BluesWax Sittin' In With
Deborah Coleman
Part One
By Bob Gersztyn
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Deborah Coleman
Deborah Coleman was born in Portsmouth, Virginia, in
1956, and grew up in a military/musical family, that bore some resemblance to a
band. Some of her earliest memories were of her father and siblings jamming in
the living room with guitars and keyboards. Her first strong emotional
connection with music came at the age of eight after watching the Monkees
on television when she was subsequently inspired to pick up a guitar for the
first time. By the time she was fifteen, she had learned how to play the guitar
and formed her first band. She began as a bass guitarist, but was inspired to
play electric lead after hearing the late great Jimi Hendrix on the
radio. The radio was a very important source back in the 1960s and early 1970s,
before specific format FM stations became dominant killing the musical stew
that Top 40 AM radio was at that time.
Her newfound interest in electric guitar led her to Rock
music, where she listened to groups like Cream, Led Zeppelin, Rush,
and Jeff Beck. After investigating the source of their inspiration, she
found herself listening to the Blues. A major turning point took place at the
age of twenty-one after attending a concert that featured Howlin' Wolf, Muddy
Waters, and John Lee Hooker. Her mind was completely blown, as she
discovered the roots to it all. She left the music world for a period to raise
her daughter and worked as a nurse and electrician. In 1985 she returned to
music with a band called Moxie. After they disbanded she was part of an
R&B trio named Misbehavin and toured extensively with them. In 1993
she entered South Carolina's Charleston Blues Festival's National Amateur
Talent Search with some musicians to form a backup band and won first place and
free studio time. With the prize she recorded a demo, which led to a record
deal with New Moon Records. Her first album, titled Takin' A Stand, was
released in 1994 and featured her singing, songwriting, and playing guitar on a
variety of styles, including Blues and Funk. In 1997 she released I Can't
Loose, the first of five albums on the Blind Pig label, which resulted in
numerous Handy Award nominations. At the same time she continued to tour and
has shared the stage with a variety of performers, including Lonnie Brooks,
Delbert McClinton, and Kenny Neal.
In November 2003, Ms. Coleman and her band, consisting of Hirosama
Suzuki on guitar, Ken Clark on keyboards, Noel Neal on bass
guitar, and Per Hanson on drums, recorded What About Love on the
Telarc label. The album was recorded at The Centre For Performing Arts in
Unity, Maine. The Centre provided the freedom and atmosphere of a live
performance, while at the same time it had all the controls of a recording
studio. It also provided housing for the band so they could stay focused
without breaking continuity during the entire recording session. The final
result is an album composed of eleven cuts that include a mix of self-penned
compositions, along with covers by everyone from Phil Everly to Delbert
McClinton. The CD features heartfelt vocals that reflect influences by Alberta
Hunter, Chrissie Hynde, Janis Joplin, Memphis Minnie,
and Bessie Smith, along with some great guitar playing inspired by a
variety of axe men including Larry Carlton, Albert Collins, Buddy
Guy, Jimi Hendrix, and Freddie King. BluesWax contributing
editor Bob Gersztyn sat down with Deborah Coleman to get the lowdown on her
newest album, and ...
Bob Gersztyn for BluesWax: Out of the eleven songs
on your new album, What About Love, you wrote four of them, while the
other seven are covers. In particular I was curious about your choice of songs,
especially the one co-authored by Gary Nicholson, "Healing Ground."
Why did you choose it?
Deborah Coleman: Since I did some of Gary Nicholson's
songs in the past and I think that he's a great songwriter, but when he sent me
the rough of this song, I thought that it was a little different, topically,
than the other ones. Then, I also like the way that it sounded. I thought that
maybe I could do something with that; so I gave it a whirl.
BW: Considering the connection that Blues and Gospel have
with each other, I thought that maybe that could have been a reason. What kind
of a religious background did you have?
DC: I grew up, for the most part, Baptist. I went to
church when I was very young. I sang in the choir for maybe one year. Being in
the military, we moved around so much, that it was hard to get stable anywhere.
So eventually church-going went by the wayside. We'd watch it on TV or listen
on the radio, if at all. Having the Gospel thing in there, along with the
Blues, was another reason why I did "Healing Ground."
BW: Have you ever done any Gospel songs before?
DC: No I haven't. This is the first time that I've
even tried to approach that type of song. We'll see what happens in the future.
Just yesterday I was on my way home from a festival that I played at and I had
the Gospel station on and it's great stuff, so I'm kind of delving into that a
little bit more.
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Deborah Coleman's What
About Love?
Click Cover For More Info
BW: When you were younger and first started getting into
music, what came first, the guitar playing or the singing?
DC: The guitar playing. I've just always been
mesmerized by the guitar. I fell in love with the instrument. It was something
that I thought that I wanted to do, so I got my hands on one and started
teaching myself and I'm still teaching myself. It's been a good companion and I
just love the instrument. The singing really didn't come until I started doing
Blues music. Most of the time when I was in bands I just played guitar. I just
wanted to be a side person. That was really my whole thing. I just wanted to play
in somebody else's band. I had no interest in singing unless it was something
like background vocals. I absolutely love background vocals. I wish that I
could have more on my records and that's something that I hope to do in the
future, but I've only been singing for ten years.
BW: Your doing a great job.
DC: Yeah, but I never really had any interest in
singing, I just wanted to be a musician, but as it turns out I get to do both.
So that's really great.
BW: I read in your bio where it said that you were
originally inspired by The Monkees' TV show. Was that your original
inspiration?
DC: Laughs. Yeah. I saw Michael Nesmith with
the guitar and I said that looks pretty cool. My dad dabbled around on a little
plastic guitar at the house. Then he finally got a little acoustic one and he
let me mess around with it. I learned my first three chords from Mel Bay
and then after that I was on my own. Basically I just taught myself the
instrument and I'm having a wonderful time figuring it out and learning things
about it. So I would have to say that the guitar has always been my first love.
BW: I noticed that you said you were heavily influenced by
Jimi Hendrix, when you first heard him. What did you think when you first heard
him?
DC: I thought he was great! At the time when I was
playing in the garage bands of yesterday. We really got in the garage after
school and just rehearsed or practiced or whatever, and all the guys wanted to
play Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was the hot thing at the time when I started to get
into the band thing. There wasn't a local band or a band around, that wasn't
playing Jimi Hendrix songs. That's how I first got introduced to Hendrix,
through a lot of the guys that I was able to jam with at the time.
BW: I thought it was pretty funny when I interviewed Ike
Turner and he told me that he fired Jimi Hendrix from his band.
DC: That poor man's been fired by more people. Why
did Ike fire him?
BW: Ike said that he fired him because of all his pedals.
At the time, technology hadn't caught up to Jimi's ideas and his guitar
experiments created so much distorted feedback that you couldn't hear his
guitar. So Ike told him either the pedals go or you do. Jimi left after three
weeks.
DC: He left with the pedals.
BW: When did you first begin to conceive your latest
album, What About Love?
DC: I started thinking about it right after I
finished the Soul Be It live record. I started thinking about what kind
of record I'd be doing next time. There was a two-year break in between the
live album and this new one. Originally, what I wanted to do was write all the
material for this next album myself, but then with my touring schedule I wasn't
able to make that happen this time. Then I ran into Randy Labbe from
Telarc records and we started discussing what kind of approach the album would
have with him being producer on it. He had very strong feelings on what kind of
record he wanted it to be. [Laughs] So we came to a mutual agreement as far as
songs and covers of stuff that we would do. I presented him with the originals
that I had and he liked them. Then he presented me with some of the cover
material and even up to the last day we were making changes on some of the
stuff, but we felt like we finally got some songs that would go good together.
What we really wanted was a nice little, tight little, groovin' record. Nothing
really spectacular, if you will. One of the things that the producer wanted to
try was to use a more raw approach with it. So that's what we ended up doing.
BW: How do you decide what cover songs that you're going
to use?
DC: First I have to relate to the lyrics. Sometimes I
get it right, sometimes I don't get it right; but I have to relate to the lyric
and then I have to like the groove of the song and I have to be able to figure
out how I can make it somewhat of my own song. Because the last thing you want
to do is make a cover and do the same thing that the last artist did. I don't
like to do that. So I have to like the lyrics and it has to have a good groove
to it and I have to be able to adapt it; to make it more Deborah Coleman-ish,
if you will.
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Photo by Jen Taylor of
vividpix.com
BW: That's like when Johnny Cash did a cover of
Soundgarden's song "Rusty Cage." After Tom Petty re-arranged it for
him, it sounded like a Johnny Cash song, but at the same time you knew that it
was that song.
DC: That's what we were trying to do when we do a
cover. Otherwise I might as well just write my own song.
BW: What is the process that you use to create a song,
from beginning to end? You could take as an example, the song itself,
"What About Love."
DC: The song "What About Love," let's see
.. Basically what I do, a lot of times, is do the music first and then I'll
start to think about the lyrics. I try to have the content fit the mood of the
music. That's been my approach a lot of the time. The only drawback about that,
sometimes I find, on some songs that I try to write, is if I take that approach
constantly what will happen is you'll end up with a lot of stuff sounding ...
the music will be grooving and jamming, but what will happen is you'll loose an
idea for the lyric melody and that's the process that I'm working on
continuously. I have some of my older favorite songs that I've written, where
I've actually written the melody first and then go around it with the music and
I think that makes for sometimes, better songwriting. But it really depends on
the song and what I'm trying to go for. Traditionally it's been music first,
lyrics second.
BW: Then when you're composing something like "Wild River,"
how do you decide that you're not going to have any lyrics?
DC: By the time the guitar player and I finished
working it out, it was such a cool thing the way that the guitars work with
each other that I wanted that to be a focal point. So I left it as an
instrumental on purpose with the intent of eventually re-doing that song with
lyrics. I just thought that it was really cool the way that we did that
together and I'm really pleased with the results.
To be continued...
You can find Deborah Coleman playing this weekend, on
October 16, at the Harvest Moon Festival in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Bob Gersztyn is a contributing editor at BluesWax. Bob
may be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED].
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This Week in BluesWax:
Deborah Coleman
- In the E-zine:
BluesWax is Sittin' in With Deborah Coleman. After almost a full year of
touring in support of her release, What About Love, BluesWax caught
up with Deborah Coleman and talked with her about her influences, writing
songs, touring, and much more.
- On the News
Page: Mel Brown's Birthday Party; Jon "JC" Coleman Joins
Anthony Gomes; Reverend Billy C. Wirtz Joins Blind Pig; Mavis Staples Bats For
Red Sox; New Orleans All Star Blues Revue News; Downchild 35th
Anniversary Tour; Magnolia Sisters Release; Shades Of Blue; and All Kinds of
Happenings This Weekend!
- On the Photo
Page: Live Shots from the 2004 King Biscuit Blues Festival.
- On the Blues
Bytes page: Preacher Boy is Demanding to be Next in line of
emerging acoustic Blues players. Check out this review of his debut album.
- On the Blues
Beat page: The Telluride Blues and Brews Festival is one of the largest
Blues festivals in the U.S. BluesWax was there this year and had a great
time. Check out this review of the 2004 Telluride fest.
- Under BluesWax
Picks: James Walker reviews Long John Baldry's Remembering Leadbelly;
Pete Lauro reviews the Midwest Blues All-Stars' Party Time; Vincent
Abbate reviews John Lee Hooker's Lost Recordings; plus reviews of Bill
Perry's Raw Deal, Melissa Martin and the Mighty Rhythm Kings' On The
Mark, and Sean Chambers' Humble Spirits.
- One
Year Ago Today In BluesWax: BluesWax was "Sittin' In With
Patrick Sweany." Check out what this hardworking Bluesman was up to a year
ago.
- Don't forget to play the Blues Trivia
Game: Remember, everyone who plays is in the drawing for the prize! This
week's prize: a two CD pack! The pack includes Tommy Castro's Gratitude,
courtesy of our friends at Heart & Soul Records, and The Jim McCarty Blues
Band's Outside Woman Blues, courtesy of our friends at Moreland Street
Records. Play Today!
