• DOUBLE 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE LP
• GATEFOLD EDITION

Cassandra Wilson started out as a jazz singer, doing gigs with several innovative bands (including Brooklyn's experimental M-Base collective) and at the same time recording typical jazz-singer let-me-entertain-you stuff — "Night and Day" and "Blue Skies" and shooby dooby dooby. Eventually the Mississippi-born New York–based vocalist, who reigned among the elite jazz singers of the 1980s, became restless, and began to look beyond torch songs for inspiration. So she looked outside of jazz for inspiration.

In interviews, she's recalled how she began seeking new challenges for her voice, a mighty instrument blessed with husky overtones and an alluringly smoky woodish hue. She began to integrate gospel and blues and pop songs into her performances, eventually assimilating them into music that blurs genre distinctions entirely. Blue Light 'til Dawn is the first album to capture that shift. It features wondrously spare, molasses-slow versions of Robert Johnson ("Come On in My Kitchen," "Hellhound on My Trail"), Philly soul (Thom Bell and Linda Creed's "Children of the Night,"), pop (Van Morrison's "Tupelo Honey"), and torch song ("You Don't Know What Love Is").

PERSONNEL:

Cassandra Wilson - (vocals)
Brandon Ross - (guitars)
Charlie Burnham - (violin, mandocell)
Kenny Davis - (bass)
Tony Cedras - (accordion)
Lance Carter - (drums, percussion)
Kevin Johnson - (snare, percussion, loose change)
Vinx - (percussion, voices)
Olu Dara - (cornet)
Don Byron - (clarinet)
Bill McClellan - (drums, percussion)
Jeff Haynes - (percussion)
Cyro Baptista - (percussion)
Gib Wharton - (pedal steel guitar)
Lonnie Plaxico - (bass)
Chris Whitley - (national resophonic guitar)

LP ONE:

A1. You Don’t Know What Love Is
A2. Come On In My Kitchen
A3. Tell Me You’ll Wait For Me

B1. Children Of The Night
B2. Hellhound On My Trail
B3. Black Crow
______________________

LP TWO:

C1. Sankofa
C2. Estrellas
C3.Redbone
C4.Tupelo Honey

D1. Blue Light ‘Til Dawn
D2. I Can’t Stand The Rain