Debbie Davies

by Alex teitz

Debbie Davies is a blues guitarist who ranks up there with the best. Her hands are worn into every fret and chord. Raised on music from an early age, Davies has been involved with blues. She’s played in the all female, Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, but made her real mark opening with Albert Collins and The Icebreakers. Davies newest CD is Tales from the Austin Hotel available on Shanachie Records. For more information visit debbiedavies.com

FEMMUSIC: You’ve been involved with music since an early age. How did your family shape your musical development?

DD: I think basically by getting me hooked on music. I can’t remember when I wasn’t sitting next to a speaker listening to something being played on the radio, or a lot of albums. Music was like a major part of our family life.

FEMMUSIC: Describe your songwriting process. How do you come up with your songs?

DD: Songwriting’s always a mystery because sometimes songs, you just sit with your guitar, and a song just comes out. I can’t explain that. Other times I have ideas for songs and I have to work at them for quite a while. We get a lot of ideas on the road, but we don’t really finish them until we get back and can sit…I need to sit in my apartment with the tape recorder and really work on the craft, of crafting the song. Different ways I guess you’d say. They’re are different processes.

FEMMUSIC: You’ve played in male bands, as well as an all female band. How would you contrast the two?

DD: I like playing with male bands better because it’s hard to get a whole bunch of girls to get along. I love traveling with men. I really love men. Sometimes you miss female company but I talk to my sister all the time on the phone. Outside of that I just really like the company of men on the road.

FEMMUSIC: You’ve toured extensively. What has been your best tour experience this tour?

DD: This Tour! Gosh. So far all the shows have gone really well on this tour. I don’t know if I could pick a favorite. It was great at Brendan’s tonight because we had a lot of folks and they were all enthusiastic. Had some people from Blues Revue Magazinecome out so that’s always a great feeling when other people are trying to support you.

I remember my favorite tour was the first tour I did with Albert Collins. ‘Cause that was a five week tour where we went cross-country and then flew to Europe. I’d never been to Europe so I just had those kind of memorable tours. Now I’m just thrilled if we have nothing go wrong. As long as we don’t have any breakdowns, no communication problems, shows are good; I’m happy.

FEMMUSIC: What advice would you give to an artist just starting out?

DD: First to decide whether you want your art to be a career or just something you always do because you love, and then perhaps you’ll have a career in something else because it’s very difficult to make a living in the arts. Whenever you do start making money at whatever you’re into it seems like you have to make a lot of compromises that you wouldn’t want to make. People, if you want to make a living in the arts, have to be willing to compromise and not plan on making big money although sometimes you may hit, you may do well, but you can’t let that be motivation. Your love of the art and the lifestyle has to be motivation. Working really hard at whatever your art or your craft to become the best you can be at it is probably the main advice I would give.