onurblues: Deborah Coleman - Takin' A Stand (1994), I Can't Lose (1997)

→ Thanks to L.C.

From Van Halen to Billie Holiday

Deborah Coleman died much too early, in 2018, at age 61, leaving us wondering how high her career would have taken her.

She was born in 1956 in Portsmouth, Virginia, in a very musical family : her father, a Marine, played piano, her brothers and sister, guitar and/or keyboards. She started guitar at eight, later changing to bass and playing in local R'n'B and rock bands in her mid-teens, before switching back to guitar after discovering Hendrix, Cream or Led Zeppelin. But she had to reach 19 years old to fall for the blues after hearing John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf at a festival.

At 25 she got married, had a daughter and stopped performing for a few years to concentrate on raising her baby, working as a nurse or an electrician. She resumed touring with a girls band, Moxxie, from 1985 to 1988 when the group split up, then joined a more blues-oriented trio.

Her real career started in 1993 when she ended n° 1 at a National Blues Talent Search in Charleston, South Carolina. She immediately formed her own band and with the prize consisting of free studio time, she recorded a demo for the small North Carolina label New Moon Records, founded by Randy Friel, that offered her a contract for an album.

It was “Takin' A Stand” released the next year (1994), a very agreeable work of elegantly grooving blues, gently but seriously swinging and jumping with a touch of hendrixian rock by the end, but still not deserving the “blues-rock” verdict delivered by some critics, sometimes a bit contemptuously.

The misunderstanding is probably due to her former experience in rock bands and to her appreciation of “old” 1970s' rock that she never hid. She even confessed to Sue Foley (with whom she recorded and toured along with Roxanne Potvin in 2007) : “My favorite rock and roll guitar player is Eddie Van Halen. That guy had feeling ! He just had so many unique ideas, and he took things in a different direction.” (1)

Anyway, in my opinion, the term “blues-rock” is not appropriate about a fine blues album like “Takin' A Stand”. Actually this opus is much more “R'n'B”, which is too often mistaken with blues-rock.

It's obvious on most of the tracks : the opening “Evil Gal's Daughter”; “Missin' You”, with its delicious retro feel; the catchy duet with Skeeter Brandon “Don't Talk About Love”, co-written with producer and keyboardist Randy Friel, a song that reminded me the early style of Coco Montoya; or “Takin' A Stand” ending with a superb guitar solo which offers a glimpse of her abilities; the rocking and jumping “I Believe”; and finally the excellent “What Should I Do?”, another catchy number.

Memphis Minnie & her husband
"Kansas Joe" McCoy

Coleman also goes back in time to the roots with her exciting slide guitar cover of Memphis Minnie's early 1930s “Moanin' The Blues”, a tribute to one of the pioneers female blues singer (2). And she enlightens the nice “Can't Leave The Blues” with her soulful guitar playing, while the melancholic soul lament “I Cry”, co-signed with Friel and wah-wah guitarist Armand Lenchek, has a slight jazzy underlying.

The album ends up with two tracks obviously in homage to Hendrix : the funky “Them Changes”, from former member of Hendrix's Band of Gypsys Buddy Miles, and its stirring encore, “Changes Revisited”, with searing guitar work by Coleman and Lenchek.

It's a first album and Coleman is still holding back a little on guitar and vocals, compared to her next more rock-infused works. Still she proves she's not only a talented singer but also an inspired songwriter and a true blues guitarist.

In her following release, “I Can't Lose” (1997), Coleman sounds much more self-assured, both on vocals and guitar. This time she has signed with a “big” label, San Francisco based Blind Pig Records, and one can feel the company had invested money on the album : hi-tech studio (Tone Zone Recording in Chicago), production and mixing (Michael Freeman), and invitation to Joanna Connor to play on one track.

Also Coleman is accompanied by a new small but efficient band : the impressive Chuck Webb on bass, the mysterious Paryss on rhythm guitar, and the flawless Daryl "Slam" Stewart on drums.

The album features muscular, rock influenced, R'n'B songs, and again she wrote most of the material (seven of the ten tracks), confirming her gift for finding catchy riffs (“Feelin' Alright”) and choruses (“The Man Is Mine”), and groovy rhythms.

Joanna Connor

Her vocals sound more powerful and she doesn't hold back on guitar anymore. You might call it blues-rock this time; in any case it's certainly rocking and jumping blues, not far from the Texas style.

There's no decay among the ten tracks, all quite exciting in their own style : stirring numbers like the rocking opening “I Can't Lose”; the two outstanding titles “The Man Is Mine” and “Feelin' Alright”; the irresistible jumping “Brick”; the Chicago style “Roll With Me”; the soul “My Heart Bleeds Blue”; “Something's Wrong” with Joanna Connor who brought female support in a world ― blues ― largely dominated by men; the R'n'B “I Found You”; and the slightly jazz-rock flavored “My Love Belongs To You”, closing this opus on a superb solo.

Billie Holiday

On the first album she covered Memphis Minnie, here she continues her homage to pioneer blues ladies with a powerful version of the iconic Billie Holiday's “Fine & Mellow” (3).

Altogether a thrilling album from a superb musician in full control of her vocal and string tools. Unfortunately most of the videos of her performances, often of poor technical quality, don't do her justice. ■

(1) This passage was quoted by Sue Foley in an article she signed in Guitar Player in November 2021 : https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/award-winning-blues-guitarist-deborah-coleman-was-a-rock-n-roll-powerhouse

(2) “Moaning The Blues” by Memphis Minnie (with her husband "Kansas Joe" McCoy), 1933 or 34 : https://youtu.be/Iu-uiZFlXmw

(3) Billie Holiday's original “Fine and Mellow” backed by an impressive casting of great jazzmen, 1957 : https://youtu.be/YKqxG09wlIA

Discography (audio)

→ "Takin' a Stand", 1994 : https://youtu.be/3lzQj5JKBB4
→ "I Can't Lose", 1997 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lmgbTGzWxJaOz7GRdUUREHJQ8zAw4c1nE
→ "Where Blue Begins", 1998 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nc9BBNZyEkTq6eFNCP5HNeE-6TZpzM9UQ
→ "Soft Place to Fall", 2000 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mrqiZ4_6O9OkM2cChcP1JHCOBMBFHwyRU
→ "Livin' on Love", 2001 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nGJ9xeT7m9Rf0pQIPZKX4MuKrwotphNcE
→ "Soul Be It", 2002 : https://youtu.be/HKWHWY_Yt24

→ "What About Love?", 2004 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n-LxtRRIg43aknsrwrvIdEI7ibTJhv_Gs
→ "Stop the Game," 2007 : https://youtu.be/-EYQfR8MmfY
→ "Time Bomb" (with Sue Foley & Roxanne Potvin), 2007 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lRRp5oQYhkkmAtVVzfJm1zA11lRiMKrGE
→ "Blues Caravan: Guitars & Feathers" (with Candye Kane & Dani Wilde, and feat. Laura Chavez on guitar), 2008 : https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nlwhTNZGzm0A2xtvHvLG5ymfCasEocybA

Videos

► Interview + Performance, 1997 : https://youtu.be/ca3ARGXC8o4?t=24
► With the Phifer Marshall Band, Richmond, VA, 2003 : https://youtu.be/K9y2nu1JoMw?t=371
► Natu Nobilis Blues Festival, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2004 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/qV7ylK3CjNY
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/xRRDs4nwKEE

Coleman, Foley & Potvin

► La Isla del Blues Festival, San Fernando-Cadiz, Spain, 2004 : https://youtu.be/W9SVcmxKZ48 (full show)
► Blues Caravan (with Sue Foley & Roxanne Potvin), Getxo, Spain, 2007 : https://youtu.be/EHGXFl_VTfM

► Jazz Terrassa Festival, Barcelona, Spain, 2007 :
→ #1 : https://youtu.be/NHcTIQuYT0A
→ #2 : https://youtu.be/wIwhv6SJrhU
→ #3 : https://youtu.be/P75y05Ww-P8

► Beauvais, France, 2007 :
→ D. Coleman : https://youtu.be/rpNDgyhusbQ
→ S. Foley : https://youtu.be/WqTvkwUPBCQ
→ Hilarious ! A laborious interview with a very professional Coleman by a Frenchman obviously very far from speaking English fluently and ending with a video editing error : https://youtu.be/xhSzO9EqOpc
► “The Dream” :
→ Getxo, Spain, 2007 : https://youtu.be/fnEjoS7oago
→ Chile, 2007 : https://youtu.be/7Kc-ja6i1GI
→ North Atlantic Blues Festival, Rockland, MA, 2007 : https://youtu.be/3XBV6i2xaAQ

► “Whole Lotta Love”, Blues Caravan (Dani Wilde, Candye Kane, Deborah Coleman and lead guitarist Laura Chavez), 2008 : https://youtu.be/bQyHj9RRl1s
► Teatro El Albeitar, Universidad De León, Spain, 2009 : https://youtu.be/zFxMp7cGI64