ST. PAUL, MN (Top40 Charts/ Mark Pucci Media) Roots/blues quintet Davina and the Vagabonds announce a June 21 release date for
Black Cloud, the band's first album of all-original songs, on Roustabout Records, with national distribution by Burnside Distribution. The band is led by the dynamic vocals of Davina Sowers, who also wrote all the songs on the album and plays piano, organ and ukulele. Joining her in the Vagabonds are Michael Carvale on upright bass and cello, Connor McRae on drums and percussion, Darren Sterud on trombone and Dan Eikmeier on trumpet. To listen to an audio preview of the
Black Cloud album, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK9a6ZmoVzQ&feature=player_embedded.
Fuelled by Davina's soul-drenched vocals and sparkling keyboard work, along with an in-the-pocket rhythm section and punchy horns, Black Cloud announces itself with the rollicking instrumental opening track, "Vagabond Stomp," and doesn't let go until the reprise outro that closes the CD. Along the way, Davina and the Vagabonds dazzle with an array of roots and blues sounds that touch on everything from classic New Orleans horn bands, to soul, jazz, blues, gospel and Dixieland.
Among the many highlights on Black Cloud are "Start Running," which plays like a long-lost Louis Prima song; the mournful ballad, "Sugar Moon;" the 12-bar bluesy "Lipstick and Chrome;" the theatrical "Push Pin," which sounds as if it'd be right at home on either the soundtrack for Treme or Boardwalk Empire; the Beatle-bounce of "Crosseyed;" the glorious gospel strains of "Carry Him with You; and the totally unique forlorn title track. The centerpiece of the album is "River," which is certain to rank among the most memorable soul tunes penned in the last decade.
Davina Sowers has rightfully earned a reputation as the hardest-working blues woman on the road today. With endless touring around the world (and now booked by Piedmont Talent), the band has averaged over 300 dates a year for the last five years, and have wowed crowds from the West Bank of Minneapolis to festival crowds in Sighisoara, Romania; Thunder Bay, Ontario; and Sierre, Switzerland.
"Twin Cities singer-pianist Davina Sowers sounds like the daughter of Leon Redbone and Betty Boop, trained on piano by Randy Newman. Her slurring, southern voice sounded affected and alluring at the same time," wrote Jon Bream in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. And City Pages weekly said of her: "Davina takes the 'retro' back further than Winehouse and her Phil Spector-reminiscing. She beckons an age when bad girls wore red lipstick and pin curls. Her music may be adorned with exceptional groaning trumpets, rat-a-tatting drum rolls and staccato piano lines, but nothing deserves the complementing position to her voice. She's in a league of her own." Perhaps Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Kevin Bowe (Etta James, Prince, Jonny Lang) summed it up best when he declared: "If there were a brothel in Heaven, Davina and the Vagabonds would be the house band."
For more information on the band, visit www.davinaandthevagabonds.com
