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Deborah Coleman

Photo by Karin Braun

The Blues Is What I Am

Deborah Coleman was born in 1956 in Portsmouth, Va., and raised in a music-loving military family that lived in San Diego, San Francisco, Bremerton, Washington, and the Chicago area. With her father playing piano and her two brothers on guitar, and a sister who plays guitar and keyboards, Deborah Coleman felt natural with an instrument in her hands, picking up a guitar at age eight. At 15, she joined a series of rock and R&B bands—first as a bass player, but later switching to lead guitar after hearing Jimi Hendrix. Like most musicians of her generation, radio was an important early influence. As her interest in guitar-driven music grew, she plugged into rock groups such as the Yardbirds, Cream and Led Zeppelin, and followed the roots of their music back to its origin in the blues. A pivotal event for Deborah Coleman was a concert she saw when she was 21 that featured Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker all on the same bill. Deborah Coleman married at 25 and put her musical career on hold to raise her daughter, developing a career as an electrician along the way. Deborah Coleman got the big break she was looking for in 1993 at a talent search sponsored by the Charleston Blues Festival. Her band consisted of her brother and his friend, both of whom only played heavy metal. She knocked out the crowd and the judges with a performance full of fire, took first place in the competition and hasn’t looked back since. She immediately put together her own group and began her solo career as a bandleader and featured performer. The prize from the blues festival competition was free studio time which she used to record a demo and secure a record deal with New Moon Records, based in Chapel Hill, N.C. Her first album, Takin’ a Stand, was released on the New Moon label in 1994. After a string of albums on Blind Pig, Deborah Coleman joins the Telarc label with the release of What About Love? in May 2004. Recorded in November 2003 at The Centre for Performing Arts in Unity, Maine, the album explores the ups and downs of matters of the heart—in a way that only a highly accomplished blues singer and songwriter like Deborah Coleman can do it.

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