Debbie Davies

Debbie Davies - Holdin' Court - 2009 - Little Dipper

Debbie Davies cut her teeth playing in blues and rock ‘n roll bands in the San Francisco Bay area before returning to Los Angeles in 1984, where she became lead guitarist with Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, led by the wife of the British blues legend, John Mayall. In 1988, the great bluesman, Albert Collins enlisted her in his Icebreakers band, and for the next three years she played guitar with one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time. Like other great blueswomen on this blog, including Rory Block, Maria Muldaur, and Bonnie Raitt, Debbie is one of the great blues revivalists, conservationists, and traditionalists. "Holdin' Court" is a tremendous instrumental album containing six originals. She also pays fitting homage to the musicians she loves, and covers songs by Duke Robillard, Clarence Gatemouth Brown, John Lee Hooker, Little Johnny Taylor, and Willie Dixon. If you like jazz blues, listen to Debbie's great " Atras De Tus Ojos" track. "Holdin' Court" is HR by A.O.O.F.C. Buy her brilliant "I Got That Feeling" album, and there is info on her "Blues Blast" album @ DEBDAV/BLBL

TRACKS / COMPOSERS

1. Fishnet - Duke Robillard
2. Down At the Honkey Shack - Berisford/Butler/Dixon/Doggett, Scott/Shepherd
3. Tryin' To Keep It Real - Debbie Davies
4. Okie Dokie Stomp - Clarence Gatemouth Brown
5. Percolatin' - Debbie Davies
6. So What - Debbie Davies
7. Atras De Tus Ojos - Debbie Davies
8. Holdin' Court - Debbie Davies, Don Castagno
9. I Wonder Why [Blues In D Natural] - Hooker/London
10. If You Love Me Like You Say - Little Johnny Taylor
11. Zoom-In - Debbie Davies

MUSICIANS

Debbie Davies - All guitars (except second high rhythm on Zoom-In')
Casandra Faulconer - Bass Guitar (except on Tryin' To Keep It Real)
Don Castagno - Drums, conga on Holdin' Court
Paul Opalach - Organ, second guitar on Zoom-In'

ALBUM LINER NOTES

"For several years now I've been getting requests from friends and fans to make an all instrumental CD. Instrumental guitar albums have not been heavily in vogue since the early 1960's, but some of my favorite guitar players; Albert Collins, Freddie King, and Kenny Burrell made great careers for themselves during that era, ergo, leaving the generations of players to come some beautifully crafted guitar music. For some of us, these instrumentals became the templates and building blocks for our own playing. Back in the day, we would painfully play that vinyl treasure over and over, trying to pull each and every note off of it in an attempt to duplicate the Master's tone and phrasings. Throughout my career I have always enjoyed creating my own instrumentals, so here they are, along with a couple of new ones, and plenty of "shout-outs" to those originators of electric blues music." - Debbie Davies

Debbie Davies, a veteran of 22 years on the road, brings her seasoned licks and deep creative sensitivity to this, her 12th solo release. Having shared the studio and stage with a who's who list of top blues artists, this time Debbie strips it down to her top notch trio, only adding a few additional services of from co-producer, Paul Opalach. The sound is classic and tight. Lovers of the electric guitar, blues, and timeless good music will want to add this CD imediately to their collection. Davies brings 6 of her own original instrumental's to this album , and augments the CD with tunes written by many of her favorite electric blues artists. Most of the material has been heavily road tested so Deb and her trio, Don and Cass, cut the tunes live in the studio to get that energy that only a touring band can create. Debbie would solo from top to bottom of each tune with her rhythym section and lay down the rhythms as over dubs. Davies' two new orriginals, Holdin' Court and Zoomin', are only now being road tested so they received a little more of the step by step care that a studio setting can offer. The opening number, Fishnet, is a Duke Robillard number minus Dukes lyrics. Debbie does her own thing on the tune while simultaneously tipping her hat to Duke. Down at the Honky Shack is an obvious homage to both Bill Doggett and Jimmy Smith. Here Deb playfully weaves the two tunes together, in a joyous road house romp. Tryin' To Keep It Real, Deb's own tune, appeared on her CD ALL I FOUND, with haunting and soulfull lyrics, but here she let's her guitar do all the talking. Gatemouth Brown's Okie Dokie stomp, has been a staple in Davies' club shows for years now, along with several of her own original instrumentals; Percolatin', So What, and Atras deTus Ojos. These tunes are definately amoung the ones that have the live, road-tested vibe. Holdin' Court, co-written by drummer Don Castagno, is an homage to Kenny Burell. It is the beginnig of new territory for Deb and the band. On I Wonder Why, Debbie displays her total mastery of the style evoked by the greats of '60s electric blues in this homage to Otis Rush. With IF YOU LOVE ME LIKE YOU SAY, Debbie goes to town with her wah-wah pedal. This tune was always a staple in Albert Collin's reperatoire, and Albert, back in the day, had a big wah-wah fase himself. Zoomin' is an homage to whole genre of surf music as opposed to any particular artist. For Davies, it's a salute her youth, growing up in So. CA; skate boarding, surfing, and falling in love with all of the sounds being created by electric guitars. Holdin' court will take the listener on a smooth blues cruise, so sit back, roll the top down, and enjoy the ride. [ © http://debbiedavies.com/index.html ]

MUSIC PRESS QUOTES

"Davies exhibits guitar playing virtuosity with the likes of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan."– MUSIC CONNECTION

"She pulls out all the stops. She can play it all: seductive, soulful material, down-home delta blues, or humorous tales of life on the road." - BLUES REVIEW MAGAZINE

"Debbie is one of the direct links to the originators of this music. She knows what the blues is all about and you can hear it in the passion of her playing."- COCO MONTOYA

"Debbie is an incredible guitarist who plays with great taste and can cook like mad. Debbie plays from the heart and her heart has a lot to say. She inspires me. Besides being a fine musician she's also an outstanding person that I am very glad to call a friend of mine." - CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE

"I don't often give endorsements or references, but once in a rare while I hear a musician of such talent that I want people to know. I believe my reputation backs up my ability to recognize exceptional blues guitarists. Such a one is Debbie Davies. Hear her now." - JOHN MAYALL

SHORT BIO

Debbie Davies has brought a new sensibility to the blues. The former guitarist for Albert Collins & the Icebreakers, Fingers Taylor & the Ladyfinger Revue, and Maggie Mayall & the Cadillacs, an all-female band led by John Mayall's wife, Davies has continued to attract attention as the leader of her own group since 1993. "I believe my reputation backs up my ability to recognize exceptional blues," explained John Mayall during a early-2000 interview. "Such a one is Debbie Davies." Davies' 1998 solo album, Round Every Corner, released in 1993, featured a cameo appearance by Collins, who died of cancer shortly afterwards. Her fifth solo outing, Tales from the Austin Hotel, recorded with members of Stevie Ray Vaughan's band, Double Trouble, received a W.C. Handy award nomination. Love the Game, released in 2001, featured members of her touring band and was produced by Duke Robillard. A native of Los Angeles, Davies inherited her musical skills from her father, who wrote arrangements for Ray Charles and worked in the recording studio with Frank Sinatra and Pearl Bailey. Performing in rock and blues bands in the San Francisco area in the early '80s, she returned to southern California in 1984. After honing her talents as lead guitarist for Maggie Mayall & the Cadillacs, Davies was recruited to play with Albert Collins & the Icebreakers in 1988. She remained with the group for three years. Touring with Fingers Taylor & the Ladyfinger Revue during the summer of 1991, Davies opened numerous shows for Taylor's employer, Jimmy Buffett. Davies continues to play occasional sessions. She appeared on Collins' 1999 album, Collins, and Coco Montoya's 1995 album, Gotta Mind to Travel. Her 1997 album, I've Got That Feeling, featured duets with blues guitarists Tab Benoit and Montoya. To date, Davies had recorded three albums for Blind Pig (Picture This, Loose Tonight and I Got That Feeling), four for Shanachie (Round Every Corner, Tales from the Austin Motel, Love the Game, and her John Mayall tribute, Key to Love), and in 2005 she released All I Found with Telarc Records, followed in 2007 by Blues Blast on the same label. © Craig Harris

MORE ABOUT DEBBIE DAVIES [Bio/Article is © 2008 Piedmont Talent, Inc., All Rights Reserved.]

Davies rise to the upper echelon of blues music started at an early age as she absorbed the music heard constantly in her home. Her (professional) musician parents were either sitting at the piano or spinning discs on their turntable, filling the air with the sounds of big band jazz, harmony vocal groups, or the pop icons of the day. But the young Davies was particularly attracted to the bluesier sounds of her father’s Ray Charles records, and by the age of 12 realized that her affinity for an instrument was not for the piano, but for the guitar. “She wields an electric guitar as if it were a wand.” ~Los Angeles Times. “Davies playing is extraordinary - full of propulsion and energy and melodic invention…” ~People Magazine. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1960’s, she found that being a female guitar player meant only one thing: acoustic guitar. Electric guitars were still toys meant only for boys. But when Debbie heard the sounds of the British blues-rock bands, particularly the electric guitar of Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, she became completely captivated. Going against the grains of society’s accepted roles of the time, Debbie pursued her dream with the passion of an artist and the soul of a rebel. Davies cut her teeth playing in blues and rock ‘n roll bands in the San Francisco Bay area before returning to Los Angeles in 1984, where she landed the lead guitar spot in Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, an all-female band led by wife of British blues pioneer, John Mayall. In 1988 she was recruited by Albert Collins to join the Icebreakers, and for the next three years she was a featured guitarist performing behind one of the most innovative bluesmen of all time. “I stepped through a door into the real blues world when I joined Albert’s band,” Davies says. “It’s one thing to listen to the records and pull off the licks, or sit in the audience watching these artists play. But actually going out and touring with one, turned the blues into something completely three-dimensional for me. I knew then what a special opportunity this was, but I know it even more now.” During her tenure with Albert, Debbie was invited to perform on John Mayall’s 1990 album, A Sense of Place, and in 1991 she recorded with Albert Collins and the Icebreakers on the Grammy nominated self-titled release for Point Blank/Virgin Records. In the summer of 1991 Debbie became lead guitarist for Fingers Taylor and the Ladyfingers Revue, which served as the opening act for Jimmy Buffett’s “Outpost” tour. In September 1993 she came out with her debut solo release, Picture This, on Blind Pig Records, which featured a cameo by Collins on “I Wonder Why.” People like to ask Debbie if she learned her technique from Collins, to which she gently points out that she had to play well from the start to hold her own with Albert at every performance. However, the experience taught her lessons in being a better musician, both onstage and off. Says Davies, “It was the most powerful band I had ever played with, so I learned to dig even deeper into myself to pull out the music. Albert was a man of so much grace and kindness, so I can only hope that I was able to absorb some of his humanity too.” Since 1993, Debbie has produced nine solo recordings and two collaborative CD’s, one with guitarists Tab Benoit and Kenny Neal, and another with guitarists Anson Funderburgh and Otis Grand. The roster of other artists who have joined Debbie in the studio on her recordings reads like a who’s who of the blues: Albert Collins, Ike Turner, James Cotton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Coco Montoya, Duke Robillard, Tommy Shannon, Chris “Whipper” Layton, Sugar Ray Norcia, Mudcat Ward, Charlie Musselwhite, Bruce Katz, Per Hanson, Noel Neal, and Rod Carey. She has received eight nominations for Blues Music Awards, and in 1997 won the award for Best Contemporary Female Blues Artist. She is nominated yet again in this category for 2008.

Here's What the Critic's Are Saying About Debbie Davies... "She pulls out all of the stops. She can play it all: seductive, soulful material, down-home Delta blues or humorous tales of life on the road." ~ BLUES REVUE.

"Davies exhibits guitar playing virtuosity with the likes of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan." ~ MUSIC CONNECTION.

"Debbie is one of the direct links to the originators of this music. She knows what the blues is all about and you can hear it in the passion of her playing." ~COCO MONTOYA. "Debbie is an incredible guitarist who plays with great taste and can cook like mad. Debbie plays from the heart and her heart has a lot to say. She inspires me. Besides being a fine musician she's also an outstanding person that I am very glad to call a friend of mine." ~CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE.

"I don't often give endorsements or references, but once in a rare while I hear a musician of such talent that I want people to know. I believe my reputation backs up my ability to recognize exceptional blues guitarists. Such a one is Debbie Davies. Hear her now." ~ JOHN MAYALL.