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Deborah Coleman

Deborah Coleman - guitar vocals

Deborah Coleman is, as USA Today notes, “one of blues music’s most exciting young talents.” Along with a discography that now spans a decade; she also gives knockout live performances that have made her one of the hottest commodities on the contemporary blues scene.

Meticulous and focused in the studio and highly charismatic onstage, Coleman has developed a guitar style that reflects the influences of Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Albert Collins and Larry Carlton. Her vocal inspirations are as often found in the singing of Chrissie Hynde and Patti Smith as in the recordings of Bessie Smith, Janis Joplin, Memphis Minnie and Alberta Hunter.

Coleman was born in 1956 in Portsmouth, Va., and raised in a music-loving military family that lived in San Diego, San Francisco, Bremerton, Washington, and the Chicago area. With her father playing piano and her two brothers on guitar, and a sister who plays guitar and keyboards, Deborah felt natural with an instrument in her hands, picking up a guitar at age eight.

At 15, she joined a series of rock and R&B bands"first as a bass player, but later switching to lead guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Like most musicians of her generation, radio was an important early influence. “Back then, the formats of the radio stations were more diverse,” she says. “I remember hearing Joe Cocker, James Brown, Ray Charles and the Beatles on the same station.” As her interest in guitar-driven music grew, she plugged into rock groups such as the Yardbirds, Cream and Led Zeppelin, and followed the roots of their music back to its origin in the blues. “Jeff Beck was one of my favorites,” she recalls. “I didn’t find out until later that they were doing blues tunes and I went to find the original artists.” A pivotal event for Coleman was a concert she saw when she was 21 that featured Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker all on the same bill. “I will never forget that show,” she says. “It started me on a path to my roots.”

Coleman married at 25 and put her musical career on hold to raise her daughter, developing a career as an electrician along the way. “I raised a family, held a nine-to-five job, then I finally decided to play music full-time,” she recalls. Coleman got the big break she was looking for in 1993 at a talent search sponsored by the Charleston Blues Festival. Her band consisted of her brother and his friend, both of whom only played heavy metal. “We rehearsed for a week, and I taught them tunes. It was the beginning of my professional career,” she said. She knocked out the crowd and the judges with a performance full of fire, took first place in the competition and hasn’t looked back since.

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164
Album Review

Deborah Coleman: Soft Place To Fall

Read "Soft Place To Fall" reviewed by Ed Kopp


With its classic-rock sound, Deborah Coleman’s Soft Place to Fall seems inspired by Chrissie Hynde and Jimi Hendrix more than Bessie Smith or B.B. King.That's not to disparage the album. On the contrary, Soft Place to Fall is a fine blues-rock release, and Deborah Coleman is a polished guitarist, a passionate singer and a very attractive woman. If the best tunes here find their way to commercial radio or VH1, Coleman may land on the pop charts. It ...

251
Album Review

Deborah Coleman: Soft Place To Fall

Read "Soft Place To Fall" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


You Took Advantage of Me. The title of Deborah Coleman's latest Blind Pig release, Soft Place To Fall is a bit misleading because this disc is anything but soft. As a guitarist, vocalist, and composer, Coleman is firmly in the vein of Robert Cray and Kenny Neal. But any comparison ends there. Robert Cray (and to a lesser extent Neal) could only hope to have the balls Deborah Coleman displays on this disc. The Virginia native grew up in a ...

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90

Performance / Tour

Blues Titans Lonnie Brooks and Deborah Coleman will be rockin ’ the house in Maplewood on June 11

Blues Titans Lonnie Brooks and Deborah Coleman will be rockin ’ the house in Maplewood on June 11

Source: All About Jazz

June 6, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] Blues Titans Lonnie Brooks and Deborah Coleman will be rockin’ the house in Maplewood on June 11! Maplewood, NJ ––Two blues giants, Deborah Coleman and the legendary Lonnie Brooks, will be performing in concert on June 11, 8:00 PM at The Woman's Club of Maplewood, NJ. Lonnie Brooks defies simple classification by shaping his signature sound with rock& roll, R&B, Cajun boogie, country twang and hard ...

78

Performance / Tour

Arts Maplewood presents Lonnie Brooks & Deborah Coleman An Evening of the Blues June 11, 2005 @ 8PM

Arts Maplewood presents Lonnie Brooks &  Deborah Coleman An Evening of the Blues June 11, 2005 @ 8PM

Source: All About Jazz

May 6, 2005 To: Listings/Critics/Features From: JAZZ PROMO SERVICES Press Contact: JIM EIGO, [email protected] Arts Maplewood presents An Evening of the Blues featuring LONNIE BROOKS & DEBORAH COLEMAN JUNE 11, 2005 @ 8PM Maplewood Woman's Club 60 Woodland Road Maplewood, NJ 07040 General admin $35 / Srs & Fan Club $30 / Students $12 Tickets (800) 838-3006 Online: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/1771 Brooks live shows are a joyful paean to the power of the blues. Brooks is equally at home playing rock & ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Stop The Game

JSP Records
2007

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Soft Place To Fall

Blind Pig Records
2000

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