I don’t know too much about Davina Sowers, but I’m about to tell y’all everything I do know starting with this: she’s fucking awesome. I came to know of Davina and the Vagabonds via one of the Deep Blues Festival bulletins I’ve written about on here before, and I knew I wanted to own their music as soon as I heard her voice.

Davina Sowers apparently moved from the warm confines of Key West to the frozen tundra that is Minneapolis sometime in 2005 and has pretty much been a mainstay on the Minneapolis blues scene ever since. A classically trained pianist with years of performance experience, Davina shares the stage with the Vagabonds: Michael Carvale (Upright Bass), Zack Lozier (Trumpet), Brian ‘Zoot’ Simonds (Saxophone) and John Lund (Drums). With a voice that sounds like it should be coming from a 1940’s blues-woman in a juke-joint and a musical style that is part New Orleans Jazz and part 1920’s ragtime meets delta-blues, it all meshes together to sound like something you would have heard in Beatnick Club or in a bar scene in an old Dick Tracy movie.

Personally, I give Davina and the Vagabonds my highest recommendation and I hope like hell they end up playing Deep Blues ‘09. Essential Listening spans their entire discography.

From the album: LIVE @ THE TIMES

Davina and the Vagabonds – St. Michael vs. The Devil
Davina and the Vagabonds – No Buts, No Maybes
Davina and the Vagabonds – Back To Memphis

From the album: UNDER LOCK & KEY

Davina and the Vagabonds – You’re Out Of Luck
Davina and the Vagabonds – You Better Start Prayin’

Davina and the Vagabonds Official Site, Davina and the Vagabonds on myspace, Buy Davina and the Vagabonds’ music