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05/31/13 Middletown, NY Brians Backyard Bbq
06/02/13 Augusta, NJ Crawfish Festival 06/04/13 Dubois, PA Treasure Lake Ski Lodge 06/06/13 Lincoln, NE Zoo Bar 06/07/13 Omaha Summer Arts Festival 06/08/13 Rock Island, IL Gumbo Ya Ya Festival 06/10/13 Rochester, MN Harmony For Mayo 06/13/13 Milwaukee, WI Jazz In The Park 06/15/13 Chicago, IL Unititled 06/16/13 Gahanna, Oh Creekside Blues & Jazz 06/18/13 Champaign, IL Mike N Molly’s 06/19/13 Champaign, IL Mike N Molly’s 06/20/13 - 06/22/13 Elkhart Jazz Festival 06/27/13 Hutchinson, MN Crow River Winery 06/28/13 Minneapolis MN Famous Dave’s 06/29/13 Red Wing, MN Rolling River Music Festival 07/04/13 Davenport, IA Mississippi Valley Blues 07/07/13 Thunder Bay Thunderbay Blues Festival 07/10/13 Racine, WI Animal Cracker Jazz Series 07/11/13 Chanhassen MN School Ii Bistro 07/13/13 Gladstone, MI Rockin’ the Bay Music Fest 07/25/13 St.Joseph, MN College Of Saint Benedict 07/26/13 - 07/27/13 Minneapolis Dakota Jazz Club 07/31/13 St.Cloud MN Summertime By George 08/01/13 Woodbury, MN Woodbury Lakes Shopping 08/04/13 Durand, WI Blues On Chippewa Festival 08/08/13 Maple Grove, MN Summer Fair 08/09/13 St.Croix Falls, WI Music On The Overlook 08/16/13 Wausau, WI Big Bull Falls Blues Festival 08/1713 New London, MN New London Music Fest 08/22/13 Grand Rapids, MI Pyramid Scheme 08/24/13 St.Mary’s, Ohio Riverside Bluesfest 08/28/13 - 09/01/13 Sierre Sierre Blues Festival 09/05/13 - 09/07/13 Hell Norway Blues In Hell 09/09/13 Wolverhampton Robin 09/11/13 London The Half Moon 09/12/13 Newbury Arlington Arts Centre 09/13/13 Inverness, Uk One Touch Theatre 09/22/13 Monterey, CA Monterey Jazz Festival 10/05/13 Red Wing, MN Music In The Vines 11/09/13 Rochester, MN Kahler Grand Hotel Read More On the second day of the 5th Annual Memory Lanes Block Party in Minneapolis, a tall skinny guy in a black-and-white checked tie and turquoise button-down shirt.…
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On the 2nd day of the Memory Lanes Block Party in Minneapolis, Davina and the Vagabonds lit a fire on the stage
using a match called Ain’t That A Shame, by Fats Domino, and from that moment until the last piano key was struck, the audience danced like demons in the flames at the front of the stage. The audience comprised people of all ages, from pre-schoolers to septuagenarians, and it was damn near impossible, at any time throughout Davina’s set, to find in that crowd a single face that wasn’t smiling.
With a passion to match her blood red headscarf, Davina pounded those keys until you just had to pity them, belting out tunes with a voice that combined the showstopping brassiness of Ethel Merman with the raw intensity of Janis Joplin; only to prove capable, the very next minute, of channeling Aretha Franklin, delivering a smooth yet searing warning to her man that she’d rather drink Muddy Water than have another man she can’t trust.
Whichever past musical greats her performance may have called to mind, Davina was always 100% Davina Sowers, uncontainable force of textbook barrelhouse piano-playing and good time music defined by nothing if not variety. One minute you found yourself shimmying to music so richly redolent of Louisiana Dixieland jazz that you could almost taste the crawfish on your tongue, the next minute you were tappin’ your toes to Hank Williams’ Hey, Good Lookin’, and if that got you wondering what Davina was cookin’, you didn’t have long to wait before she hit you with a slow Etta James blues number, in which she insisted that I’d Rather Go Blind (than see her man walk away from her) – I don’t know how many octaves she climbed on her final note – I was too spellbound to try to figure it out.
Davina’s supporting Vagabonds included trumpet, trombone, drummer, and upright bass, the latter of whom, in addition to deftly plucking and sawing the bass, supplied primary and accompanying vocals. One tasty highlight of the show featured Davina trading vocal licks with her trumpet and trombone players—she would deliver a few choice vocables (inarticulable for most humans), which one of the horn players would then attempt to mimic. During one such flourish, it was nearly impossible to tell the difference between her voice and the bleat of the trombone. But before you could give it any thought, Davina was off to another number, this time whipping out a bullhorn to get the song’s message across in a way that her voice alone could not (however hard that
is to believe).
If you haven’t seen, heard or experienced Davina and the Vagabonds in person, keep a sharp eye out for your next opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.
To preview and purchase tunes from Davina and the Vagabonds’ latest album, Black Cloud, go to itunes.apple.com
With a passion to match her blood red headscarf, Davina pounded those keys until you just had to pity them, belting out tunes with a voice that combined the showstopping brassiness of Ethel Merman with the raw intensity of Janis Joplin; only to prove capable, the very next minute, of channeling Aretha Franklin, delivering a smooth yet searing warning to her man that she’d rather drink Muddy Water than have another man she can’t trust.
Whichever past musical greats her performance may have called to mind, Davina was always 100% Davina Sowers, uncontainable force of textbook barrelhouse piano-playing and good time music defined by nothing if not variety. One minute you found yourself shimmying to music so richly redolent of Louisiana Dixieland jazz that you could almost taste the crawfish on your tongue, the next minute you were tappin’ your toes to Hank Williams’ Hey, Good Lookin’, and if that got you wondering what Davina was cookin’, you didn’t have long to wait before she hit you with a slow Etta James blues number, in which she insisted that I’d Rather Go Blind (than see her man walk away from her) – I don’t know how many octaves she climbed on her final note – I was too spellbound to try to figure it out.
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DAVINA SOWERS
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If you haven’t seen, heard or experienced Davina and the Vagabonds in person, keep a sharp eye out for your next opportunity. You’ll be glad you did.
To preview and purchase tunes from Davina and the Vagabonds’ latest album, Black Cloud, go to itunes.apple.com
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Davina and the Vagabonds at Memory Lanes Block Party, Minneapolis (05/26/13) |
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