Shelley Fisher is one of the last of the red-hot mamas. At 63, the Memphis-born singer is still belting out blues, rock and country in feisty fashion. Despite numerous professional setbacks and disappointments, she hasn't quit on herself. On the contrary, she has taken on one of the theater's toughest challenges -- a solo show. Called The Hebrew Hillbilly, the piece is now on tap at the Santa Monica Playhouse, with the veteran singer more than holding her own for ninety minutes of music and patter, backed up by Harold Payne and Kenneth Hirsch on keyboard and guitar.
Fisher, as the title of her show indicates, is Jewish, a fact this Delta diva pokes fun at, referring to herself more than once as Scarlett O'Horowitz. Her conventional middle-class parents wanted her to become a teacher and marry a nice Jewish boy; Fisher succumbed to the pressure and obeyed those dictates for a while, only to realize, after a divorce and several disasters in the classroom, that she could only be happy singing the music she loved.
Back to show business she went, appearing at clubs like BB King's and Playboy International and eventually signing a contract with Fantasy Records. With the help of admirers like Elvis Presley--"you've got a spark," he told her -- she came close to making it big, only to miss out because of a bit of bad luck.
But instead of quitting on herself, she has persevered as a singer, working whenever and wherever she could -- in clubs, dives and dumps, as she puts it. And now, in her sixth decade, here she is, working in a small theater but still cracking wise about herself, still singing those good old down-home blues.
