San Diego blues singer Missy Anderson lived in Tempe a few years back.
She lasted six months.
“And then it was too much. I went back,” she said. “I got there in summer and I survived that. Then winter came and I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ Two extremes: Hot is hot and then cold is cold.”
Yep, she is likely the only person in recorded history to say she fled Arizona because it was too cold.
In San Diego, “we have one weather,” which at a fairly constant 70 degrees year-round is pretty terrific, she said.
She returns to Arizona in the blistering misery of summer to make her Tucson debut at The Boondocks Lounge on Friday.
Anderson, a Detroit native and longtime San Diego resident, said we can expect “pretty much anything” from her show, all of it dictated by our reception.
“I’m an opportunist. The show might change around just because of who is in the room and how they are reacting or not reacting,” she said. “Pretty much we play like we’re singing for 2,000 people even if it’s only two. If that one person, or two of those start tapping their feet, then it’s on.”
She comes here with her critically acclaimed 2014 sophomore album “In The Moment,” which helped earn her a nomination for the Blues Foundation’s 2015 Soul Blues Female Artist of the year. The winners were announced last month and Anderson fell short.
Expect to hear Anderson with her band, led by her Danish guitarist husband Heine Andersen, perform works off that album and her eponymous 2009 disc.
During a phone call from California last week, we learned a few things about Anderson, 45:
Defining blues: “My definition of blues is storytelling. And it has to be your story, even if you didn’t write the song. You have to somehow insert yourself because that’s the tradition of blues. The tradition was to tell a story, your story. ... It somehow has to come across as yours.”
Shy, but ...: “I’m timid but I did it anyway. I was terrible. I don’t know if shy is the right word, but definitely timid. ... A lot of things I didn’t do because I was just afraid. As a kid, I would actually organize these little shows in someone’s backyard, practice with these kids all summer long and then we would put on the show and make the parents pay a dollar to come see us. And I would not put the focus on me; somebody else would be the star. But I would do all of that just so I could be in the show.”
Love and a breakthrough: “Mostly it came from having met my husband (Andersen) who is my guitar player and band leader and best friend. We met on a tour here and in Europe. We were playing for another artist and I was one of the backup singers and he was the backup player in Europe. ... It took Heine and I a long time to get a conversation going, but once we did we got married in seven months. And when we were first married, he was a full-time musician and I was a part-time musician and full-time banker. When we were married for four or five years, he said, ‘I think you can front a band.’ And I said ‘I think you’re crazy.’ ... We started going to jams and every day we would work on it and it was hard, but I did it.”
Waking up to a dream: “I had just joined the Blues Foundation. ... I looked at my phone (in the middle of the night) to check and see what had happened while I was sleeping. I had an email from the Blues Foundation that was talking about the Blues Music Awards. I just scrolled through it because it was like 4 o’clock in the morning. There was a link where you could see who the nominees are. ... And at the very end, ‘Once again, congratulations Blues Music Awards nominee.’ And then I like gasped. ... That CD was out four months at the time.”
Loving the journey: “If I had known we could make a living at it — and to me making a living is paying your mortgage and feeding your cat — I would have done that a bazillion years ago. There is so much joy in doing something that you love even when it’s hard. ... It’s wonderful. I don’t make nearly as much as I did when I was in banking, but I’m probably getting into heaven now.”
