If pressed, Sue Palmer could hold her own with some of music’s greatest when dropping the names of greenrooms in which she’s bided her time. From posh Parisian dressing rooms stocked with caviar and champagne to lackluster lounges in Duluth, Minn., it is from these backstage areas she has emerged to whip crowds into submission with her sultry piano stylings.

As a longtime musical collaborator of blues diva Candye Kane, Palmer has traveled throughout Europe and the world with her beehive hairdo, outrageous outfits and trademark, left-hand boogie-woogie blues.

On her fourth solo recording, the San Diego Music Awards-winner finds herself back In the Green Room, albeit in a retro, personal sort of way.

The space Palmer refers to in the title of her new CD is not, however, the kitchen at Martinis Above Fourth, where she performs Thursday nights. It is the olive-colored living room of her parents’ Ocean Beach home.

A visit to the Palmer household in the 1960s, as she recalls, required picking up some form of music-making device and either banging or blowing one’s way through a family jam session.

“I have friends that I went to high school with that go, ‘Oh, I remember that. We used to go over there and you had to sit there and clap or they’d get mad at you,’” recalled Palmer with a laugh.

Paying homage to both family tradition and her musical roots, Palmer’s new CD includes an impromptu jam session recorded in her Talmadge home. A video of the living room session is included as an enhanced track on In the Green Room.

The low-fi video includes inveterate Palmer collaborators such as trombonist April West, drummer Sharon Shufelt, guitarist Steve Wilcox and vocalist Deejha Marie. Alongside them are Palmer’s mother, Dot Palmer, strumming a ukulele, and longtime friend Chris Kehoe on guitar.

Known more for her tenure as state senator from San Diego than as the next Chrissie Hynde, Kehoe owns a modest Yamaha acoustic she purchased at a shop in North Park.

“I played years and years ago and I took it up again maybe seven years ago,” Kehoe said. “I’m a very amateur player, but I enjoy it. I’m lucky enough to play occasionally with very talented musicians….

“Sue plays accordion so she can bring it over if we’re grilling something on the barbecue.”

Palmer said Kehoe frequently jumps in on vocals when they play together.

“She’s got real good pitch and she sings the melody just pure,” Palmer said. “Sometimes I’ll just listen to her and Sharon, because when they harmonize together it’s so nice.”

Keeping it all in the family, also in the video is Kehoe’s partner, artist Julie Warren. Palmer’s partner, Jacqueline Tonnaer, filmed the segment, and a song on the CD, “Jakob’s Boogie Woogie Lullaby,” was written for Tonnaer’s son.

“Every single person that was there was into it,” Palmer said. “It was really sweet. That’s kind of how I remember my childhood.”

Palmer and friends will perform a greenroom-style selection as part of her CD release party, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. this Sunday, April 24, at the Bali Hai Restaurant on Shelter Island. Musical guests will include Sue Palmer and Her Motel Swing Orchestra, Adrian Demain, Lisa Sanders, Nathan James, David Mosby, Janell Rock, Scott Paulson and, possibly, our venerable representative from the 39th state Senate District.

Other family members who inspired songs on Palmer’s CD are her aunts, pianist Tresse Turner and alto saxophonist Arlene Turner. Though deceased, the spirit of Palmer’s eccentric aunt, Arlene, who happened to be gay, was no doubt in the house during the greenroom filming. Palmer is in possession of her aunt’s saxophone, which April West played that evening.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ There’s parts of it that sound just like my aunt,” said Palmer.

In a photo tucked behind the CD tray, looking head-to-toe like Joan Crawford’s glamorous doppelganger, is Arlene Turner’s girlfriend, Sally Davis – a nightclub singer who performed in San Diego and National City after World War II.

“They would come down in my aunt’s black, ’49 convertible Cadillac with their poodle Bijou,” Palmer recalled. “When I think back on it they were hysterical, but I just thought they were my relatives and I loved them. They were my two aunts and I never thought anything of it.”

Though Palmer had hoped to include snippets of her family’s greenroom sessions, which her dad recorded on reel-to-reel tapes and Palmer has since transferred to CD, her producer said the quality was not good enough.

Palmer got her love of Hawaiian culture – particularly the kitschy tiki trappings that influenced her new disc – from her father, who served in the South Pacific during World War II. He would bring Palmer back shells, hula skirts and other Hawaiian chachki.

Carrying the tiki torch at Palmer’s release party this weekend will be longtime San Diego musician Adrian Demain and his band, the Cheap Leis.

“He just happens to be Hawaiian, but basically I knew him as a blues and swing guitarist,” Palmer said. “He toured with Lee Rocker from the Stray Cats. The Cheap Leis were a kitschy Hawaiian thing with ukuleles and guitar. He did gigs at the Casbah and at the end he would sing ‘Tiny Bubbles’ and throw leis out.”

Demain lends his ukulele and lap steel skills to two numbers on Palmer’s CD, the Hawaiian standard, “Aloha oe,” written by a queen, incidentally – Queen Lydia Liliuokalani, and “Killer Tiki Boogie,” penned by the Queen of Boogie Woogie Sue Palmer.

The later is a sort of Peter Gun meets psychedelic B-movie mind-trip, a complete departure from Palmer’s trademark sound. Lending his deep, bass chops to the tune is vocalist David Mosby. Candye Kane goes wild on backing vocals, while Scott Paulson uses a Theramin to infuse the piece with science-fiction flair (Paulson is known to many as curator of toy pianos at UCSD’s Geisel Library).

Palmer said she penned “Killer Tiki Boogie” while battling with breast cancer a few years ago.

“It was so odd compared to the rest of our stuff,” Palmer said. “I don’t write words very much but I was in a really weird state when I wrote that…. It’s so bizarre.

“Even if it doesn’t sound right, I’ll wait ’til the end of the show when everybody’s kind of blitzed.”

The CD contains a song written by friend Janell Rock, who is also fighting cancer.

“Gertrude & Steins” is an infectiously campy homage to bawdy women, beer, creativity and good friends. Kane croons the salacious tune, which garnered Rock a 2004 “Just Plain Folks” award in the Best Cabaret category. Rock plans to sing the song at the Bali Hai show.

Palmer recalled how music helped her deal through her own battle with the disease.

“You realize what you really want to do, what makes you happy,” she said. “I felt really lucky. People like Ingrid Croce and the Juke Joint [owners] would let me book all of my gigs around my chemo schedule and they were so sweet about it.”

Though Palmer said she had some trouble with her hands from the treatments, fortunately for her fans, she is back in top form.

“You never know what side effects you’re going to get from it,” Palmer said of the chemotherapy. “All the sudden I couldn’t play. I kept thinking, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to have to get a job!’”

The Bali Hai Restaurant is located at 2230 Shelter Island Dr. in San Diego. Admission to the party is $10. For more information, call (619) 582-4509, or visit this article online at www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to Palmer’s website.