DAVINA & THE VAGABONDS / SATURDAY, MAY 16 / CARNEY'S MAIN ROOM
The Story
Perennial favorites at the Exit Zero Jazz Festival, Davina & the Vagabonds have been thrilling audiences there since their debut performance in 2015. Led by the two-fisted barrelhouse pianist and resident red hot mama Davina Sowers, the Twin Cities- based group has made multiple trips to the bi-annual clambake in Cape May and never failed to raise the roof with their rootsy, rollicking ‘ragtime meets Memphis soul ‘n blues’ appeal. The Minneapolis Star Tribune called Davina “part Bonnie Raitt, part Etta James and a little Amy Winehouse” while Downbeat wrote: “Davina Sowers is a one-of-a-kind performer whose singing has a sassiness bearing some comparison to that of heart-thumping blues queens Ma Rainey and Ida Cox.”
Their 10th and latest album, 2024’s Shoot for the Moon, mixes their signature bluesy swagger with playful pop sounds and soulful vocals, arriving at the crossroads where Lake Street Dive meets Leon Russell.
The Sound
When the sassy, tattooed Davina takes command with her Vagabonds, Carney’s Main Room will be jumping to the sounds of Louis Jordan, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Tom Waits and Hot Jazz nuggets “I Found a New Kind of Love” and the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ retro Swing number “Put a Lid On It,” along with frisky originals like the Louis Prima flavored “Devil Horns,” the bluesy “A Sunday Kind of Love,” the boogie boogie fueled “Star Running” and “Bone Collector,” which finds Ms. Sowers singing the refrain: I’ll do what I can to make you fall in love with me. And you know she will.
Where & When: Carney’s Main Room, Saturday, May 16
“Davina Sowers creates her own Americana mishmash — a little Amy Winehouse-worthy neo-soul here, a little Great American Songbook-influenced songcraft there.” Rolling Stone Magazine
“Davina and the Vagabonds combat heartache with sugar and sass." DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
Davina Sowers and the Vagabonds have created a stir on the national music scene with their high-energy live shows, level A musicianship, sharp-dressed professionalism, and Sowers’ commanding stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band is converting audiences one show at a time, from Vancouver to Miami and across Europe.
Much like the music, the story spurns era, expectation, and classification. The often unbelievable, sometimes harrowing, and wholly inspiring journey of Davina Sowers gave birth to her eponymous band Davina and The Vagabonds in 2004. As the tale goes, she grew up in the economically depressed Allegheny town of Altoona, PA, which she now describes as “awesome in the industrial era, but horrible for high school.” She was adopted by her much older stepfather when he was in his 80s; he passed away when she was just 13. Through him and his Edison phonograph, she first heard The Ink Spots, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and many others. “Great man. He was my angel and still is,” she says.
On her own, she vividly recalls hours in front of the record player where she religiously spun Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Simon and Garfunkel records belonging to her folk singer mom.
To this day, Davina still refers to music as “my first and eternal love.” Despite early dalliances with classical piano and guitar, she developed a heavy drug habit in high school, which morphed into heroin dependency, left her homeless, sent her in and out of jail, and brought on all manner of trouble. Kicking dope on the streets, she “got clean, started the band, and worked [her] ass off every day since.”
Davina and the Vagabonds shine every time they play. To date, they’ve performed in forty-five states, twelve European countries, and two Canadian provinces. Not to mention, they’ve earned feverish acclaim from the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and more in addition to performing on BBC’s international favorite late-night program Later… With Jools Holland and appearing on PBS’s Bluegrass Underground.