Review: Thornetta Davis at Dazzle

Is Thornetta Davis Detroit’s best-kept blues secret? Or is Denver just not hip enough to figure her out before now? To be fair, last weekend was her first visit to Colorado. One thing we now know for sure, however: Thornetta Davis is all about the blues. And she does it up right.

Early blues pioneer Son House explained that “there ain’t but one kind of blues and that’s the blues between a man and a woman.” Saturday night, Davis took that to heart and sang mostly about those blues. She hit all aspects: bad love, lost love, obsessive love, even a pretty good love. Early in the set, she took some good-natured jabs at those men that just don’t behave right. “I’ve got dirty dog radar.” She surveyed the audience but thought better of singling out any of those dirty dogs that may have been lurking. Instead, she broke into one of her originals, “I’d Rather Be Alone.”

Obvious parallels with many past blues singers come to mind, Big Mama Thornton, Bessie Smith, Big Maybelle, or more contemporaneously, Shemekia Copeland. She has the emotion, the power, and the authoritative delivery to make it happen. She belts it. And that’s important. In fact, you can’t really do the blues right unless you belt it out and that’s what you get with Davis.

Davis’ most recent album is the self-produced Honest Woman (Sweet Mama Music, 2016) on which she wrote or co-wrote all the tunes. And the set list Saturday drew heavily from that release. Her originals “I’d Rather Be Alone” and “That Don’t Appease Me” hit the bad love/breakup theme with the latter sounding a little “Wang Dang Doodlish.” After exploring the dark side of love, she offered a more hopeful outlook with her cover of “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.” Then, completing the 180-degree turnaround, she sang two originals, “I Need a Whole Lotta Lovin to Satisfy Me” and “Can We Do It Again.” Those two tunes back to back showed another side of love and Thornetta’s sassy side.

Although not really a blues song (more of a jazz tune), Van Morrison’s “Moondance” was a highlight in the cover category. Another well chosen and well-executed cover was “That’s a Pretty Good Love,” a hit for Big Maybelle in 1956. Her first song of the evening, after the band played a couple warmup instrumentals, was “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water,” a certified blues classic and the perfect tone-setter for her set.

The closer, another original, “I Believe” was straight out of the revival tent. The rollicking number brought the audience to its feet, it brought eyesight to the blind, it had the lame competing in the 100-yard dash and, despite the fact that Dazzle is a no-talking venue, everyone was speaking in tongues before the tune ended; or at least singing along.

The band’s instrumentation was a bit unusual with keyboards, drums, and congas. Phillip Hale on keyboards had to hold down both the bass duties and setting the chord structures for the songs. He also provided the only instrumental solos of the evening. Drummer Dave Marcaccio did just what he needed to do to propel the upbeat tunes and punctuate the slower ones. Conguero James (Jamalot) Anderson turned out to be Thornetta’s husband. He added backing vocals and acted as announcer for the band.

All her original songs reflect her experiences, but her most personal tune of the evening was the title track, “Honest Woman,” a song inspired by her husband. During an instrumental break during that tune, Anderson came out from behind the congas to dance with his wife. A touching moment in a blues set.

 

Set List

I Love You More Today Than Yesterday. Instrumental

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy. Instrumental

I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water

Pretty Good Love

I’d Rather Be Alone

That Don’t Appease Me

Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues

I Need a Whole Lotta Lovin to Satisfy Me

Can We Do It Again

Moondance

Honest Woman

I Believe (Everything Gonna Be Alright)

The Band|

Thornetta Davis, vocals

Phillip Hale keys

James (Jamalot) Anderson congas

Dave Marcaccio drums

 

Thornetta Davis at Dazzle, Denver

March 30, 2019

By Geoff Anderson

 

I Believe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXbY3O8X36Q