Kansas City/Basin Street Blues/Los Angeles Blues/I Lost My Sugar In Salt Lake City/The Grain Belt Blues/New York City Blues/Goin’ To Chicago Blues/San Francisco Blues/Fisherman Wharf/Boston Beans/The Train Blues/ St. Louis Blues
Blues Cross Country in unusual album from Peggy Lee as she sings the blues to a backdrop of American locations. A young Quincy Jones provides the orchestrations.
“The results aren't perfect, but Blues Cross Country is a concept album with blues and road song themes. Although there isn't much outright jazz, the sensibility is there just beneath the surface.”
“This incredible LP brings together the wondrous vocals of Miss Lee and tremendous orchestrations by Quincy Jones. Every track is a show-stopper, intricately woven together with hard-hitting vocals and tender ballads. Basin Street Blues is enough to make you cry, while Kansas City can blow out your speakers.”
“While this album has a definite bluesy feel, I'm not sure that this can be truly described as a blues album (it is quite upbeat - more of a big band album than a blues album). However, it is a masterpiece so who cares?”
“Peggy co-wrote about half the songs here, the remainder being covers of classics songs sometimes re-interpreted by Peggy - so even these songs may not sound quite as you might expect, but everything here is brilliant. There is a mix of swinging uptempo songs with tender ballads.”
“It is hard to pick highlights from an album of such outstanding quality, so I won't. From the opening Kansas City to the closing this is an album of never-ending delights, recorded by a lady at the peak of her powers.”
“Her voice is in its prime, with that enveloping, sensual airy cushion of sound yet capable of manifesting surprising power when the need arises (it's easy to forget that she came up as a big band singer). She makes the familiar tunes Basin Street and St. Louis Blues sound fresh, while the new material sounds instantly approachable. The arrangements of Quincy Jones simply seal the deal.”
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