Clara McDaniel

As a teenager she began hanging out, dancing, and singing at St. Louis clubs like the Dynaflow at Glasgow and Cass where she heard Ike and Tina, the Caravan at Garrison and Franklin where she worked with Big George and Big Bad Smitty, and Ned Love's in East St. Louis where she sang with Albert King. This was the beginning of a long relationship with Albert. Clara toured the South with him, playing Little Rock and Marianna, Arkansas, and Mound Bayou, Tunica, Belzona and Yazoo City in Mississippi. Back in St. Louis, Clara managed Albert's fleet of taxicabs. She hung out with Little Milton, David Dee, Eugene and Curtis Neal, Charles Drain and Little Willie Richardson, all the while soaking up the blues music around her.

For the past fifteen years she has held two jobs and raised a family, always playing out on weekends for the love of the music. She played Sadie's Personality on Union with Tommy Bankhead, Georgia's, the Starlight, Miss Whitt's, Spinks', the Blue Swan, and Spraggin's Hacienda.

Clara's huge repetoire includes lots of hard blues; Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and her favorite, Elmore James, but also extends to classic rhythm and blues and deep soul, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding, Aretha, O.V. Wright, Bobby Bland and Denise LaSalle.

For the rest of `96 Clara appeared at most of the popular clubs in St. Louis, including the Broadway Oyster Bar, BB's, The Venice Café, Riddle's, Jeff's Famous and the Tap Room.

In June of `97 Clara recorded her first CD, "Unwanted Child" for HighTone Records with special guest Johnnie Johnson on piano. Later in the year she appeared at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago with Johnnie.

In July of `97 she appeared for seven days at the Festa New Orleans Music En Ascona event in several cities in Switzerland. In December of `97 she appeared for a week at the Blues Hall, Athens, Greece.

In `98 she was a nominee in the Living Blues Awards for Female Blues Artist of the Year. Here's what the European blues press has to say:

Blues & Rhythm, England "once of the best acts we've ever seen...eleven out of ten to all concerned"

Juke Blues, England "as tight and tough a set of no frills blues, soul and R&B as you could ever wish for."

Blues Gazette, Belgium "she made a really big impact on the crowd...powerful vocals...a first class performance."

Blues & Rhythm, England "magic...Clara's powerful vocal and charismatic stage presence deserve a wider audience."

Blueprint, England "a mistress of the art...they had to be dragged off the stage so the next act could come on."

Here's what Juke Blues had to say, "If Clifford Curry got excited about girls who were "Stacked At The Back" he would have had a seizure at the sight of Clara McDaniel. However, Big Clara is more than just another rotund gravel throated shouter: she can sing well and has a super stage personality to match her figure. Together with the magnificent five-piece Magnatones featuring Bennie Smith on guitar and vocals (previously seen with Screamin' Joe Neal [and Big Bad Smitty! ed.] ) and Erskine Ogelsby on tenor (a past Estafette visitor with The Kings Of Rhythm) they performed as tight and tough a set of no frills blues, soul and R&B as you could ever wish for. The crowd (and your correspondents) really got wound up when Clara started shakin'. An encore was demanded and her version of the current Ollie Nightingale hit "I Want To Drink Your Bath Water ('Cause It Tastes Just Like Lemonade)" was a perfect finale. If you win the lottery this is the band for your party, but don't forget to invite us."

Tony Collins, Seamus McGarvey, Bill MIllar, Richard Tapp and Dave Williams

And this from Blues & Rhythm: The Gospel Truth:

"The wonderful Big Clara, voted "discovery of the year" by our Utrecht team.

"How do you describe Big Clara & The Magnatones? Brought over by Joel Slotnikoff, the man who brought us Big Bad Smitty, Clara has to be one of the best acts we've ever seen. Hailing from St. Louis, Clara, who (as far as we can make out from the Dutch programme notes!) used to manage Albert King's taxis, certainly lives up to her description in both build and voice. She quite simply tore the place apart. Clara certainly has no six o'clock figure: built from the ground up and crowned with a tiara, there's lots of her and mighty shapely. she also has a great voice, somewhere between Etta James in her prime, Big Maybelle and Tiny Topsy. Add a cooking R&B band featuring Bennie Smith who admits, in a quiet, unassuming manner, to having taught Ike Turner to play guitar, and you get the picture. The show must have been pretty much like the early Ike & Tina revues in St. Louis, especially in the way that Bennie started the vocal on a few nuybers, with Clara joining in halfway. Their set covered a variety of styles, from Muddy and Elmore to Percy Sledge and Bobby Bland, and all succeeded magnificently, from Albvert King's "Truckload of Loving" to the unrehearsed encore, Ollie Nighingale's "I'll Drink Your Bathwater, Baby." Eleven out of ten to all concerned: for the record the rest of the band superbly steered and driven by Bennie, were Sharon Foehner on bass, Rayburn Hayes (drums), Abram "Falstaff" Foster (Clara's hubby) on keyboards, and saxman Erskine Ogelsby."