Elise LeGrow is a Canadian artist who has just released an album of covers of Chess Records songs. Something that might interest those who love blues and R&B, provided that they don’t mind covers with significant divergences from the original songs. Here are five things that you may or may not have known about Elise LeGrow:
Genre Hopper
Some artists chose to stay within what can be considered the orthodoxy of their musical genres. LeGrow is not one of these artists. Instead, she is a blatant genre hopper, as shown by the fact that she used to sing jazz songs on her own before going on to sing alt rock songs with her rock band Whale Tooth on the same nights. As a result, LeGrow’s career is interesting in that she has never had a clear path to commercial success because of her wide-ranging preferences when it comes to music.
People Asked Her What Her Endgame Was
In fact, when LeGrow was engaging in discussions with various record labels, she would outright be asked about what her endgame was. Some of the people she talked with even asked her whether she had ever thought about doing something like pop music, which suggests that they thought well of her singing skills if not necessarily her wide-ranging preferences when it comes to music.
Has Released Playing Chess
With that said, LeGrow managed to release an EP in 2012 that met with a fair amount of success. For proof, look no further than the fact that one of its songs is seeing use in a shampoo commercial in Indonesia of all places. However, the most important part is that it managed to catch the interest of Steve Greenberg, the head of S-Curve Records. Something that has led to her release of Playing Chess, which is a full-length album full of her covers of songs from the Chess Records catalog.
“The Enemy Is Indifference”
At one point in time, LeGrow has outright stated that, “The enemy is indifference.” As far as she is concerned, she is perfectly fine if there are people who are not fond of her covers, which have taken significant liberties when it came to interpretation. In fact, LeGrow specifically intended for Playing Chess to be provocative to some extent because dislike is better than complete and utter indifference.
A Little Bit Reminiscent of Joss Stone
On a side note, it should be mentioned that LeGrow’s first full-length album is more than a little bit reminiscent of how Joss Stone’s career launched into high gear way back in the early 2000s. After all, she too had a album that consisted of cover songs. This is perhaps unsurprising considering that both projects were intended for S-Curve Records, which makes sense when one realizes that Greenberg was responsible for both of them. As for Greenberg’s reasoning in regards to LeGrow, he has stated that the first full-length album is intended to build interest in LeGrow’s voice, which has a side benefit in that it is faster to make than creating a full-length album of original music.
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