Premiere: Hey, Hey, Hey! Lisa St. Lou!

It's never too late

As a kid, Lisa St. Lou sacrificed her own needs for the wants and needs of her mom and dad, and later her husband and kids. Only when she sang was Lisa Number One to herself, even from the time she sang at her church in St. Louis, with her grandmother proudly beaming from the pews.

St. Lou studied music, got a Masters degree in opera, got to New York, got married, got a role the Broadway production of The Producers. But her husband’s schedule conflicted, so she had kids. Ten years later, St. Lou realized she no longer had a voice as a person and no voice as a performer, either.

In her 40s and inspired by legends like Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, Lisa St. Lou went back to the spirit that moved her to sing in church, and loosed the soaring vocals that now tell her story. As Cyril Neville said after hearing St. Lou, “Shit, I ain’t listening to her age.”

St. Lou began a collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer/songwriter Tor Hyams, and the 12 original songs that started as simple piano/vocal demos quickly morphed into an album. Meters founder Cyril Neville was drawn to the project when he heard “Whatcha’ Gonna Do.” The soul queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, threw down her signature stanky blues vocals on “Nothing Is Ever Enough (for a man).” Ain’t No Good Man was born.

St. Lou explained our Premiere to Elmore: “I saw so many women in my family give and give to men who only knew how to take. Ironically, it was never the big arguments or unforgivable acts in a relationship that seemed to cause its demise, but the little things that tipped the scale towards ending it all. Those small, seemingly benign actions that the other person does on a daily basis are what seem to push a person past their tolerance level and into absolute intolerance. In the case of this tune…well…I won’t give it away.”