"Blues Legend" Debbie Davies Interview
www.Facebook.com/DebbieDaviesBlues
Interview by Roger Zee (06/24/21)
Roger Zee: From what I hear, you couldn't help but become a musician! How did it begin? Do you play any other instruments other than guitar?
Debbie Davies: As a typical baby-boomer, seeing The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show made me want to acquire and play guitar! Of course, I wanted an electric one, but only boys got them back then... My folks bought me a cheap acoustic for Christmas at age twelve.
Music's always been a force in my life, as both my folks were musicians. My mom grew up as a classical piano prodigy and then taught music. As typical in the 50’s, she quit teaching to become a housewife and raise her kids. But all day long, as she cleaned house, she listened to the radio so I absorbed all of that era’s Pop tunes. Then she would take breaks and play her favorite pieces on the piano.
My dad worked as a professional musician in the Hollywood recording scene. He worked both as a singer and an arranger for TV, films and records. He always owned great stereo gear and blasted his albums throughout the house. He mostly listened to big band swing and vocal recordings but kept a complete collection of Ray Charles recordings that I seemed to gravitate toward. I very fortunately got the opportunity to observe many recording sessions back in the day. I even did some myself when they needed children’s voices. So I found a musical path in life hard to avoid!
I took the obligatory piano lessons beginning at age five, but didn’t feel that physically drawn to the piano. I suppose it intimidated me a bit because my mom played so well. But I love guitar and dabble on bass and drums but wouldn’t call myself a pro on the last two.
RZ: Tell me about some of the musicians and groups you've gigged and recorded with.
DD: So blessed to play both on stage and in the studio with so many musicians that I love, idolize, and emulate! Early in my Blues career, I toured with Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, John Mayall’s wife. As we opened for John often, he would always invite me on stage to sit in with the Bluesbreakers. At the time, both Coco Montoya and Walter Trout played in John’s band. So playing with all of those cats set the bar really high for me, which was great! I really dug in hard to compete. During that time John Mayall asked me to play a rhythm track on his album, "A Sense of Place." When Coco Montoya recorded and released his first album, I played a lot of rhythm on that record. I also joined Coco in a duet on Sam Taylor’s "Nothin' in the Streets" and added the lead guitar to that track.
In my next touring band, I played second guitar to none other than Albert Collins and the Icebreakers! What a dream come true for me as I always fantasized about actually touring and playing with one of my Blues idols. I worked with Albert for three years. During that time, we toured extensively throughout the US and over in Europe, Japan and Brazil. We recorded a record in England on Point Blank Records which we originally wanted to call "Iceman" but just ended up with a plain, white cover. The Uptown Horns joined us on that record. We then experienced the pleasure of performing lots of live gigs with them as well as with the Hodges Brothers.
During the years I played with Albert Collins, I had the good fortune to meet most of the great living and still performing Blues icons. We played a lot of shows with Koko Taylor and she became a sweet friend. At the time, Buddy Guy had just opened the first version of his club "Legends" in Chicago. When we performed there, he would sit in with us! Lonnie Brooks and his family became dear friends as well. We did a European package tour with him where Ronnie Baker Brooks played second guitar behind his dad. We also played some festivals with Luther Allison and his son Bernard who later ended up doing a lot of the same festivals as my own band.
When the Icebreakers went down to Brazil, we played a festival with Etta James and Magic Slim. At first, Slim really intimidated me. But once we broke the ice, we became tight. When touring with my own band, we couldn’t wait to get to his home town of Lincoln NE. Slim would come out, hang and jam with us at the Zoo Bar.
I often found Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets on all of the festivals I played with both Albert and my own band. Anson and Sam both became dear friends and I took pleasure working in the studio with Funderburgh when we recorded the "Grand Union" CD. Sam Meyers ended up recording one of my drummer Don Castagno’s songs on one of their albums.
After leaving Albert’s band to strike out on my own, I got an offer to join the opening band, led by Fingers Taylor, for the summer tour with Jimmy Buffett. We hit the road for three solid months. Buffett’s "Outpost Tour" ended up one of the top three grossing tours that summer along with the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead! Finger’s band, basically a Blues and R&B band, seemed a slightly strange pick to open for Jimmy Buffett. But it gave me a great opportunity to play a major shed tour across the country and allowed me to save up for my first touring van.
Living in Southern California, I fortunately came to befriend and play with traditional Blues bands such as The Mighty Fliers and James Harman and His Dangerous Gentlemen. Kid Ramos has always inspired me so much as a player. Getting to study these cats and jam with them proved priceless.
I first met Chris Cain in the bay area while performing with Albert Collins. We coaxed Cain up on stage to play with Collins and he and I remained friends ever since. I cherish this friendship and feel blessed to play with him many so times. Our two bands did a little East coast tour together at one point. For my money, Chris plays some of the best Blues guitar on the planet today.
I share another cherished friendship with another one of our top living blues guitar players, Joe Louis Walker. Walker's so talented and the most real-deal cat out on the scene. We both toured with Tommy Castro when he ran his Legendary Rhythm and Blues "Land" cruise. We’ve all performed numerous times on the LRBC at sea, and this provided us with all kinds of opportunities to play together.
Some other artists on the Blues Cruises that I joined on stage include John Hammond Jr., Fiona Boyes, Ana Popovic, Susan Tedeschi, Donald Kinsey, Mike Welch, Danielle Nichole, Rob Rio, Smokin’ Joe Kubec and Bnois King, Terence Simeon, Deanna Bogart, and Jimmy Johnson.
On one Blues Cruise, Dion, who had begun putting out Blues records himself, played some shows on board. He happened to catch one of my sets and asked me to back him on stage for his big showroom appearance. What an honor to get to know this man and play some of the old hits with him like "Run Around Sue," "Ruby Baby," and "The Wanderer!" We remain friends to this day and I backed him up once again on the cruise the following year.
I feel lucky to befriend Chuck Berry’s old piano man, Johnny Johnson and he kindly played a show with my band in St. Louis.
Matt Schofield's one of the younger guns along with Kirk Fletcher and Josh Smith. Happily, I get to jam with these brothers too, and marvel at how great the youngins’ play!
I first met Johnny Winter when I toured with Albert Collins in Texas. Johnny and I both ended up living in the NY area and I opened for him numerous times with my band. I joined him onstage for his 70th birthday party at BB Kings in Manhattan. Jay Stollman also worked with Johnny Winter on some projects. I ended up co-producing Jay’s CD, "Room for One More," and we played numerous shows together as well. After Johnny passed, we both took part in The Johnny Winter Rememberance Band with Paul Nelson.
When I procured my first record deal on Blind Pig Records, Albert Collins graced me with playing on a cut for my CD, "Picture This." Other artists who guested on my recordings and/or I played in the studio with include Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, Coco Montoya, Arthur Neilson, Tab Benoit, Kenny Neal, Anson Funderburgh, Anthony Geraci, Sugar Ray Norcia, Duke Robillard, Bruce Katz, Otis Grand, Fingers Taylor, Dave Gross, Dana Robbins, Teo Leyasmeyer, Terry Hanck, Tommy Castro, Joe Louis Walker, and Double Trouble. Man, I hope I didn’t forget anybody and if so, I'm really bummed!
RZ: What guitars, amps, and mics do you currently use?
DD: Recently, I narrowed my guitars down to Fender Stratocasters pretty much exclusively. As a younger musician, I wanted to play all kinds of guitars and bought and sold many for all of their different sounds. At this point, however, my body's frozen in the "Strat" position! It feels like the most comfortable instrument for me to play, physically, and the most versatile as far as the sounds I can get. I also tend to customize my Strats now to create my own sound.
My current number one Strat's a light, Fender Road-Worn body, sunburst, with my favorite Fender neck from the custom shop back in the ’90’s. It’s a ’60’s reissue neck and I own two of them: both identical and I switch them out depending on which Strat I want to play. My number one guitar contains two pick-ups in it -- a 60’s Gibson Humbucker in the neck, and a 60’s Gibson P-90 in the bridge. I can put them out of phase when I want to get a tone that works well for swing tunes. It sounds kind of T-bone-ish. The middle position in phase, gives me a great overall tone for playing Blues. It's somewhere between a 335 and a Strat. Then I can get the Humbucker sound for something smoother and darker when I want to hear that, and the P-90 for some real bite and attitude. I string them all with .10 gauge Dean Markley Blue Steels.
For most of my touring years, I used a 1967 Fender Super Reverb as my main amp. So great! I love it to death. But these days, the clubs don’t tolerate the volume they did back in the day. Ha Ha! So where as I still play the Super at festivals, in the smaller clubs, I bring a Fender Deluxe Reissue, or even a Blues Jr.
RZ: Talk about what and how you practice.
DD: If you’re gigging all of the time, you don’t really need to actually practice to keep your chops up. Therefore whenever I sit down to play in between shows, it’s all about coming up with song ideas or working on new guitar skills. Once I’m not on the road all the time, I actually need to practice everyday just to stay in playing shape. I start with some basic finger exercises and scales and then run through all of my favorite instrumentals. They embed pretty much all of the cool licks I want to keep in shape. I play both those I wrote as well as those from other artists. That's my minimal practice. Given more time, I’ll put some Blues records on and jam along.
RZ: Do you teach music privately?
DD: Yes, I've always taught. Although when I toured heavily, I couldn't really make the time. But as a kid, even after playing for only a year and learning only the basic chords to Folk tunes, I began instructing the neighborhood kids -- for money, of course! Always been a great side-hustle for a live musician. But I actually really enjoy teaching and think I’m pretty good at it. As someone self-taught on the guitar, I’m really conscious of all of the struggles I went through learning to become the player I wanted to be and all of the stuff I figured out. I know what worked for me and how to share this. Thank God for students during Covid! It’s a bit more of a challenge to teach online, but if the student's willing, so am I.
RZ: How has the Pandemic affected you?
DD: It most definitely shut down all live music. It caused me a really painful adjustment at first, but then came the solace of knowing we were all in the same boat. I just constantly reminded myself of how fortunate that I never went through anything like this during my heavy touring years. My heart goes out to all of the younger ones just getting their careers off the ground who suddenly saw everything came to a halt.
RZ: Describe your most special and/or unusual gig.
DD: Hmmm. Most unusual gigs... Actually I encountered so many really wacky gigs when touring on the Blues circuit back in the day! Hard to really narrow it down. One thing I love about the Blues is one night we would work for some really rich folks, and then the next day play in the ghetto. One minute you find yourself on a huge festival stage and the next travel on to a tiny venue out in the middle of nowhere. Never boring. Always an adventure!
I’ll never forget performing inside a Neiman Marcus in Dallas with Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs at some very chi-chi event for their executives with champagne and hors-d’oeuvres. For our dressing room, we used the actual dressing rooms for trying on the clothes. And we had to set up all of the gear amongst the racks of dresses and slacks!
One of the weirdest nights I will never forget occurred on 9/11. My band and I awoke in our motel to the news of that devastation. I figured they would cancel our gig that evening, so I called ahead to the venue. Surprisingly, they insisted on going forward with the show. We made our way to the next town in Indiana only to find that when we set up our gear on stage, the wall behind us consisted of a big piece of etched glass portraying the Twin Towers! Only wackos and drunks showed up at the show that night, so the weirdness never stopped.
I can tell so many crazy stories, particularly from my time on the road with the Icebreakers. It makes it tough just to pick one. I wrote a lot of it down for a future book. I know folks will really get a kick out of it all!
RZ: How do you see the future of the music business?
DD: Hmm, I’m probably not the best one to ask. I would suggest they talk to some kids much hipper to the whole online thing. The digital world really changed everything. When I began in this biz, people considered it really unsavory for an artist to tout themselves in anyway. Very important to remain humble and leave the marketing to management and the press.
Of course, that all underwent a 180 turn. At one point, I recall a press agent informing me that I needed to create a Facebook page. Gradually, I learned how to hype my shows and career. I still don't feel totally comfy doing that. Today's young artists sometimes seem like they spend more time promoting themselves than working on their craft. I find that pretty disheartening. All I know is that there will always be music and there will always be musicians. But the saturation of everything on the Internet and the ability of anyone to put out a CD has really dumbed down the quality of much of it.
RZ: What advice do you give to up-and-coming musicians?
DD: As an old school player, I advise any up-and-coming musician to listen, listen, and listen! Really dig into music and learn where it all comes from. Then work really hard on your craft to become the best you can be. If you want to write songs, learn all the basic R&B standards, all the classic songs of the great American song writers, as well as the current popular tunes. You can’t write if you don't study other composers.
The same goes for playing an instrument. I say this especially to the gals. Work even harder than you think you need to in order to become a competitive player. There's plenty of opportunities out there for you if you're cute. But don’t lean on that. Nobody wants the label "pretty good for a girl!" Dig in.
Lastly, I firmly believe in the old school concept of apprenticeship. This goes across the board for any skill you want to learn. Before you strike out on your own, get the experience of working as side player in someone else’s band -- preferably with musicians much more seasoned than you. Listen, watch and learn!
RZ: Do you live with any animals?
DD: I'm such a big animal lover and advocate. But as a touring musician, I could not live with any animals for a long time. That could change in the near future!
RZ: Anything else you want to say?
DD: Well, I think that’s about enough out of me, haha! Thanks Roger.
YouTube - I Wonder Why (You're So Mean to Me) - Debbie Davies and Albert Collins
YouTube - Nothin' But the Blues - Debbie Davies, Arthur Neilson, Jay Stollman, Don Castagno
©2021 Roger Zee
