Queen Esther

“Our admiration for Queen Esther is almost beyond measure.” — Rootstime (Belgium)

"Queen Esther is a Billie Holliday-ish singer. Her singing also somehow reminds me of Sly Stone in the way she slides a syllable from one note to another in her melodies while imbuing the note with funk and the word with poignance."— Rate Your Music

"Every song is sung with passion and fire by this underrated female singer who should be a musical giant." —Country Music People (UK)

“This wasn't the overly produced, swelling, ramped-up, modern gospel that accompanies the ubiquitous Sunday morning, religious radio shows. It was a breathtaking recreation of raw-to-the-bone, plaintive and excruciatingly heartfelt, unadorned, old-time, rural gospel music; the spiritual equivalent of Robert Johnson's worldly, piercing, early delta blues. I personally felt transported to some unassuming, rustic, backwoods, Black American church of the 1930's. Queen Esther's relation to this music through her background, (born and raised in South Carolina), and innate, exquisite sensibility, was evident, as she spoke between songs, probing the audience's knowledge of the music, while filling in a bit of the not-widely-known history of this vital and uniquely American art form. This was a beautiful, artistic and daring performance.” — Healing Arts Initiative

Read more

“Our admiration for Queen Esther is almost beyond measure.” — Rootstime (Belgium)

"Queen Esther is a Billie Holliday-ish singer. Her singing also somehow reminds me of Sly Stone in the way she slides a syllable from one note to another in her melodies while imbuing the note with funk and the word with poignance."— Rate Your Music

"Every song is sung with passion and fire by this underrated female singer who should be a musical giant." —Country Music People (UK)

“This wasn't the overly produced, swelling, ramped-up, modern gospel that accompanies the ubiquitous Sunday morning, religious radio shows. It was a breathtaking recreation of raw-to-the-bone, plaintive and excruciatingly heartfelt, unadorned, old-time, rural gospel music; the spiritual equivalent of Robert Johnson's worldly, piercing, early delta blues. I personally felt transported to some unassuming, rustic, backwoods, Black American church of the 1930's. Queen Esther's relation to this music through her background, (born and raised in South Carolina), and innate, exquisite sensibility, was evident, as she spoke between songs, probing the audience's knowledge of the music, while filling in a bit of the not-widely-known history of this vital and uniquely American art form. This was a beautiful, artistic and daring performance.” — Healing Arts Initiative

"She is depicted with a banjo on the cover, but it is the mandolin that is the dominant string instrument here, as well as what sounds like standing bass. In some songs it is laid on a light organ, elsewhere a little guitars, a steel guitar here and there, it is super nice screwed together, but it is always her voice, her crazy voice, that gets to shine and give the songs, both her own and the cover songs, wings. Not a single track is weak. No dead center." — Egon Holstad, Feedback (Norway)

"Hailing from New York City but with deep roots in the South, Queen Esther manages to exude a preservationist feel in her music while putting a distinctly modern stamp on it. Beginning to end, Gild the Black Lily is as pure and enjoyable an album of old-time country, blues, gospel and folk music as you’ll ever hear. It’s fresh and original—not an imitation—and there are other obvious music influences at work in it, but the lineage between it and old Americana music is direct and clear." - Adventures in Americana (USA)

Show less