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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Gypsy Spirit Singer Curtis Salgado Brings Passion To His Hot-Wired Performances

Don Adair Correspondent

Curtis Salgado is a wandering soul gypsy.

“My job is going from town to town and getting up on stage butt naked - I might as well be - and singing my heart out,” the fiery singer said this week during a phone interview. “And either you like it or you don’t.”

Salgado, who appears Saturday with his band, the Stilettos, at the Davenport Hotel, brings a brash, sexy attitude to the stage. He’s a hotwire soul shouter who once saturated the Robert Cray Band with is passionate vocals and nuclear harp.

Cray was cool and reserved; Salgado was in-your-face.

In fact, that’s what he named his first band after leaving Cray - In Yo Face.

Salgado was born in Everett and hails from Portland, but his reputation is national. He sang for Roomful of Blues for two years and even made a run at fronting Santana, though the rigors of sharing the stage with Carlos Santana proved too trying.

Now. Salgado is happily building his promising solo career. He’s released two strong records which showcase what he calls an “eclectic mix of musical ideas.”

Eclectic is right. His influences range from gospel singer O.V. Wright to Prince, from Marvin Gaye to Funkadelic. His latest CD, “More Than You Can Chew,” was produced by Marlon McClain who’s best known for his work with Dazz Band and En Vogue.

A third CD, which could be released as soon as fall, will likely lean toward the blues, Salgado said with a hint of resignation, “because everybody tells me I need to do a blues record.”

That will be good news for the folks who like their blues plain and simple, but Salgado would like to open their ears to other possibilities.

“There’s too much good music out there to get into one bag. It’s almost 2000, man - there’s just too much good music out there.

“I usually make records that are not blues records, but there are blues on them. If I make a blues record, it’s not going to be Curtis Salgado doing Robert Johnson, or Curtis Salgado doing Muddy Waters. It’s going to be me doing my blues.”

You can bet it won’t be a record full of shuffles and rumbas but it will be made with an eye toward growing the market share. Ask him what record he would make in a perfect world and he tells you with a laugh just what you would expect to hear from a first-class musician whose relationship with the big-time is best defined as a series of near-misses.

“In a perfect world, it would be cool to make a blues record, just a really raunchy, bluesy record that sells a kajillion copies - that would be a perfect world.”

The important thing to realize is that on any given night, Salgado and his band are capable of blowing away the best of them.

Last November, they opened a series of historic shows for Steve Miller at San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium, the site of many great Miller jams from the late ‘60s.

The way the San Francisco Examiner’s Philip Elwood saw it, Salgado took Miller’s measure on at least one night: “Best performance of the evening was an untitled blues selection performed by the Salgado band … .”

Salgado is gracious about the praise - “Phil gets what we’re doing” - and leaps to Miller’s defense. “Steve was laying it down: Steve is trimmed and sort of polished. We’re polished too, but we’re more aggressive.”

Aggression - it’s a big part of what makes Salgado hot. His music is daring and just a little dangerous. It’s outlaw music because it gets so close to passion.

“And that’s why women dig it,” he says with a wink implied in his longdistance voice, “because it’s a passion.”

Just call him Curtis Salgado, wandering gypsy of soul.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: CURTIS SALGADO AND THE STILETTOS Location and time: Davenport Hotel, Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $12 ($13 at the door) and you must be at least 21 to attend; available at Street Music and G&B

This sidebar appeared with the story: CURTIS SALGADO AND THE STILETTOS Location and time: Davenport Hotel, Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Tickets: $12 ($13 at the door) and you must be at least 21 to attend; available at Street Music and G&B;