You have to be heading for the Swing Club to find it, a couple of turns off I-35 on Evans Avenue on the south side of Fort Worth. The only thing that marks the shabby cinder-block building is the "open" sign that glows in neon over the door and the cars jumbled in the parking lot and filing down the side street.

It's Sunday night, and inside the dimly lit room, the scent of frying fish hangs in the air. Knots of people sit drinking at the bar or lounge around the pool tables. But at the tables surrounding the mirror-backed stage (really just a corner of the dance floor), all eyes are riveted on Lady Pearl, an imposing, majestic presence in a smart black-and-white outfit of her own design, tearing it up with her BTA, "Better Than Average," Showband.

Lady Pearl carries herself with even more dignity than her name would suggest -- quite a feat when she's singing lyrics like "One leg to the east / One leg to the west / You there in the middle/ Trying to do your best." During the opening set, she uses her cordless mic to direct the band from a seat at a table by the bandstand before taking command of the stage. As the evening progresses, she holds the crowd's attention with her powerful gospel-soul delivery.

Her most dramatic moment comes at the end of "Last Three Dollars" (a rewrite of Johnnie Taylor's "Last Two Dollars"). The band holds an ominous, rumbling chord while she preaches a sermon about "laying up in the bed with my man" when his wife calls, begging to know what she can do to keep him. When the tension in the music is almost unbearable and the emotion in Lady Pearl's testimony reaches a fever pitch, the band segues into her response, the uptempo "It Ain't What You Do (It's How You Do It)." A mix of seasoned pros, black and white, the BTA Showband is down and dirty enough to satisfy all but the most snobbish purist, but with the showbiz flair that black audiences demand. NEXT »

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