"One of Us"
Des Moines City View (Oct. 1, 2014)
"BeJae Fleming wasn’t born in Iowa. She doesn’t currently live here. But Fleming stands shoulder to shoulder with names like Joe Price, Bo Ramsey and Greg Brown as part of a group that was indispensable in creating the Iowa Sound: the Trailer Records artists."
"Destination Unimportant," BeJae Fleming
Such a great Southern Blues album that I just put it on repeat. BeJae has a beautiful raspy voice, sings with quiet passion and (of course) honesty. Her songwriting is superb. She's been called one of the best lyricists in the state.
Kris Konrady - Des Moines Juice (Dec 28, 2006)
City Sounds: Like a complete unknown
By Michael Swanger michael@dmcityview.com
Veteran singer-songwriter BeJae Fleming prefers the road less traveled.
There are days when BeJae Fleming locks herself in a room and plays guitar for hours on end until her fingers wear out in a futile attempt to cool her creative fires ...
(Click on Cityview Link for full article.)
Photo by Roger D. Feldhans. At Ritual Cafe, Des Moines, IA.
Photo by Jimmy Stevens. At Stomping Grounds, Ames, IA.
Artist: BeJae Fleming
CD: Navigating Limbo
Home: Iowa
Style: Folk/Blues
Quote: "BeJae can do it all, but blues seems to be her specialty.”
BeJae Fleming, a veteran performer based in Iowa, would probably be best described as a blueswoman -- although this smoky-voiced singer-songwriter can easily cross over into folk, country and even some good ol' rock 'n' roll and sound like she invented it. BeJae can do it all, but blues seems to be her specialty ...
Gut-level passion just pours from her rough-edged vocals as she belts out "Your Love is a Car," the one high-speed rocker with Victor Sanders' electric guitar giving it the instrumental horsepower. Then, there's more energy and passion, only slowed down a bit as she saves her bluesy tunes for the last half of the CD (15 songs in all): "Got Somebody" -- a slowdown Delta blues style where she's joined by Dave Moore's wailing harmonica and offers her own Maria Muldaur-sounding vocals and accomplished acoustic slide...which also serves as a gorgeous intro to the next song called "One More Try."
Then, there's the very standard-sounding, slow-burning acoustic/electric, piano-guitar-harmonica "Slip Through" -- a slinky, seductive song that conjures up visions of dark, smoky Deep South blues bars.
A note here about BeJae's vocals -- her energy and passion are punctuated by her weepy slide and she does have a distinctive sound, but there are times, as noted, she sounds very much like several other notable female vocalists: Marcia Ball, Kim Carnes, Lucy Kaplansky (yep! hard r's) and she even exhibits the elasticity of Jewel. Maybe versatility would be a good word to use here.
One of the CD's best tunes, if not THE best, is one she seems to have a LOT of fun performing. It's energetic, sexy, playful, seductive and very, very bluesy with some incredible, positively evil-sounding electric slide guitar from Bo Ramsey:
"I cover up my imperfections, I put my make-up on
Shave my legs all the way up. I put a short skirt on
I can make the boys like me with the same dress time and again
I can make the boys like me; I just can't make myself like them...
I got it down to a science, got it down to an art...
Well my mama taught me well; it's second nature to me now don't even have to think about it
It's so easy when you know how..."
BeJae's got the science of her craft down pat, but more than that, she's got the heart-felt passion that makes it second-nature -- and without even trying, she can make you absolutely love her!
Excellent second album by this incredible artist. Red Cross Woman was great, Navigating Limbo ROCKS! From "Dive for the Ditches" to "Cutaway" to "Navigating Limbo" to "She Walks the Wire" BeJae weaves stories you'll want to hear again and again. BeJae unplugged, in person, is even better than the album, if that is possible. If you aren't lucky enough to catch BeJae Fleming in person, both Red Cross Woman and Navigating Limbo are must buy albums! (and, if you are lucky enough to see Bejae in person, I'll wager you'll buy the albums as well, if you don't already have them, so you can keep on listening again and again).
Photo by Bryan Farland. At Ritual Cafe, Des Moines, IA.