Debbie Davies

“She wields an electric guitar as if it were a wand.” - Los Angeles Times

“Davies playing is extraordinary - full of propulsion and energy and melodic invention…” People Magazine

(photo: Joseph Rosen)

Davies’ rise to the upper echelon of blues music started at an early age as she absorbed the music heard constantly in her home - her parents were (professional) musicians. Growing up in Los Angeles in the 1960’s, she went against the grains of society’s accepted roles of the time. She didn’t accept that being a female guitar player meant only one thing: acoustic guitar. It was enough to hear the sounds of the British blues-rock bands, particularly the electric guitar of Eric Clapton with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

Davies cut her teeth playing in blues and rock ‘n roll bands in the San Francisco Bay area before returning to Los Angeles in 1984, where she landed the lead guitar spot in Maggie Mayall (wife of British blues pioneer, John Mayall). In 1988 she joined the Icebreakers, and for the next three years she was a featured guitarist performing behind one of the most innovative bluesmen of all time, Albert Collins. “I stepped through a door into the real blues world when I joined Albert’s band,” Davies says. In 1990 Debbie was invited to perform on John Mayall’s album, A Sense of Place, and in 1991 she recorded with Albert Collins and the Icebreakers on the Grammy nominated self-titled release for Point Blank/Virgin Records.

In September 1993 she came out with her debut solo release, Picture This, which featured a cameo by Collins on “I Wonder Why.” Since then, Debbie has produced nine solo recordings and two collaborative CD’s. The roster of other artists who have joined Debbie in the studio on her recordings reads like a who’s who of the blues: Albert Collins, Ike Turner, James Cotton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Coco Montoya, Duke Robillard, Tommy Shannon, Chris “Whipper” Layton, Sugar Ray Norcia, Mudcat Ward, Charlie Musselwhite, Bruce Katz, Per Hanson, Noel Neal, and Rod Carey. She has received eight nominations for Blues Music Awards, and in 1997 won the award for Best Contemporary Female Blues Artist. She is nominated yet again in this category for 2008.

Her 2007 Telarc Records release Blues Blast is highly-acclaimed and is a pressure cooker recording that showcases her seasoned guitar and vocal capabilities. It includes guest appearances by three high-profile bluesmen: guitarists Tab Benoit and Coco Montoya, and harpist Charlie Musselwhite. A twenty-year veteran of the road, Debbie Davies is truly one of the leading lights on the contemporary blues music scene today.

"Davies exhibits guitar playing virtuosity with the likes of Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan." – MUSIC CONNECTION