PAST PERFORMERS OF DCM
JAZZ AND BLUES EVENTS
Live music events sponsored by the DCM have a history of featuring some of the hottest talent in the field of Jazz and Blues today from rising stars to internationally acclaimed masters.
Here is a list of just some of the superiorly talented musicians who have made our events truly remarkable. . .
Shemekia Copeland
 For more than a decade, Shemekia Copeland has been paving a road that will inevitably lead to her reign as Queen of the Blues. By some standards – numerous blues awards in the U.S. and elsewhere, a Grammy nomination, a resume that includes work with musical titans like Dr. John and Steve Cropper and film giants like Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders – she may already be there.Shemekia has been nominated for a 2010 Blues Music Award in the "Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year" category. Additionally, Shemekia's hit, "Never Going Back To Memphis," written by John Hahn and Oliver Wood, has also been nominated in the "Song of the Year" category. |
Sonny Rhodes
 Clarence Smith aka Sonny Rhodes was born November 3, 1940 in Smithville, Texas, he was the 6th and last child of Leroy and Julia Smith, who were sharecroppers. He began playing seriously when he was 12, although he got his first guitar when he was 8 as a Christmas present. Rhodes began performing around downtown Smithville and Austin in the late '50s, while still in his teens. Sonny heard a lot of T-Bone Walker when he was young, and it shows in his playing today.Other guitarists he credits as being influences include LC Robinson, Pee Wee Crayton, Percy Mayfield and BB King. Sonny's first band, Clarence Smith and the Daylighters, played the Austin Texas area Blues clubs before Sonny decided to join the Navy. Sonny credits uncle as his greatest influence and learning source. As a boy, he would watch his uncle in downtown Smithville Texas buskin' for change. |
Dana Fuchs
 Not long after the producers of the off-Broadway hit "Love, Janis," hearing raves about Dana from various cast and crew members, asked her to come in for an audition. Dana went in, sang a few bars of "Piece of My Heart," and, on the spot, was offered the role of Janis Joplin. Playing Janis 4 nights a week garnered Dana a whole new audience who were soon at the DFB's shows listening to Dana performing her own music.
These songs can be heard on the band's debut CD, Lonely For A Lifetime, which was released to an enthusiastic response from both press and fans.Producer, co-writer, guitarist Jon Diamond says: "Dana is blessed with an incredibly warm, powerful and textured voice. Her lyrics are direct and real. And while she has really studied the great soul, rock & blues singers, she has synthesized those influences into her own unique sound and style." Dana is also famous for her role as Sadie in the 2007 film" Across the Universe". |
The Rockin' Jake Band
 Rockin’ Jake, is a harmonica player whose funky sound is a hybrid of blues, zydeco and jazz with the feel of New Orleans. His influences range from Big Walter Horton to Muddy Waters to the Fabulous Thunderbirds. Jake was named “Best Blues Harmonica” by his music industry peers at the “Best of the Beat” New Orleans music awards, completed successful tours of clubs and festivals in the United States, Scandinavia and the Caribbean, and TV credits that included the soundtracks to “The Big Easy” series, “The Mike Ditka Show”, and commercials for Miller beer and local televisions stations. |