Always the Queen: The Denise LaSalle Story

Soul and blues singer LaSalle recounts her life in this shimmering, posthumously published memoir. Writing with Whiteis (Blues Legacy), LaSalle (1934–2018) recalls singing all the time as a child growing up in Belzoni, Miss., where she picked cotton and dreamed of performing in front of large audiences. As a teenager, she studied the piano after coming back from the fields and began writing songs during her shift at a local dry cleaner. She eventually made her way to Chicago where she played the club circuit and was signed by Chess Records, although they never recorded her. She switched to a small label where she recorded a few songs during the 1960s, but it wasn’t until 1971 that she scored a hit with “Trapped by a Thing Called Love.” She honed her stage act, started three record labels, and become an astute businesswoman, and charted again in the mid-1970s with “Married, but Not to Each Other,” which later became a hit with country singer Barbara Mandrell (LaSalle admits that when she’s writing songs she often hears them as country songs). LaSalle’s pride in being a songwriter, performer, and producer rings loudly, and she acknowledges that “God has been truly, truly good to me.” This is an empowering story, soulfully told. (June)