respect for both, the music of Gospel has remained sacred throughout her life. Singing Gospel was when she first found her voice.
A Louisiana native, born in Ponchatoula on February 18, 1941, it was in her hometown church that Irma first sang before an audience. She says, “As a small child, I was in the choir. We spent all day at church on Sunday. It was a ‘Giving Day’ for us—from Services, to Sunday School, to Gospel Choir in the evening.” On one fateful Sunday, “They just pushed me out front of the choir!”
Her first solo performance was at the New Star School in Greensburg, a small town in St. Helena Parish. “I was 5 or 6 years old. Our first and second grades were together in one classroom, so I’m not sure which grade I was in at the time, but my teacher, Miss Clovise Hurst, picked me to be in a school play. I sang The Tennessee Waltz.”
Drawn to music through the gift of her voice, Irma grew up with the great sounds of the late ’40s and early ’50s. She says, “At home, we listened to Gospel stations and blues on the radio. We heard the music of Mahalia Jackson, Move on Up a Little Higher, and The Blind Boys, Power of the Lord. My dad had records of BB King, Every Day I Have the Blues; John Lee Hooker, Boogie Chillen; and also Ruth Brown, Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean. Ruth Brown and I became great friends through our touring together. We stayed friends until her death in 2006.”
Irma’s career touched many musical legends whose legacies live on in her voice and performances. It was inevitable that her voice would be heard, but her winding path to success took years of starts and stops. Her first break came in the late 1950s while working as a waitress. “My cousins were dancers at the Pimlico Club in New Orleans, and though I worked there as a waitress, I sometimes danced with them.” The club was headlined by the Tommy Ridgley Band. Ridgley was already locally acclaimed for his first 78 rpm recording, Shrewsbury Blues, and Irma sought her opportunity. “I asked Tommy if I could sing with the band, and he said, ‘Well, can you sing?’ I said,
‘Of course I can sing.’” The song was There Goes My Baby. Realizing he had found a treasure, Ridgley arranged a recording for Irma at Cosimo Recording Studios in New Orleans. By 1960, the next step in her success was set when Don’t Mess with My Man, distributed by Ric & Ron Records, reached number 22 on the national R & B chart.
Perhaps it was the magnetism of her voice that attracted a lifelong collaboration between Irma and pianist-composer Allen Toussaint, who said that Irma’s voice was always in his head when he was composing for her. His musical genius was the way he customized his compositions to each artist, and according to Irma, “He listened to their voice and wrote according to their vocal abilities. The songs always fit. When Allen wrote a song for you, it was for you. It was your glove to put on.”
During early ’60s music sessions, a group of musicians that included Aaron Neville and Ernie K-Doe would meet in the living room of Allen Toussaint’s family home. Toussaint recalled in an interview years later, “Irma was the only girl in the group.” There, they wrote, recorded and tried out sounds to see what worked. Perhaps it was then that Irma discovered how much their creations were informed by their shared love of everything New Orleans—its musical rhythms, its food, its people and even its patterns of weather. It was actually during a typical New Orleans downpour when Toussaint wrote It’s Raining, the song that would become a standard for Irma Thomas. The words speak to heartbreak and lost love, but its tempo builds from those first falling raindrops into a deluge of “raining so hard.” Written years before Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, It’s Raining became an anthem for resilience in post-Katrina recovery, and every time Irma sings, “It’s raining so hard, it’s really coming down,” you can still feel those fateful words resonating with her audiences.
During the 1960s, Irma, a mother in her young 20s and already divorced, continued building her career. She performed in New Orleans at high school dances and private parties, and then traveled for club dates to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, relying on her parents to care for her four children while she was working. Wearing her smile, she poured her isolation and loneliness into the lyrics she wrote for her Imperial Records hit of 1964, Wish Someone Would Care.
By the mid-1960s, Irma and her band, The Tornados, performed opening acts for such Soul and R & B greats as James Brown and Otis Redding, and in between her travels, she was recording for Imperial Records. As a pacesetter in the industry, she often had her works imitated and reinterpreted by other artists. Irma’s 1963 recording of Ruler of My Heart was later recorded by Otis Redding as Pain in My Heart. But it was the flip side of her recording Anyone Who Knows What Love Is that caught the ear of the Rolling Stones. The popularized Stones recording of Time Is on My Side brought them international acclaim and commercial success. But time is on her side, because Irma recorded it first!
Among Irma’s greatest achievements is The Irma Thomas Center for W.I S.E. Women (Women in Search of Excellence) established at Delgado Community College in 2006. She remains active as a motivational speaker for W.I.S.E. and, as stated in its website, “As a graduate of Delgado Community College and a citizen of New Orleans, she shares her personal trials and tribulations as a student, a teenage mother and a business woman. The one most important thing she provides is the opportunity for women to see that no matter what their circumstances, they can be successful in college and that it may take a number of years to achieve their goals. At Delgado, Irma reaches hundreds of students, but her community work reaches thousands.”
Guided by a deep inner strength, Irma’s resilience is just one of the hallmarks of her character, and it took a hurricane to force her away from her beloved Louisiana. “When Hurricane Camille struck in 1969, like so many of us, our home in New Orleans was completely destroyed. There was nothing left, yet I realized we were still together, and what we had lost was just stuff!” With nothing to come home to, Irma moved with her four children to California in the hopes of finding work there. In Los Angeles, she found occasional nighttime singing dates, but her days were filled with work at a Montgomery Ward store. There she sold sewing machines, using her time while demonstrating sewing techniques to create much needed clothing for her growing children.
Irma’s return to New Orleans and home opened up new opportunities in her musical journey. She contracted with Rounder Records, pouring her passion into albums like True Believer, which brought her back into national attention. In 1990, Irma and her husband Emile Jackson opened The Lion’s Den, a popular New Orleans nightclub where she could perform for devoted local fans.
A headliner for the Jazz & Heritage Festival since 1974, her performances at the Gospel Tent are legendary. Spirits lift as crowds sway in rapture, totally in touch with her soulful spirit. But for Irma, singing is a personal ride. “When I sing, I am not aware of the audience. I am just singing from my soul.” Though, she adds, “I do feel blessed to bring joy through their laughter or their tears.”
Through all her success, by age 45 Irma felt a nagging sense of something missing in her life. With single-minded resolve, she enrolled in Delgado Community College to complete her education. “I decided to go into business studies because I realized >>
I needed to understand and take control of my contracts.” During those busy years, when Irma was recording and traveling for performances, she often completed assignments on planes. She says, “It took me 15 years, until I was in my 60s, but I was determined to earn my degree!” A side benefit for Irma, who had always been practical and hands-on, even to creating and sewing her own performance gowns, was when she learned that her costs for purchased gowns could be deducted as a business expense.
Always flexible with life’s ups and downs, Irma’s resilience was put to a test when Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters destroyed her city, her home and her livelihood. With The Lion’s Den beyond repair, Irma and her family sought refuge in nearby Gonzales, where they could begin the task of rebuilding both their home and her career. Picking up the pieces of her broken heart, Irma mended those fragile pieces the only way she knew, through her music. With her beloved New Orleans and surrounding areas in disarray, with fellow musicians scattered and club dates cancelled, Irma focused her energy on recordings.
It was just months after Katrina when Irma recorded the album, After the Rain, which won the 2007 Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album. That same year, recognized for her outstanding musical gifts, Irma was inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.
The following years were filled with multiple recordings, recognition and awards that brought national and international acclaim. Artist Douglas Bourgeois selected Irma as his subject for the commemorative poster of the 2008 Jazz and Heritage Foundation. And in 2009, for her 50th year as a recording artist, Rounder Records released the album, The Soul Queen of New Orleans: 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Irma traveled to Australia in 2011 for two featured performances at the Bluesfest Music Festival in Byron Bay, New South Wales. In 2013 and 2014, she received the Blues Music Award in the category “Soul Blues Female Artist.” In 2018, The American Music Honors and Awards named Irma as the recipient of the “Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance.” And in May 2018, at the Tulane University Commencement, Irma Thomas was presented with the Honorary Degree, Doctor of Letters. Speaking of the four honorees that day, Tulane University President Mike Fitts said, “Each of these individuals reflect the best of humanity through their achievements, their triumphs over adversity and their service to others.”
It is Irma’s warmth, combined with her genuine no nonsense-no pretense character that has endeared her to fans and friends alike. “I was a fan before engaging Irma to perform for my wedding,” says Debbie Day Smith. “I am fortunate that our friendship has grown over the years.” Neighbors in New Orleans East, Irma became the saving grace for this nervous new mom. Debbie remembers, “I was frantic when faced with my screaming infant, but Irma, with her usual calm, came to my rescue and said, ‘Let me show you how to take care of that baby.’ She placed my baby over her knees, gently rubbed his back and quietly lulled him to sleep with her soothing, humming lullaby.” Debbie adds, “Irma Thomas is an amazing human being, who just happens to have the gift of a fabulous voice!”
Always practical, Irma’s advice to young talents starting out in the music world today is: “Expect to have disappointments, and always have a ‘day job’ to fall back on.” About her success, she simply says, “Since I started out at age 17, I am truly blessed to still be here!”
Irma’s musical style has been described as: Soul Music; Blues; R & B; Pop; Gospel; R & B Soul; Soul Blues; and New Orleans R & B. But when asked how her musical style has changed over the years, she insists, “My style hasn’t changed. It is, and has always been, Gospel and R & B!” Her homegrown voice, rich, silky-smooth and pure as Louisiana molasses, just gets sweeter with each passing day.
Happy Birthday, Irma!