Written interview with Debbie Bond – Live at the Song Theater.
Jazz Blues European Union: – Thank you for taking the time to have this interview with Jazz Blues EU. Tell us about your music. When did you start performing?
Debbie Bond: – Music was always a healer for me. I started playing guitar when I was around 13 years old and performed for the first time a year later in Sierra Leone, West Africa. I was living there at the time with my mother, who was an anthropologist doing field research.
I was in my first band while in college in 1976 and have continued ever since. It was when I moved to Alabama age 22 that I became deeply entrenched in the blues. Amazingly, I connected to Johnny Shines who lived in Tuscaloosa and who had traveled with Robert Johnson! He took me under his wing and mentored me for the last decade of his life. This was the true beginning of my path down the blues road.
What do you consider to be your hometown and how does that affect your music?
That is a difficult question! My family traveled as a way of life, moving every couple of years. Since I left home, and I have always been on the road playing music. I was born in California, lived in Europe and West Africa. So everywhere I go, I always feel to some extent an outsider, and this is a double-edged sword. There is both a freedom and heartache in that. Making new friends and then saying goodbye is part of my life experience – finding new cultures and having adventures.
That said, I have spent the last 44 years based in and around Tuscaloosa, Alabama, so that has been my home base for quite a while! The blues culture of Alabama has deeply affected my style of playing and my performance experience as a musician. Working with and performing with musicians from Alabama has influenced my music so much. Alabama blues community gave me a family and a home. In Alabama, I was also able to work extensively with Willie King, Eddie Kirkland, Little Jimmy Reed, Shar Baby, and so many more.
I am now in the process of leaving the USA, at least for a while, due to the political situation. I am a bit homeless at the moment and that is hard. That is definitely a cause for the blues! I really feel deeply that I am a citizen of this planet sharing it with this amazing diverse world. My goal and challenge is to find my home and peace within myself. There are so many displaced people right now that are going through this on a more extreme level. My heart goes out to them.
What performers have been your inspiration?
I have been blessed to work with outstanding traditional Alabama blues players. After Johnny Shines, I worked with many other blues women and men. I toured Europe with Little Whitt and Big Bo in 1995.
With Willie King, my biggest influence, I played backwoods juke joints, festivals in Mississippi and Alabama and then toured in Europe including the fantastic Cognac Blues Festival twice and toured Italy and Switzerland.
He was known as “the Bob Marley of the blues,” and he used his music to spread peace, love, justice and community. He was so loved in Europe. In Cognac they even named a street after him. I hope to visit that soon. I loved how he tuned into the spirit, and made each performance unique, connecting with the audience, improvising and bringing people together through his love and transmitted through his music.
So many Alabama blues musicians have been my inspiration. I have learned so much from each of the performers I worked with. Johnny Shines always gave it his all with audiences large and small. Eddie Kirkland, I was inspired by his power to improvise creatively. Big Bo McGee preached to always aspire to be your unique self and tell your story.
That said, I am not a black Southern musician! Along with the Alabama roots music, my own music is also influenced by my love of jazz, soul, and Americana. I write about my life. I was never a sharecropper, so I sing my story and write my own songs. I definitely have traditional blues influences but that is not who I am. I write about love, loss, the world as I see it. I have written songs about climate change, and protest songs pleading for justice, peace and more love.
This much overlooked Alabama blues culture also inspired me to found the Alabama Blues Project, to promote and preserve the states blues culture. Rick and I together with Alabama blues artists, have done extensive “blues in the schools” programs, impacting thousands of children every year. We have received numerous awards and support from people, including Bonnie Raitt – who has also been a huge influence.
What do you find most challenging about being an independent artist in today’s music industry?
Wow, so much to do to keep the boat afloat. Booking, promoting, road managing, driving, loading, working with sound, creating, writing, recording and producing our music, and also doing interviews! I am lucky my partner in love and life is “Radiator” Rick Asherson. We met through Willie King. He plays keyboard, harmonica, and sings. He has computer skills! Likes to drive. Loves sound technology. We work together making it all happen. I really couldn’t do it without him. We are a team. I am blessed.
My frustration really is mostly around booking. It is so time consuming that it is easier to keep going back to the same clubs that know and love us. Breaking into to new territory is always a challenge. I am thankful when someone books us a little tour like we just had in France. Jack Garcia, of the Maison du Blues in France, booked us a tour and I got a few extra shows. We had a wonderful time in France and were very well received.
I want to keep growing my music, writing new songs, and having the time for all of that is really hard. So many balls to keep up in the air and pay the bills.
What do you base your success on?
Thank you for seeing me that way! I have just followed my heart and been extremely persistent. I used to paint houses for a living to support my music. I did blues education with children in Alabama, and just kept going through the thick and thin. I don’t feel I chose music but music chose me. Through the ups and downs this is what we do. This is who we are. Love, passion and persistence through the good and hard times. What a blessing it is to be doing something so unique with my precious short life on this planet.
Can you talk about your experiences collaborating with other artists or musicians? How does it influence your creative process?
I learned early on to try and surround myself with greatness. I have gigged mostly in the Southern States of the USA where I have been based. The blues and soul culture there is so deep and wide. Connecting with the musician who are entrenched in that musical language has always been my goal. We have so many outstanding musicians nearby, Muscles Shoals is down the road, and Mississippi is just over the state line. So many great true blues/soul musicians to draw from.
When I started touring in the UK and France, my first goal has been to connect with those musicians there, as I couldn’t afford to bring over my band from the USA. That would be a dream come true. BUT my UK and French drummers have been completely awesome. For example, one of my UK drummers, Sam Kelly, has been voted best blues drummer by the UK Blues Federation so many times they finally had to give him his own permanent award! There is a magic when we play together. We are very improvisational. We all feed off each other playing. We speak the same language of blues, soul, and jazz.
What was your latest musical release? Could you share the story behind your latest new CD Debbie Bond – Live at the Song Theater and what inspired its creation? How does your latest album fit into your creative path? Is this a goal you wanted to achieve?
My latest recording is “Live at the Song Theater.” It was recorded in Alabama at a theater run by two blues musicians – a popular venue for intimate shows. The theater also has state of the art recording facilities and the capability of performing live with an audience while recording with acoustical brilliance. Our goal was to capture a taste of a live performance, featuring a retrospective of our original songs and a few well-loved covers. We have been receiving great reviews and lots of air play here in the UK and in Europe. We are thrilled that we are currently #12 the UK blues radio charts!
Do you have any news to share?
This summer we were able to do a wonderful tour with Alabama blues woman Carroline Shines. She is the daughter of the late, great, blues legend Johnny Shines, who helped me get my start. This was a real dream come true for both of us. When I first moved to Alabama in 1979 it was her father who mentored me. I shared my band with him the last 10 years of his life. He was my blues daddy and Carroline is my blues sister.
Carroline and I have worked together extensively in Alabama, performing and doing blues-in-the-schools programs since she was very young. She had never played out of the USA before. The French audiences adored her and she rose to the occasion and gave every moment her all. We hope to work together again in the future here in the UK and in Europe.
How do you approach the process of songwriting, and are there any specific themes or emotions you tend to explore in your music?
I write songs about just about anything! I can write very serious songs about the political world as I see it, heart break, heart ache, and funny songs too! I tend to start with a musical grove and then the words come. I usually start the song, and then Rick and I finish and refine it together. Playing a song live helps the song evolve, so I like to “road test” a song before I record it.
As an indie musician, how do you navigate the balance between creative freedom and commercial appeal?
I never think about commercial appeal – maybe that’s where I go wrong! I play and write from the heart. I guess I think the music I play is “underground music.” It isn’t commercial. So much of the music today that is commercial isn’t even played on real instruments! I like it raw and real.
What role does technology and social media play in promoting your music and connecting with your audience?
Technology plays a crucial role in recording, mixing and mastering of course. Our previous CD, Blues without Borders, was recorded during the pandemic. We recorded internationally – for example, we had horns from Muscle Shoals, my good friend Lea Gilmore sang and wrote a verse from Baltimore, USA, and a female percussionist, Joelle Barker, added side percussion from the Birmingham, England.
I do love the sound of older technology, especially my Fender Telecaster on a vintage Princeton tube amp, so I am a fan of old-fashioned technology too.
Social media has helped me tremendously share my music, and my life with friends and fans globally. I have found gigs, met musicians and found venues that way. Technology and social media are crucial for connecting to my audience.
Could you describe a memorable live performance experience or tour that has had a lasting impact on you and your music?
I performed extensively with the late great bluesman Willie King. With Willie we played regularly in his local backwoods juke joint and backwoods festivals, picnics, family gatherings and more.
Willie’s regular juke joint, Bettie’s Place, was a tiny backwoods performance space, in an old shack down a dirt road, in the middle of nowhere. This is the kind of space where the blues was born. If you go to our YouTube channel, you can see Willie and us performing there.
Willie always said that the blues was sent down to lift people’s spirits and bring everyone together. He said you always have to bring the spirit of the juke joint with you wherever you play. We were blessed to tour Europe with Willie on major stages like at the Cognac blues Festival in Fance. We experienced in action his ability to bring that spirit of the juke joint blues to a crowd of thousands. It is always my goal to do the same. Willies’ performances made a lasting impact on my music – big stages or small, he gave it his all.
In an era of streaming platforms, how do you feel about the changing landscape of music consumption and its impact on independent musicians?
It is a very challenging time to be playing music. It is practically impossible for musicians like me to make any significant money from streaming platforms or from CD sales, but every little bit does help.
For me, live performance is where it’s at and I don’t think that will ever die. Whatever the music, every performance is a unique experience and there are many people who enjoy that experience as much as the musicians do.
Musicians often have a close relationship with their fanbase. How do you engage with your fans and build a dedicated community around your music?
We stay in touch in a variety of ways. We try to get a monthly emailing newsletter out to our fans. I find Facebook has been a fabulous platform for me to stay engaged with our friends and fans of our music and news from the road. We find that our audience as much to seeing photos of us driving down the road to our shows as they do to photos and performance videos! It’s a great way to share our recording and performance reviews and coverage in the blues press.
How can fans find you?
youtube.com/user/BluesRoot/videos
instagram.com/ DebbieBondBlues
Lastly, please share some final words with the fans.
These are trying times globally. The blues is an art that emerged from some of the most oppressive and frightening times for people of African descent in America. I have been taught by my mentors, Johnny Shines, Willie King and Eddie Kirkland, that this music is medicine for the soul. It is healing music, sent down to help people through hard times. It brings people together in our common humanity and connects us spirit to spirit, soul to soul. Our need for music and community is more important than ever. We need the blues more than ever, coming together to celebrate our community, our common bonds, our humanity and to heal our hearts and spirit. Support your local venues and bands! We sure hope to see you somewhere down the blues hiway!
Interview by Olivia Peevas; Photos by Robert Sutton
