RIP Etta James: Dark n Stormy – 5:00 Fridays

Etta James died today.

I’m no music aficionado, and most people would say my taste in music sucks. I am admittedly stuck in the 80s and still like to get my groove on to cheesy 70s tunes. Andy Kim, anyone? However, I was one of those music club suckers back in the day. I filled out the forms in the back of Parade in the Sunday paper to get 12 free CDs from Columbia House and BMG. I was recently divorced (oh, another story for another day, folks) and living in my very own apartment near downtown Minneapolis. I was living alone for the first time in my life and I had some adjustments to make. I had splurged on a little Aiwa bookshelf mini stereo with two cassette decks and a CD player so I could easily make mix tapes (a staple for our road trippin’ back then). I was under the tutelage of my musicologist friend Tony while building my CD collection. I had an ample stack of what he coined “bad” music and was trying to diversify my tunes. I figured I was in need of some grown up music, the sort of thing I’d have playing while reading the Sunday paper with my two cats curled up at my toes. And so began my search for Sunday music.

I opted for some classical music, thinking it might make me feel seem erudite. I bought some jazz and actually remembered some artists from the history of jazz class I took in college where I spent most of my time doing the daily crossword puzzle in the Cavalier Daily. Something struck me to try some Etta James. I needed some female representation in my growing collection (Bananarama wasn’t buying me any street cred as a newly independent single woman living the life of Mary Tyler Moore). I listened to Etta James’ passionate trills on days I was learning to be by myself. She conjured up emotions I wasn’t comfortable confronting and she made me feel like I should sit up straighter and hold my shoulders back to make myself a force.

Etta James crooned to me Don’t Cry Baby and made me stand up for myself and not be a Pushover. I listened to Etta sing in my little apartment and curled my slippered feet underneath me while I sat on my preppy blue plaid couch with candles lit all around, cup of mint tea in hand. I scribbled in my journal and flipped through Southern Living magazine, missing home. I discovered a sense of quiet calm and learned that there are worse things to swallow than pride.

Thanks for shaping me into a stronger, more confidant woman, Etta James, especially when my skies were bursting with Stormy Weather.

Dark n’ Stormy

1 1/2 – 2 ounces Goslings Black Seal Rum
8 ounces ginger beer
Squeeze of fresh lime

Pour rum over ice in a tall glass. Top with ginger beer and squeeze in lime. Stir. Sip. Sit up straight.