Deborah Coleman - I Can't Lose - 1997

Biography: Although she's a powerful blues guitarist, songwriter and singer, Deborah Coleman got her first inspiration from an unlikely place: seeing the pop group the Monkees on TV. Born in Portsmouth, Virginia and raised in a military family, Coleman took to music easily enough, since her dad played piano, two brothers played guitar, and a sister played guitar and keyboards. She picked up the guitar at age eight after seeing the Monkees and began to play professionally at 15, playing bass with a series of Portsmouth-area R&B and rock bands. She later switched to guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix, also taking to James Brown and the Beatles. Coleman began buying records by blues-rock groups like Cream and Led Zeppelin, and slowly followed the music's origins back to basic blues. When she was 25, she got married and focused on raising her daughter while working day jobs as a nurse and electrician. After her daughter grew old enough to leave home alone, Coleman began to play out again, locally at first. In 1985, she began working with an all-female group, Moxxie. When that group split up in 1988, she got her blues chops together as part of an R&B trio. After two years of touring with the trio, Coleman did some woodshedding, seeing as many blues acts as she could live and studying blues recordings. Coleman got the break she was looking for in 1993 when she entered the Charleston (S.C.) Blues Festival's National Talent Search. Leading her own band, she took first place. She immediately put together her own touring group, the Thrillseekers, beginning a solo career as a bandleader. Coleman used her contest prize of free studio time to record a demo and secure a record deal with New Moon Records out of Chapel Hill, N.C. Her debut, Takin' A Stand, was released in 1995 on that label, and she followed it up two years later with I Can't Lose, her first album for Blind Pig. Coleman returned in 1998 with Where Blue Begins; Soft Place to Fall followed in the spring of 2000. She released her fifth album for Blind Big Livin' on Love in 2001, further consolidating her position as one of the top active blueswomen. Making this designation somewhat official, Coleman won the Orville Gibson Award for "Best Blues Guitarist, Female" in 2001. Also that year she was nominated for a W.C. Handy award for the fourth time. 2002's Soul Be It was her last record for Blind Pig as 2004's What About Love? appeared on Coleman's new home, Telarc. ~ Richard Skelly, All Music Guide

Product Description: Deborah Coleman's Blind Pig debut, I Can't Lose, is a powerful album of great ballads and blues stories, and of course, great guitar playing and singing. Her version of Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow" got her a lot of airplay on college and public radio stations around the U.S. "A little of the rock thing, a little of the funk thing, a little of everything" is Deborah Coleman's musical motto. So on the Virginia singer-guitarist's second CD, her own funky soul-blues tunes like "My Heart Bleeds Blue" and the stomping "Roll with Me" find their place next to more complex, swinging material like an up-tempo arrangement of Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow." Coleman's songwriting is better here than on her raw-but-right 1994 debut on New Moon, Takin' a Stand, and her vocals bring an air of weary emotional detachment to the heartbreakers. The only quibble is that she doesn't take enough risks with her guitar. Coleman's solos are punchy and fluid, but not expressive enough to match the mettle of her lyrics–a problem corrected on 1998's Where Blue Begins.

Recording information: Tone Zone, Chicago, IL.

* Born: October 03, 1956, Portsmouth, VA
* Active: '90s, 2000s
* Genres: Blues
* Instrument: Vocals, Guitar
* Representative Albums: "Soul Be It", "Blues Caravan: Guitars & Feathers", "Livin' on Love"
* Representative Songs: "My Heart Bleeds Blue", "Roll with Me", "What Goes Around"

Review: Where has this woman been hiding, or better yet where have I been????? Had the opportunity to see Deborah Coleman LIVE recently. She played in my home town to a small crowd of around 300 folks. It was something else, she had EVERYONE dancing and loving life for the few hours she played. Had to check her out and found this first album of hers. I have an extensive music collection and couldnt believe I had never heard of this talented lady. This album truly will make a blues fan out of anyone!!! The lady has soul and guts to play her heart out on every track. You will not be dissappointed I assure you, give her a listen and you will be a fan. ~ Amazon Customer