Sugar Pie DeSanto is to the Bay Area what Irma Thomas is to New Orleans. Their careers both got started in 1959, had a couple hits back in the days (“I Want To Know” and “Slip In Mules” were Sugar Pie’s calling cards) and they are both performing and recording today. They were even on the same label briefly, Chess, and toured the U.K. in 1965. This is mixed bag, and honestly, DeSanto should forget trying to sell pop and concentrate on blues. Her voice has coarsened over the years, which gives tunes like “Black Rat” and “Blues Hall of Fame” a sharp edge, but it fails on “I Need To Live Again” and “Life Goes On.” To her credit, Sugar Pie wrote most of the material here, but the band sounds like they’re on sleeping pills. There are several sweet treats on Refined Sugar, but there are a couple sour balls too.