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Never too late

Sometimes the title of a project says it all.

"It's Never Too Late" is the solo debut CD from Donna Hall, a Mobilian who's been singing professionally for more than 30 years. It's something her family, friends and fans have been wanting for years. And it's right on time.

Hall is a sister to Jack and Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie, a Southern rock group that broke out of Mobile and went to national fame in the '70s. She was touring the country as a "Williette" backup singer by the time she was 20.

She has continued to sing with a latter-day version of the group that has toured since the early '90s. Closer to home, she also has lent her voice to "renegade bluegrass" band Rollin' in the Hay and local group Hank Becker & The Boogie Chillin.

Her pure voice and graceful stage presence have won her a legion of fans, but she's mostly kept the spotlight off herself.

"I've got very talented brothers, and my comfort zone is singing background vocals," she said. Up until now, she said, the only place she's really sung lead is in the choir at Kingswood United Methodist Church.

Credit some friends with pushing her out of her comfort zone and into the limelight. At the top of the list, she said, are Wet Willie guitarist Ric Seymour, who produced the album at his own Groove Lab Studios outside Atlanta, and Rollin' in the Hay bassist Stan Foster, to whom Hall is engaged.

"They double-teamed me," Hall said.

Once started, the project took 14 months to put together. Most of the studio time was weekend work, squeezed in around Rollin' in the Hay's touring schedule, Hall's day job and other commitments.

"If we weren't best friends it never would have happened," Hall said, praising Seymour's patience.

Most of the album was recorded at Seymour's studio, but pieces came from elsewhere. John Anthony, founding keyboardist for Wet Willie and a Boogie Chillin stalwart, nailed part of one of the album's best songs, "Good at Being Blue," after a Wet Willie show in Natchez, Miss.

Jimmy Hall's saxophone, along with the voices of Hall's mother and sisters, were captured at "Mama Hall's house" in Mobile, the same home where Wet Willie practiced so many years ago.

"It's well-traveled," Foster said of the album.

The result is a distillation of Hall's musical and familial history. It's one-third Wet Willie boogie, one-third gospel, and one third kitchen sink, with everything from bluegrass to blues. Numerous Hall family voices are featured, and one of Hall's sons even designed the CD jacket artwork.

Wet Willie's talented musicians are well represented, as are friends in the Boogie Chillin. Hank Becker himself wrote the title song and couldn't be more pleased.

"I'm real proud of her," Becker said. "I'm just proud and delighted she's doing it."

"She's got a lot of people who really care about her," he said. "She's always been talented, now she's bringing it to the front."

Sean Sullivan, an air personality for WZEW-FM 92.1 and an enthusiastic Hall fan, seconded that view.

"When she did this album, she put together some great musicians," he said. Factor in her "excellent voice quality" and it's music he's happy to play, he said, particularly cuts such as her sultry take on "Oh Atlanta" and "Good at Being Blue." The Hall family's extensive roots in Mobile don't hurt either, Sullivan said. "People are excited about this," he said.

Friends and family

Hall officially rolls out the album on Sunday with a show at the Beach House Grill on the Causeway. Wes Loper opens at 5 p.m.; Hall and friends follow at about 7 p.m. Admission is $10.

The core band will feature Foster and Jack Hall alternating on bass, Anthony on keyboards, T.K. Lively on drums, Ricky Chancey and Seymour on guitar. Numerous guests are likely to sit in, with possibilities including Becker, fellow Williette Ella Avery and even Hall's mother, LaVera Hall.

"That was her first question," Hall said. "'Well how am I going to get up on the stage?'"

Hall said the show will cover most of her album and probably will include nods to Wet Willie, Rollin' in the Hay and the Boogie Chillin.

The album itself, if nothing else, stands as a testament to musical friendships. Hall wrote only one song herself and covered two from Wet Willie, "Don't Turn Me Away" and "Have a Good Time."

"We didn't have any kind of a plan," Hall said. Many of the choices were based simply on "things I like to listen to," she said.

Christian Grizzard, a Mobile bassist formerly of Kung Fu Mama, now living in Nashville and performing with Bee Speed, had a song that he thought was perfect for Hall.

The tune, "Good at Being Blue," would turn out to be a high point of the album, sounding like a classic from the great American songbook. LaVera Hall, among others, singled it out as her favorite.

Other friends contributed songs as well. Jacob Bunton of rock band Lynam and Barry Waldrep of Rollin' in the Hay wrote "I'm So Tired," a standout track with a bluegrass flavor.

Others just wanted to get in on the music.

"People were calling us," Foster said. "David Hood said, 'I'll play on it, tell me when you want me.'"

For Foster, one of the thrills of the album is that he shares bass duties with Jack Hall, whom he admires, and Hood, a legend of the Muscle Shoals recording scene.

LaVera Hall, too, was not to be kept out of the room when her other two daughters, Cindy McQuillen and Susie Davis, were harmonizing on the title track.

"I thought, 'Let me go in there and give them that middle note,'" she said.

It's only one of many musical and familial bonds that come full circle on "It's Never Too Late."

According to Seymour, Joey Huffman, who played piano and helped mix the album, entered music as a huge fan of John Anthony's playing with Wet Willie.

Seymour himself says "I was a Wet Willie fan from 1973," who was on cloud nine when he was tapped to join the band nearly 20 years later.

Hall credits Becker with coaxing her out of the background as she worked with the Boogie Chillin.

"He pushed me to the forefront," she said. "I learned a lot."

But then, Becker remembers the days when he was just another fan, seeing Wet Willie open for a couple other noteworthy acts at RFK Memorial Stadium in Washington, D.C.

"The first time I ever saw Donna Hall, she was on stage with the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead," he said.

Hall herself says it all goes back to harmonizing with family. "You have to be flexible," she said. "You have to learn how to pick out a part."

LaVera Hall agrees.

"Music is such an integral part of this family," she said. She, husband Jack Sr. and their six children might not have been wealthy, she said, but that was okay.

"We had music as a rejoicer," she said.

Making music

Don't expect Sunday's CD release show to be the start of a grand Donna Hall tour. As much singing and touring as she's done, she's never gigged around under her own name.

Between work, her life with Foster and her family, she seems perfectly content not to go chasing new fame.

"I'm very proud to be 53 and a grandmother," she said. "I wasn't laboring under the impression this was going to be a whole new career for me."

LaVera Hall, ever the proud mother, is impressed with the latest album in the Hall family collection.

"It was a great surprise," she said of "It's Never Too Late." "It started out to be a family thing, just for posterity."

And needless to say, she's happy to see another child getting recognition for her work. Donna has always been willing to sing, LaVera Hall said, whether it paid or not.

"She has given her talent to the world," LaVera Hall said.

"She won't brag enough."

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