Toni Price

By PHIL GALLO

Toni Price (Jack's Sugar Shack; 250 capacity; $ 12)
 
Band: Price, Casper Rawls, Champ Hood, Steve Doerr.
 

TX:Presented inhouse. Reviewed July 20, 1996. In a rare appearance outside Texas, Toni Price lifted her much-lauded Tuesday happy-hour perf at Austin's Continental Club and slid it comfortably onto the small stage at Jack's. With four acoustic performers seated, the casual show overflowed with tempered elan and whimsy that signified a unique -- and much needed -- twist on folk-edged blues. Price breezed through dozens of songs in a set that relied on her own intoxicating vocals as well as the instrumental brilliance of guitarist Casper Rawls. The quartet instilled modicums of change in tempo and spice, stamping each with a stylistic ID -- a bluegrass lick here, a harmonica solo there -- that held the interest of the crowd.

Champ Hood supplied marvelous violin accompaniment early on; when the band played as a three-guitar unit, Hood's smoky textures were missed.

The blues is the core of Price's songs, most of them pulled from her two Discovery/Antone's albums, "Hey" and "Swim Away." When a folksy sway takes over -- Gwil Owen's "Tumbleweed" the prime example -- Price exposes a beguiling vulnerability that distinguishes her from the pack; in many ways, she is the singer Joan Osborne strives to be.

Acceptance of blues-based singers has blossomed in the Bonnie Raitt '90s and Price deserves a spot at the front of the class. But there's no change in the blues success formula of relentless touring and festivals -- nor in Toni Price's desire to stay home with her family. Her role is secure as one of the Lone Star State's finest secrets.