3/19/2010 @ 12:00

3/19/2010

Blues on Grand
1501 Grand Avenue
Des Moines, IA 50309

$10 Debbie Davies website >> Debbie Davies was exposed to the music scene at an early age through her musician parents (her father wrote arrangements for Ray Charles and made sessions with such industry heavyweights as Frank Sinatra and Pearl Bailey). She came up playing in blues and rock 'n' roll bands in the San Francisco Bay Area before returning to Los Angeles in 1984 and landing the lead guitar spot a year later in Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, an all female R&B band led by the wife of British blues pioneer John Mayall (Debbie later performed on John Mayall's 1990 album A Sense of Place). In 1988, she was drafted into Albert Collins & the Icebreakers and for the next three years was featured guitarist, performing night after night behind one of the most innovative blues legends of all time. She appeared on Collins' 1991 Grammy-nominated self-titled release for Point Blank/Virgin Records. "She pulls out all of the stops. She can play it all: seductive, soulful material, down-home Delta blues or humorous tales of life on the road." - Blues Revue Robin Rogers website >> Music has been Robin Rogers' consuming passion ever since her days as a teenaged street singer. Possessing a deeply expressive and soulful voice and an infectious enthusiasm for the blues, Robin and her band have developed a devoted and growing following. They were finalists in the Blues Foundation's 2004 International Blues Challenge, and the following year won the Foundation's "Best Produced CD" Award for Rogers' sophomore release, Crazy Cryin' Blues. Robin, who also plays a mean blues harmonica, has opened for the likes of Johnny Winter, Buddy Guy, and Robert Cray. Rogers' Blind Pig debut, entitled Treat Me Right, fulfills the promise of her previous two releases, revealing an accomplished artist of rare polish and originality. It is a showcase for Robin's stylistic variety and vocal intensity, from the rolling R&B title track to the jazzy "Nobody Stays," to the soulful groove of "Nobody's Gonna Hurt You." Treat Me Right features perhaps Rogers' most powerful composition, "Color-Blind Angel," a moving account of the life and death of white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo, who was assassinated by the KKK in 1965. AllMusic said of the album "the combination of excellent material and Rogers' compelling voice is what makes this a winner," while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette said it "is consistently good -- no matter what she sings, Rogers pours herself into it. She's tough and tender, sometimes both at the same time." Robin is a 2009 Blues Music Award Nominee for "Contemporary Female Blues Artist of the Year."