Lauren Mitchell, who won a Grammy as a guest vocalist on the album "Basie Swings the Blues," has received the kind of accolades and reviews that publicists dream of. Blues Music Magazine calls her a "mesmerizing performer with a voice for the ages." Music director and guitarist Josh Sklair, who worked with Mitchell on her 2017 breakthrough, Desire, has compared her to the woman whose recordings he produced for a quarter century: Etta James. Scotty Barnhart, the director of the Count Basie Orchestra, considers her "one of the most important blues artists working today." - Boleto City
I can't sing these kind of songs and not fully understand the emotions behind them. Blues and soul music comes from a place that has to be honest. If you're going to sing about heartbreak and make your audience or listener feel what you're singing about, you have better experienced some heartbreak in your life. Otherwise it's going to come across as empty.
We have to be truthful and honest. If we, as artists, cannot express ourselves honestly, then what good are we to ourselves? to our friends and families? to our society? We have to reflect the good, and sometimes the bad in this world so others can see themselves and find their own way.
Listen to "Today"
I started professional voice lessons at age nine, with Michael Canastraro, who I studied with through most of high school. He taught me everything I know about the voice and the mechanics of singing. He was very strict. I wasn't allowed to sing in his studio in English until I mastered singing in Italian. We worked on a lot of opera and art songs. I was doing Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi in Micheal's studio, then going home to listen to gut-bucket blues.
The lessons taught me a good portion of singing is your breath: being able to use all of the available muscles to raise and expand the rib cage, giving the lungs more room to expand; to fully breath into the diaphragm, using the muscles in the lower abdomen to control the airflow that comes up through the esophagus to the vocal folds, which are very thin and extremely fragile, like tissue paper. That is why singers have problems from abusing their voice. I also learned ways to shape the mouth, move the tongue, and adjust the soft palate to create different sounds. Your sinus cavities are like the bell of a horn. That is where the sound comes out, so if you can change the shape of the bell, then you can change the way a word sounds.
Listen to "Hard Times Come Again No More"*
When I was younger, I was singing in the lyric soprano range, way up in the rafters. That is not the case any more. The female voice does not typically mature and become what it is supposed to be until around the age of forty. So it is no shock that my voice now is in the basement. I sing lower than most women, and even a few men! I discovered that I had really big lungs and had lots of power behind my voice.
At the top of my list is Etta James. She had that low register which I identify with. She had a way of presenting a song that really got down to business, digging in and touching the emotions and the meaning of the song. She was able to interpret brilliantly. On her Live From San Francisco album, she did a cover of the Eagles "Take It To The Limit" that gives that song a whole new meaning. That is the way the song is supposed to be sung, as far as I'm concerned. For my album, Desire, a bunch of the guys I recorded with had worked with her. They told me some stories, how she didn't take any prisoners. I don't do that either.
The past can, and will, inform my creativity, but I won't be able to create anything if I'm not here. now. Living the life I've been given instead of longing for one I may have missed. No matter what life hands you, you can and will recover if you just "keep walking through the fire."
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Lauren Mitchell in Concert - fundraiser
Saturday, September 12, doors open at 5pm
Yambu Gallery, Las Palmas 11, Col. San Antonio
Jack Joshua - bass, Patricio Méndez - piano Yala Torres - violin and vocals, Victor Monterrubio -drums Tickets: $750, VIP $1250 Boleto City
The fundraising event will include a reception, a gallery opening, and a silent auction, with offerings that include high-end artwork, along with other prized items, experiences, and services.
Doors open at 5pm, concert seating commences at 6pm, and the auction is scheduled to conclude around 9:00pm. There are two ticket prices, 1250 MX for VIP, and 750 MX for General Admission. VIP ticketholders will have preferred seating, a complimentary drink created by award-winning mixologist Erik Andrews, and a curated light meal. There will be a cash bar and additional food for purchase available to all ticketholders.
The beneficiary of the fundraiser is the Little Picassos program, headed by Efrain Gonzalez of the Somos Language Center in Col. San Antonio. This is an afterschool program open to mostly at-risk children between the ages of 5 and 12. The children receive a meal, and training from Maestro Gonzalez and a host of volunteers in drawing with graphite and pastel as well as painting in all mediums. Once they have reached age 13, graduates of Little Picassos have the opportunity to apply for admission to the Instituto Allende's art program. - Boleto City
Some quotes from Lauren Mitchell have been gathered from previous interviews. Please see more there: Blues Blast Magazine Blues.gr
*"Hard Times Come Again No More" - by Steven Foster, performed by Lauren Mitchell, vocals & Michael "The Professor" Hensley, piano, recorded live by Myles Wakeham at Troubled Clef Studios, SMA, February 2026
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