In
Conversation with
October 2007
A
little background:
Cherry Lee Mewis in press releases scattered over on her myspace.com is
Described as ‘ a 5 ft-nothing 22 year old white girl from North Wales
Who gets her kicks out of scratchy old vinyl’s with roaring, throaty vocals
Blaring out and battered old guitars’.
She also adds she served her apprenticeship endlessly gigging in pubs and bars
developing not only her husky, gravelly voice but her performance and style too.
Taking inspiration from Janis Joplin, Koko Taylor and Mississippi Fred McDowell,
on her recently released debut album ‘Little Girl Blue’ she sings with raw power
and emotion, hurt and pain.
It would be easy to make up a complex story about who I discovered such
A beautiful talent like this, but truth be told I was looking for something on Jeff
Buckley on myspace.com and came across Cherry by accident who among
Her page has a beautiful cover version of the Buckley ‘Everybody here wants you’
Which hooked me completely.
Over the years since Jeff Buckley died, if I’m honest I had heard a number of
Really good cover versions of her tracks (Long time ‘Setting Sun’ favourite
And friend ‘Holly Lerski’ has done a really beautiful version of ‘Hallelujah’ on
Her own myspace.com) and a number of rubbish cover versions, but with
This one, full credit to Cherry she nailed it spot on and really made it her
Own.
Interested of course after such a sterling job, I listened to the rest of her
Material available and enjoyed it just as much, enough to contact her
For a interview.
The rest as they say is history of course.
Cherry can be contacted for more details on her website which is at
and also her myspace.com which can be found at
http://www.myspace.com/cherryleemewis
Cheers again for your time.
Andy N
Setting Sun:
How are things and what’s happening at
the moment?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
Things are real good. I’m making music
that I love and working with a great bunch of people…
Setting Sun:
Next, can you tell us a little bit about the history of your music for
example as I like to say sometimes who fired the starting
pistol etc?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
Myself! I just always wanted to sing. So I went out there
and performed
wherever I could. From the age of 12/13 I was singing
semi-professional.
My family have been my backbone however. Always
encouraged and been
enthusiastic about everything…as well as introducing me
to blues music!
Setting Sun:
Following straight on, what are your influences (music wise) and what
are you listening to at the moment?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
All the blues greats, Memphis Minnie, Robert Johnson,
Mississippi Fred
McDowell, just to name a few. Anyone whose ‘breaking
rules’ and not
being scared of experimenting with their music and not
playing safe are
inspirations to me…. Right now I’m listening to all my
favourite blues artists
from the 20’s and 30’s as well as The White Stripes,
Seasick Steve
and The Decemberists.
Setting Sun:
It is also good to see you play concerts – how do these compare
to your studio recordings?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
They don’t!! Nothing compares to getting out there and
performing live.
It’s why I do it…. you can’t explain it, that’s why I’m
not a fan of
rehaersing ‘coz it’s never the same as doing it live…
Setting Sun:
I was also really impressed to listen to you covering Jeff Buckley’s
classic ‘Everybody Here Wants You’ – can you tell us a
little bit more
about why you chose to cover this song?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
As soon as I heard it I loved it. It grabs you straight away. As soon as
Max, my guitarist asked if I wanted to cover something,
that came to my
head. I loved every minute of recording it and I feel
like I’ve done my lil’
bit to helping keep Jeff’s music alive…
Setting Sun:
Besides that of course, I can see from also on your
myspace. com page
and from details of your forthcoming album, Little Girl
Blue, there is a
number of other songs on there which I guess are
originals, all of which are
certainly the same quality – I think my favourite out of the
ones I have heard
so far is ‘Sweet Substitute’ – can you next tell us a
little about this song etc?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
Sweet Substitute is actually an old blues song originally
done by
Jelly Roll Morton that Max and I have totally re-done in
our own way,
while still keeping the rawness of the original. You
listen to it and it has
hat stripped-back, unplugged sound to it.
Ugly Night is a track we wrote very quickly together. I came up with the
melody on my guitar, played it to Max and he added his
thing and
wrote the lyrics. It sounds great with the blues harp on
it too….
Setting Sun:
Next, can you tell us where you are from? What’s the music scene
like where you are? Have you being to any good gigs
recently?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
I’m from North Wales, UK. It’s crazy because when I
started out,
there wasn’t a lot of music round here, there wasn’t a
‘scene’, and now
there are a lot of festivals and open mic nights for
local bands. It’s great
because I sang in clubs and bars to get my experience and
the last few
years have seen a major clamp down on underage performers
performing
in pubs, so for them to have somewhere else to learn
their craft, I’m all for it.
Setting Sun:
To start winding down with now, with a few lighter questions - what plans do
you have next? Do you have any more recordings planned
etc?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
I’m working on a bunch of songs for another project I’m
working on, more of
that soon. Max Milligan, John Verity and myself are at
the moment just touring
this album, Little Girl Blue, We’ve just returned from
doing the Tropea Blues
Festival in Italy – it was amazing! So more blues fests
in the pipeline and
we’ve got our album launch next week, which I’m real
excited about!
Setting Sun:
What would you be your dream job if you were not a blues star?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
Erm…. can’t answer that one as this has always been my dream job!
I’ve always been into photography and theatrical/catwalk
make up so
it would no doubt something creative!
Setting Sun:
What would you like to be doing when you are 60?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
Living off of my royalties…under a palm tree…with a cocktail…
doing the odd tour here and there!
Setting Sun:
Lastly, what will you be doing when you are 60?
Cherry Lee Mewis:
The above hopefully!!!