Biography
Deborah Coleman built a formidable reputation as a blues guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist, yet her initial spark arrived from an unexpected source when she watched the Monkees on television. Portsmouth, Virginia, was her birthplace, and a military household shaped her upbringing; music came naturally because her father played piano while two brothers handled guitar and a sister covered both guitar and keyboards. At eight she first handled a guitar after that Monkees broadcast, then turned professional at fifteen by playing bass in several Portsmouth-area R&B and rock outfits. Jimi Hendrix prompted her switch to guitar, and she simultaneously absorbed James Brown along with the Beatles before acquiring albums by Cream and Led Zeppelin that gradually led her backward to the roots of blues itself.
Marriage at twenty-five prompted a hiatus during which she concentrated on raising her daughter and held day jobs as a nurse and electrician. Once her daughter could remain at home unattended, Coleman resumed local performances. In 1985 she joined the all-female band Moxxie; after its 1988 dissolution she sharpened her blues technique inside an R&B trio. Two years of road work with that trio preceded an intensive period of attending live blues shows and analyzing recordings. Her opportunity arrived in 1993 through the Charleston, South Carolina, Blues Festival National Talent Search, where she led her own band to first place. She promptly assembled the touring ensemble the Thrillseekers and launched a solo career as bandleader.
The contest’s studio-time prize enabled her to cut a demo that secured a contract with New Moon Records in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Takin’ a Stand appeared on that imprint in 1995, followed two years later by I Can’t Lose, her initial release for Blind Pig. Where Blue Begins surfaced in 1998, and Soft Place to Fall arrived in spring 2000. Livin’ on Love, her fifth Blind Pig album, emerged in 2001 and reinforced her standing among leading contemporary blueswomen. That same year the Orville Gibson Award named her “Best Blues Guitarist, Female,” and she received a fourth W.C. Handy Award nomination. Soul Be It, issued in 2002, concluded her Blind Pig tenure; What About Love? appeared on Telarc in 2004. Stop the Game and the collaborative Time Bomb, the latter recorded with Sue Foley and Roxanne Potvin, both arrived in 2007. Complications from pneumonia and bronchitis caused her death in April 2018 at age sixty-one.
Marriage at twenty-five prompted a hiatus during which she concentrated on raising her daughter and held day jobs as a nurse and electrician. Once her daughter could remain at home unattended, Coleman resumed local performances. In 1985 she joined the all-female band Moxxie; after its 1988 dissolution she sharpened her blues technique inside an R&B trio. Two years of road work with that trio preceded an intensive period of attending live blues shows and analyzing recordings. Her opportunity arrived in 1993 through the Charleston, South Carolina, Blues Festival National Talent Search, where she led her own band to first place. She promptly assembled the touring ensemble the Thrillseekers and launched a solo career as bandleader.
The contest’s studio-time prize enabled her to cut a demo that secured a contract with New Moon Records in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Takin’ a Stand appeared on that imprint in 1995, followed two years later by I Can’t Lose, her initial release for Blind Pig. Where Blue Begins surfaced in 1998, and Soft Place to Fall arrived in spring 2000. Livin’ on Love, her fifth Blind Pig album, emerged in 2001 and reinforced her standing among leading contemporary blueswomen. That same year the Orville Gibson Award named her “Best Blues Guitarist, Female,” and she received a fourth W.C. Handy Award nomination. Soul Be It, issued in 2002, concluded her Blind Pig tenure; What About Love? appeared on Telarc in 2004. Stop the Game and the collaborative Time Bomb, the latter recorded with Sue Foley and Roxanne Potvin, both arrived in 2007. Complications from pneumonia and bronchitis caused her death in April 2018 at age sixty-one.
Albums
