DEBBIE DAVIES

The talented Davies is a fixture on the international blues circuit with five solo albums and 200 performances a year on her resumé. In 1997 she won the W.C. Handy Award for female contemporary blues artist of the year. Debbie's parents were musicians (her father was an arranger and session leader for Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Pearl Bailey), and she grew up playing blues and rock 'n' roll on the West Coast. In 1985 she joined the L.A.-based Maggie Mayall and the Cadillacs, an all-woman band led by British blues legend John Mayall's wife. That's where Texas Telecaster master Collins first saw her play. Collins asked Debbie to join his band, the Icebreakers, in 1988. She toured with Collins for four years, leaving to play lead guitar for Jimmy Buffett's harmonica man Finger Taylor in 1991. Collins and Davies played together again in 1993 on her solo debut for Blind Pig Records, Picture This. Later that year Collins died of cancer at age 61. "There will never be another Albert," Davies says of her mentor. "He had such a specific style. What I learned from him is that everything that comes out has to be totally wired to your soul no matter what."