Thu 6 Aug 2009
Hear an interview with Debbie Davies as well as songs from her all-star record Blues Blast.
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download
In this week’s show you will hear Debbie Davies talk about growing up in California, where her father was a professional musician. He wrote music for Disney productions, as well as being a vocalist. Mr. Davies also worked with people like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. Debbie’s mother was a protégé classical pianist. Needless to say Debbie grew up with a lot of music in the house. When The Beatles came along they got her interested in a different kind if music. At twelve years old her parents got her an acoustic guitar. As you will hear in the show this was not what she wanted. Hearing the British blues-rock bands is what got Debbie interested in the blues. Debbie tried to learn the blues, but it was hard for her with just an acoustic. What made matters worse was the fact that the boys that knew how to play the blues wouldn’t give her any help. In college she finally bought an electric guitar, which she practiced relentlessly, but she still had trouble getting someone to take her seriously.
By the early eighties Debbie was playing in various bands in the San Francisco area. She landed a lead spot in Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, an all-female band. They were the opening act for Maggie’s husband’s band, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, on his west coast shows. Next in the show you’ll hear Debbie tell about how she got to join the Albert Collins band. Shortly after her time in the Albert Collins band she started releasing solo records. Some of the people that have showed up on past records are Albert Collins, Peter Green, James Cotton, Mick Taylor, Duke Robillard, Coco Montoya, Tommy Shannon and Ike Turner.
Debbie Davies current CD Blues Blast has a strong guest list too. Charlie Musselwhite blows harp while Coco Montoya and Tab Benoit help out on guitar. Besides the four songs you’ll hear in the show, which she wrote or co-wrote, there are some other show stoppers. Coco Montoya and Debbie trade solos on a very good version of “My Time After Awhile”. “Crawling King Snake” is good, but wait till you hear “Sittin’ and Cryin” and “Movin’ & Groovin” both very good, upbeat songs with Charlie Musselwhite giving his all on harp. It’s obvious by hearing this record or most anything else Debbie has done that she is a very under-rated artist that more people should be aware of. Her singing and song writing is good but the guitar playing is really out standing.
One last thing to keep in mind that besides buying this record of Debbie’s you should think about going by her website and buying the two live CD’s she is selling there. Her website is the only place you can buy them and most likely when they are gone they will be gone for ever. These will most certainly become collector items in the very near future.
Songs played in the podcast are:
Where the Blues Come to Dies
Sittin’ and Cryin’
A.C. Strut
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Buy Debbie Davies Cd’s from Amazon.Com
Debbie Davies’s Live CD only at her Website
Thanks to Debbie Davies for taking the time to do this interview also thanks to Harley Erickson for setting everything up. You may want to listen to some of Harley’s song’s at her MySpace page too she has some very good music.
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Blues Music and Interviews
A1Blues.Com
formerly A1 Artist Spotlight. Com
by A1 Mark