Nora Cruz is not the type of front woman who stands onstage motionless, running through her repertoire while composing a grocery list in her mind or thinking about how she needs to wash her socks.
“My shows are really high energy,” she says. “I sing to the guitar player. I sing to the drummer. I jump off the stage and dance with the audience. It’s like a house party.”
The Santa Cruz-based rock and blues singer also has been known to pull out a few games to engage her audience. With a song list of obscure numbers like Los Lobos’ “Last Night I Got Loaded” and Sonny Landreth’s “Congo Square,” Cruz sometimes tries to get the crowd to guess what artist wrote the tune she just played. The correct guess oftentimes earns a kiss on the cheek.
Cruz says she chooses to cover numbers based on whether the song has strong lyrics and how frequently it is covered. For instance, instead of doing Ray Charles’ “Georgia On My Mind,” she does his lesser-known works like “I Gotta Lover.” “I like to educate people,” she says.
From 1986 to 1996, Cruz was known around Santa Cruz for playing originals and covers of gospel and blues numbers with guitarist and former husband Gil Cadilli. By 1996, Cruz turned her back on the music scene to focus on raising her daughter. But, then, a year and a half ago, Cruz was pushed back onstage by her ex-husband and daughter.
Three months ago, the makeup of Cruz’s new band changed with the addition of drummer Eric Gunn and guitarist Rich Cowan. “It’s so much tighter,” Cruz says of her new group. “The drummer has changed the band tremendously.”
Currently, songs from her four-song demo CD are being played on local Americana radio station KPIG. The release finds Cruz covering R&B vocalist Ruth Brown’s “Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean” along with The Pretenders’ classic rock number “Back On the Chain Gang.”
In the near future, Cruz and her new band are going to work on an album of new material. She says that when Cowan joined the band he brought along 13 original numbers that run the gamut from bluegrass to Santana-styled guitar rock to Bonnie Raitt-inspired blues. The diversity suits Cruz just fine. “That’s who I am,” she says. “I don’t like sticking to one style.”
NORA CRUZ plays Sly McFly’s, 700 Cannery Row in Monterey, Friday at 9pm. 649-8050.
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.