Debbie Davies 10 2005

Debbie Davies has been logging the road miles, dishing out tasty blues licks for nigh on 20 years now. Her first shot at the spotlight came during an '80s stint with Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, the ahead-of-their-time all female blues group fronted by John Mayall's wife Maggie. That was quickly followed up by an invitation from none other than Albert Collins for Debbie to join his band, the Icebreakers.

Playing guitar next to Collins brought Davies to the attention of a worldwide blues audience, as Collins respected and showcased her talents nightly. When the blues great died, Davies took off on her own, and she's been flying solo ever since. With a new disc, All I Found out on Telarc Blues in the summer of 2005, Davies is again preparing to hit the road.

BluesQuest editor Adam St. James spoke with Debbie about her new CD, the blues circuit, her friends and mentors John Mayall, Coco Montoya, and Albert Collins, and more.

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BluesQuest: Hi Debbie!

Debbie Davies: How are ya?

BluesQuest.com: Where are we calling you today?

Davies: I'm at home today. I just moved this week. I'm in Derby, Connecticut.

BluesQuest.com: We ran into each other a few months ago on the street at the Buffalo Niagara Guitar Festival…

Davies: I remember that, Popa Chubby was there.

BluesQuest.com: Yes, and we were all watching our friend Jude Gold from Guitar Player magazine doing the crazy thing that he does.

Davies: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun hearing him and meeting him. He's style is phenomenal. I've never heard anybody do that.

BluesQuest.com: Yeah, it is pretty cool.

Davies: That was fun for me because we usually just do blues festivals. It's fun to see something else once in awhile.

BluesQuest.com: Yes, I’m sure it is. Do you still get a thrill out of going out and watching hot guitar players?

Davies: Sure, especially within the style that I love. Absolutely. In fact I don't get to do it enough. I find that that's a really good source of inspiration for me. I get tired of hearing myself every night, man (laughs). That's why I love the festivals, because you get to hear other artists. And usually when I record I like to bring in another guitar player if I can. It's just a lot of fun.

BluesQuest.com: Sure, it kind of gives you a spark, doesn't it?

Davies: It sure does.

BluesQuest.com: You did all the writing on this new album with your drummer, correct?

Davies: Yeah, he's super into songwriting. We wrote separately and conjointly – I guess would be the word.

BluesQuest.com: And does he play other instruments besides drums?

Davies: Yeah. He doesn't perform on them, but he plays guitar and piano, and has some schooling, so he understands how all that goes.

BluesQuest.com: So how do your collaborations work? Would you each come in with full ideas and then run them by each other, or would you just jam and come up with stuff together?

Davies: Usually we would sort of start something separately, or sometimes we'd have an idea for a song, or I would say, "That's a great idea for a song," and he might actually take the ball and run with it, then bring it to me. Usually if you have an idea but you don't finish a song, that's when it's great to collaborate. If you get stuck and you want to get some feedback. If you're not stuck you tend to keep going, and then you've written the whole song. It's great to get that kind of collaboration though, because people have so many other ideas than you have.

BluesQuest.com: When you were getting this most recent album together, or when you're in the writing mode at any time, do you listen to anything in particular for inspiration – or do you shield yourself from outside influence?

Davies: I can't ever shield myself – I have to listen to music all the time. That's just me. Especially when we're traveling. I can't drive when there's not music playing. So I'm usually getting ideas throughout the year. They might come when I'm sitting with my guitar, like a riff. Or it might be a topical idea, a couple lines I'll write down. Basically I just keep track of all these ideas in a notebook or with a tape recorder. And none of it may be finished, but when you get ready to record, I'll sit down and woodshed or workshop a song.

Then you're sort of putting the craft of songwriting into play. So for me it's just collecting song ideas, keeping track of them. If you think of something funny, or some lyrics you write down, and you go, "Wow, that would go great in that song."

Occasionally you get lucky and a whole song just comes out. I've had that happen a few times, but unfortunately, not enough. It's another type of craft. It's a thing you have to work on.

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BluesQuest.com: That's for sure. What do you do guitar playing wise when you're not recording or touring? Do you keep fiddling around? Do you learn new stuff? Do you practice specific things?

Davies: That hasn't been the case for a long time, that I'm really learning new things. I'd love to. I get ideas… But the time just isn't there. But if there's a slow period I do make sure the guitar is my hands. Otherwise you start losing your chops or your calluses. So I'll just sit around with it and play, and sometimes that's when you start getting your ideas. You might be riffing and just keeping up your thing, and that's when you go, "Hey, this is cool!" And that's when I'll tape it. And I do like to give some lessons too. That's one way I keep my hands on and keep it vital.

BluesQuest.com: How can guitar players reading this interview get set up with lessons with you? Do they need to live in Connecticut?

Davies: For the most part, although I have done them on the road, when there's been time. Sometimes we're in and out of town so quick that it's tough. But I've started doing some clinics, so sometimes you can do a clinic and a bunch of people are interested in a lesson.

Occasionally I'll send out an email to my mailing list – people sign up for my mailing list on my website DebbieDavies.com -- and I'll say, "I'm taking some students this summer. Mostly it's just people coming up with me in clubs, and you try to hook up.

BluesQuest.com: When you do clinics, is that something you arrange, or are you working through a manufacturer, such as Fender?

Davies: I haven't officially started to do clinics, although I may, because I have a Fender endorsement and a Dean Markley string endorsement. In fact the most recent clinic I did, Dean Markley was really cool: They sent a whole bunch of strings and tuners and shirts and stuff for the folks who came to the clinics. But mostly my assistant, Harley, sets up the clinics. Eventually I'm sure I will be doing more clinics because they're really fun, and the road scene gets tougher for many reasons. A lot of the venues have struggled so much, and a lot have gone under. Blues has been struggling. And I ain't gettin' any younger! (laughs)

BluesQuest.com: So I picked a great time to launch a blues website, right?

Davies: Well, I'm glad you did, because we need support. It does seem… I don't know what your take on it is, because I only have my own perspective. And I was out there during another era, you know. I toured with Albert Collins and it was a very high period for the blues.

BluesQuest.com: Right. But it does go up and down over the years.

Davies: Yeah, it does. And I'm just concerned now because all of these guys that were initially creating this music have passed on, and that's kind of what's kept it really vital – to have the originators, and then all the youth who were trying to do it too. And that combination kept it very vital and exciting.

BluesQuest.com: Well, we've still got a few of them out there. We've got B.B. and Buddy and Hubert Sumlin, and Robert "Jr." Lockwood, and people like that…

Davies: I know, and I try to encourage people to go see them as much as they can while they're still living.

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BluesQuest.com: That's for sure. How many dates a year are you playing these days.

Davies: Well, it used to be around 200, and now it's about 150, I guess.

BluesQuest.com: Is that decrease in dates related to a weakened demand for blues, as far as you're concerned?

Davies: Yeah, I think so. And it's OK with me though, because that's such a grueling schedule. One hundred and fifty dates a year really is. And I'm trying to get some other stuff going on, within what I do. But I'm just trying to concentrate more on being able to do some writing and to produce some stuff for myself that you can't do when you're just beating yourself up on the road. I'm trying to find that balance. So the fact that the road scene has tightened up a little is OK with me. But what it does, sometimes it also makes the travel distances further. It used to be in all the geographic areas there were so many flourishing clubs, you could say, "I'm going to do my Northwest tour now."

Now we play regionally and then we have to drive all the way across the country and back, and some of the dates are like 1,000 or 1,500 mile distances for one gig. It's crazy.

BluesQuest.com: And then you're spending money to spend the night in a town halfway where you don't even have a paying gig.

Davies: Well, it's always had that element, but there were some tours where that wasn't happening. It's just harder now to connect the dots.

BluesQuest.com: But then you also have the wonderful opportunity to let your bass player take a head shot out in front of Mount Rushmore, right (laughs)?

Davies: Right! We do take advantage of wherever we are. We have a lot fun. I'm very grateful that I've gotten to see so much. I remember a few years ago I was finally able to say, "All right: I've played in all 50 states!" Very cool. And like 17 countries: Western Europe, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and what not. So I'm extremely grateful for that. I wouldn't have been able to do it by myself, that's for sure.

BluesQuest.com: And what about the blues scene outside the United States and Canada. What's it like out there? How is that market for you?

Davies: You know, it's coming back. It's starting to get good again. It had gone down over there too because it's not "their" music, so it's almost more of a fad at times. But I used to go all the time to Europe. That's one reason I relocated myself on to the East Coast here. The Eastern seaboard has always been very supportive of blues, and then you can kind of get anywhere from here. And we used to go to Europe so often. And then there were quite a few years where it just seemed to slow down. And now over the past couple years we've been going back a lot again.

BluesQuest.com: That's good. With your background, with the stint you did with Albert, that probably helped open some doors over there too, I imagine.

Davies: Well sure. Before I got the opportunity to work with Albert, it was kind of a goal that I had, or a dream that I had, to play and tour with one of my blues idols. I couldn't figure any other way to get out there, and to get on the road and just do it, and make inroads. My work with Albert, that was a dream come true at the time.

Certainly when you become that visible and play all over the place, it certainly gave me inroads to getting a record deal, and getting my stuff heard, and getting a name. It's a selling point.

BluesQuest.com: Having gone through that situation – playing behind a major blues star, then branching out on your own – and also knowing that a lot of the people who are reading this interview might be musicians with similar aspirations, how does one go about hooking up with a blues legend and becoming a band member? How did it happen for you?

Davies: I don't know how easy that would be now, 'cause I don't think are too many left. For me, I grew up in California, and I had moved to Northern California to do my own thing, and learn to play guitar. I went through all that and different bands, and I had decided to move back to Los Angeles to see if I could swim in the big pond. And a lot of the blues artists that I was into lived in L.A., like Albert Collins, Bonnie Raitt, and John Mayall.

So their bands were all located in L.A., and when the bands are not in the road, they're jamming out in the clubs. So there were some really, really good blues jams, with people who were top, hot people. And I went to every one. I was constantly out there, constantly playing.

I went through a very poor time because all I was doing was going to jams and working horrible little jobs to barely get by. I remember sleeping on my sister's floor in her apartment for a long time. It's just doing whatever you've got to do to put yourself in the right place at the right time. You've might have to relocate, or live somewhere where touring bands are based, whether that's Chicago, or Texas, or wherever the players of your music of choice live.

And then you've got to throw yourself into the big pond. And it's competitive. You've got to develop the skills of jamming and hanging out with people and being somebody that people can get along with and yet can really show what you do. It's a lot of work, and you've got to keep your focus, and work on your playing, and you've got to create the opportunity for yourself.

BluesQuest.com: Not unlike any field of music.

Davies: Exactly. And at the time there were a lot of great blues artists, including William Clark, and the Mighty Flyers, The Paladins, and James Harman – all these bands, during that time, were all getting signed by Blind Pig and Alligator. They were all touring, and they all lived in that Southern California area. So I was very fortunate because I was going to all these peoples' shows, and then I was going to all the jams that they all went to when they weren't on the road, and just putting myself there.

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BluesQuest.com: And this would have been in the '80s?

Davies: Yeah. I moved back to Southern California in '84. And in '85, from going to the jams, I had gotten word that John Mayall's wife Maggie was holding auditions for a band. It was an all female blues band called Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs. And I went to the auditions and I got that gig. And we ended up touring with John Mayall and being the opening act. So John would ask me to sit in each night and do the finale with them. And that was a big rush for me because he had a great band, the Bluesbreakers. And he's always been a guy who mentored a lot of guitar players. I really felt him kind of adding me to that stable. And he started making me tapes – he's got an unbelievable library of stuff – and turning me on to stuff. I was so grateful.

I worked in that band for about a year and a half, but… we tried so hard to get a record deal but we were kind of before our time, as far as women getting record deals. There weren't too many yet. Plus we were doing a bluesy thing.

But I ended up hooking up with Coco Montoya who was John's guitar player, and we were like an "item." And we started doing our own gigs around town, and I was still going to jams and the whole thing. And I ended up meeting Albert Collins. And it was just a friendship at first with Albert, because I don't know if you that Coco…

BluesQuest.com: was his drummer for years before taking up guitar.

Davies: Right. So we hung out with Albert and Gwen and they invite us over for barbecue at their apartment. And Albert ended up at one point saying, "Well, come on, sit in with us!" So I started sitting in with the Icebreakers. And the timing was such that he was starting to put together a different band. He was making some changes. And I knew it was sort of a question mark to him as to whether or not he should extend the invitation to a gal to join his band. Because the decision came like the night before they were going to go on tour. (laughs) I got the call from his manager and they said, 'Albert's leaving tomorrow and it's going to be a five week tour. And we just want to know if you'd like to play second guitar?"

BluesQuest.com: Sure! (laughs)

Davies: And I went "YES!" My first gig was on one of those L.A. harbor cruise things. I brought my Super Reverb and the band played and I thought something was wrong with that thing: "Oh, my amp's broken, I can't hear it!" But basically the band was so loud that I realized I needed another amp. So I quickly got a Twin. And then we were off on a five-week tour that went across the country and then over to Europe. I'd never been to Europe. It was a tremendous thing. I truly felt like I'd worked for years and years to get there. And then when it happened it was a snap, and I was off. It was great.

BluesQuest.com: Did you pick up any particular licks from Albert?

Davies: Sort of. I do licks that in my mind are Albert Collins licks. I was already a player, or I wouldn't have gotten the gig. But if you stand next to a guy every night who has a real definitive style, you're going to absorb some of it.

BluesQuest.com: That's certainly true. Debbie, thank you so much for speaking with us, and good luck with your upcoming tour.

Davies: Thanks Adam, any time!