Carolyn Gaines comes from a family with a huge musical pedigree His father, well known guitar player and singer Roy Gaines, backed both Billie Holiday and, several years later, Diana Ross, and his uncle, sax player Grady Gaines, performed with Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Gladys Knight or The Supremes among others His father introduced her in the blues world, making her listen to his Bessie Smith records Carolyn learned to sing the blues listening attentively to all those albums by the Empress and other singers, although she never thought about starting a music career Over the years she has carried out many activities related to the blues and music in general, participating in Blues On Schools educational programs, as well as publishing countless articles and interviews, worked in publicity and radio promotion and has worked as manager to both his father and his uncle However her career would not have been complete if she had not decided to show and share her skills as singer, what she has done now with an unquestionable quality and success in this, her first album Backed by a high quality band where you will find her cousin Grady Gaines Jr and Big Jay McNeeley, both on tenor sax, Carolyn performs eleven songs where she shows all her strength, emotional passion and vocal qualities, with some nuances that sometimes could bring to mind Big Mama Thornton’s memory This is a fabulous blues and rhythm and blues album which should not be overlooked