Dana Gillespie

Vocalist Dana Gillespie entered the recording world with her debut album at age 15. Across the subsequent four decades she maintained a steady presence in music by contributing to roughly 40 albums altogether. Early in her trajectory through the 1960s she focused on folk material before shifting toward rock during the 1970s and then devoting herself entirely to the blues by the 1980s, a genre that had always ranked among her earliest passions. Alongside her studio work she sustained an acting career on stage in productions such as Jesus Christ Superstar and on screen in films including The Hound of the Baskervilles.

As a teenager Gillespie delivered folk performances at festivals that drew wide-ranging crowds, an experience that sharpened her stagecraft and audience connection. Those initial years yielded several singles plus two full-length releases on the Decca and Pye labels. By 1973 she had joined the RCA roster and collaborated with David Bowie, who produced multiple tracks for her. The decade brought albums such as Weren't Born a Man and Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle. Away from the microphone she appeared in motion pictures like Sink or Swim, Mahler, and the cult favorite The People That Time Forgot, itself a sequel to The Land That Time Forgot.

Throughout the 1980s Gillespie sustained an intense pace across several disciplines at once. She toured extensively through the United States, Europe, and beyond while returning to the studio for albums including I'm a Woman, Blue Job, Move Your Body Close to Me, Below the Belt, Hot News, and Sweet Meat. Her acting continued in films such as Parker, Scrubbers, Bad Timing, and Strapless, interspersed with frequent television appearances.

The 1990s found no reduction in output, with more than a dozen albums issued during that period, and the new millennium began in similar fashion. By then Gillespie had immersed herself completely in the blues, her matured voice and accumulated life perspective informing both the material she performed and the songs she wrote. Tracks from this phase include "Who's Got the Blues to Blame," "Give Me Your Best Shot," "The Sky Will Still Be Blue," "Guardian Blue Angel," "You Make Me Feel So Good," "Who Blew the Blues Away," and "Turning Over a Blue Leaf." She remained integral to the music community by founding and organizing the annual Mustique Blues Festival and by hosting the radio program "Globetrotting" With Gillespie on Blue Danube Radio in Vienna, where the playlist blends African and Indian selections with occasional blues numbers. In 2003 she issued Staying Power on Ace Records to mark her fortieth year in the industry, reaffirming her enduring vocal strength.