A Jersey girl by way of Detroit, blues-rock belter Eliza Neals is all over the map with Breaking and Entering (E-H Records). It comes on the heels of her Messin’ With A Fool, so you'd think she’d have learned her lessons by now. Not this gal! She's rough 'n' tough. I know I wouldn't mess with her. Buoyed by stinging guitarist Howard Glazer and produced by Mike Puwal (a real pro), this lesson in bombast also has a nifty little guest shot by Kid Rock guitarist Kenny Olsen.
It’s a solid effort with no filler. All 12 tracks rock, especially “Detroit Drive” (that town is known for its gritty music), the title track, “Jekyll And A Hound,” “Goo Goo Glass,” “Sugar Daddy” and “I’m The Girl.” Multi-instrumentalist Tyrone Smith provides the icing on this cake by blowing some sax, tickling the ivories and playing that Hammond B-3. Lizz Kristi and Renee Fleming coo out the obligatory background vocals to sweeten Neals' pulsing throaty screeches, howls, purrs and phlegmy protestations. By the time the closing radio edit of the title tune crackles home, you’re tired and sweaty.
Neals is one of those tough girls with a hard exterior but insides that melt, the perfect synthesis laid down by the greats of yesteryear. To that end, she has, indeed, learned her lessons (just not with the opposite sex, if you believe her lyrics). Vulnerability hidden by a crass demeanor is a world-weary exercise in female detachment. Neals plays it to the hilt. Recorded in old-school analog (as opposed to being digital-clean), you can draw a not-so-straight line between classic names like Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown, Etta James and Janis Joplin right on up through today’s brand of red hot mama like Shemekia Copeland and Sena Ehrhardt. This is what Eliza Neals strives for. More often than not, she succeeds.
