John Bommarito: This is The Song Break on 89.1 WEMU. If you're a regular listener to the program, by now you're used to hearing the legendary voices of the past like Ella, Nina, Sarah and the like, mixed in with more recent interpreters of timeless songs. Well, when my friend, Barb Chaffer Authier from The Ark joined me for our March fundraiser, I thought that was a good time to quiz her on shows that WEMU listeners might be interested in. And when she said, Davina and the Vagabonds on May 12th, it struck me. Just because I don't file my Davina in the Vagabond CD collection among my jazz CDs, doesn't mean those recordings wouldn't fit nicely on the show. Lucky for me, Davina Sowers is joining me via phone on the program today. Hello Davina, where are you today?
Davina Sowers: Hi, I'm right in here in South Minneapolis. It's a beautiful day, finally getting some spring.
John Bommarito: Well, it's so great to talk to you and hear your voice, not singing at me, but just talking at me and a pleasure to welcome you to the program.
Davina Sowers: Thanks for having me.
John Bommarito: My pleasure. My first exposure, which might've been the same for many of us here in Ann Arbor was the 2017 Ann Arbor Folk Festival, which inspired me to see you again in May of that year, and then again, the next year and turned me into a big old fan. Davina, there might not be an answer to this, but why do you think my instinct wasn't to file your music in my jazz collection when you clearly have recorded some of the standards of the era over the years?
Davina Sowers: I have no idea why you didn't. I feel as though you should have right away grabbed it up, huh? You know, I have this discussion often in the industry how nobody really knows how to peg me. Like what type of genre, because I think I'm just doing what I want to do and it doesn't really fall completely in a genre. Maybe that's why, I don't know, but I'm glad that I'm in it now. I'm that you got my mail and I'm in your repertoire now.
John Bommarito: Well, there you go. And I mean, I guess you brought up a point, because on Tuesday I played you next to Joe Jackson's Jumpin’ Jive record. You both cover “Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby” on your most recent record on that record. And he's another one of those “It doesn't really have a category” artists. Like he's done all of the kinds of music. So, I guess you potentially could do all of kinds of the music. I don't know what it was like growing up in your house and what kind of music was being played when you were growing up. Like, tell me a little bit about the background of your love of music.
Davina Sowers: Oh my goodness. I've always been a sponge with music. My mom was a folk singer, so I stole all of her records. And then I was adopted through marriage and he was considerably older than my mom. He was born in 1902. So, I grew up with his pop music. I mean, it's all pop in some form, at least what I was raised in. And this is what you get. But you know, I spent a lot of my growing up years listening to like Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus and you know, to anything. I mean, now I'm a huge, like, Wilco fan and Father John Misty, and Frank Ocean. But I grew up with such a wide variety of music and I stole all of my records from my mom and all the 78s from my dad. We had an Edison. And so this is kind of…and then I grew with the Reader's Digest songbook on the piano. That's kind of what I to do when I was a kid. So, I was just a weirdo kid that really just loved that early music
John Bommarito: I can see the goth kid in you, especially when I look at the Shoot for the Moon album cover, which is right in front of me. It's like, you said Sisters of Mercy and Bauhaus, so I'm like, yeah, there's a goth kid in her for sure.
Davina Sowers: You can't take the goth kid out of me for sure.
John Bommarito: I had a little bit of that in my lifetime as well, jumping all over the place, musically speaking.
Davina Sowers: That's what makes us music lovers, you know, we're not purists and we really are just authentic. It sounds like you are as well, with what our heart beckons to.
John Bommarito: Yeah, give me music. There's no need for silence. I need music.
Davina Sowers: Yes. Agreed.
John Bommarito: Musically, you are pretty diverse. Do you play instruments? Sounds like piano was an instrument you play. What else do you play? Are you self-taught?
Davina Sowers: I definitely took lessons since I was a kid. I think I started when I was six, but my mom played guitar, acoustic, so I can strum a few chords here and there, and the ukulele. I played the flute in marching band, but didn't really take to it. The polyester band suit just didn't suit me well. I definitely say that I'm a singer that plays piano, but I don t even know if I'm really a great singer. It seems be more second nature to me. Piano is definitely something that I'm constantly… I mean I'm always trying to get better as you should in any type of thing that you do. You never really just nail it and that's it, but the piano I can definitely cry and get frustrated and really have to work hard on.
John Bommarito: My guest today on The song Break is Davina Sowers. You can catch her band Davina and the Vagabonds, May 12th at the Ark. Sounds like this show is going to be a preview of your forthcoming record, is that right?
Davina Sowers: There's definitely going to be some music, for sure, that I've been writing and kind of trying to road test as much as I possibly can. So, I'm excited about that too. It'll be some songs that I never really played, specifically even to the Ark or Ann Arbor community, so, I'm gonna be testing them on you all.
John Bommarito: I look forward to that. At some point, either an artist stays local in their community, or they venture out across the USA. What was that break that allowed you to venture out and get out of that local music scene?
Davina Sowers: It wasn't really a break. I think, for me specifically, you know, I spent a considerable amount of time growing up as a young adult backpacking the US. So when I moved here and finally settled, I still had that type of yearning in my blood to kind of get out. I don't know, ambition, which is like a human killer, but I was pretty ambitious. I still am in some ways. My sensibilities are changing a bit as I'm aging, but you know, I just wanted to hit the ground running and it's definitely something that I feel is a calling for me, which I'm sure you hear often when you talk to artists. I don t mean to sound trite, but it's authentic. You know, it’s just everything in my soul just wants to share the music and my words and my feelings and always be surrounded by people that can kind of relate, and that's what I wanted to do in as many cities as I possibly could.
John Bommarito: Well, and you're doing it. Awesome. Congratulations on that!
Davina Sowers Thank you!
John Bommarito: Well, because social media allows us to interact with each other, even if we aren't actual friends yet.
Davina Sowers: We are! We are!
John Bommarito: You seem pretty excited to be getting airplay on WEMU. Do you remember the first time you heard yourself on the radio what that felt like?
Davina Sowers: The first time I heard myself was actually a run back of an interview that I did here. When it got played and I got interviewed here at KSAI, which is a community-driven Fresh Air radio station from here in Minneapolis. I owe so much of my early career to radio and for people like you that give me airplay, it means so much to me. And I remember being in my 15-passenger van and it getting a run back and me listening to it and just going, “that's what I sound like!?” But, it was a great experience and it was really exciting to me just these airwaves that are sending them out to all of these listeners.That I can be part of their day and it's just a really exciting thing for me to think about.
John Bommarito: You actually jumped right into the question I was going to ask. What was the importance of public media to your game plan? But I think you just said it like it seems like it's essential to discovery for people who haven't just happened to see you at a festival like I did and going, “Wow! This is great. I need to share this with other people!” So I'm glad...
Davina Sowers: It's really massive, it really is. I've helped do tons of pledge drives for various radio stations, because it's just absolutely so important. Getting the funding to do that and just to continue to have other people's music and my music. I mean, that's why we're doing it, you know? We want to make people happy, and you know, having my windows open here in South Minneapolis when I'm practicing, that is only getting the people that are walking bye.
John Bommarito: They can't change the station.
Davina Sowers: Yeah, they can change the station, and they can definitely walk quicker past my house, but it's just it's extremely important. It is to me and I feel it should be to everybody and I'm assuming that it's of extreme importance to your listeners as well.
John Bommarito: Do you mind if I come sit out your window and listen to you play?
Davina Sowers Please do! Please do!
John Bommarito: Davina and The Vagabonds are playing May 12th at The Ark, and there will be some new music. What can you tell me about the new release or the new music that you're writing? Is there any kind of a feel for it yet?
Davina Sowers: You know, there's a couple of sad ones. I've had quite a heck of a couple years. Sad, but hopeful, that's kind of my M.O. For some reason. When people listen to me, especially specifically live, it's very rambunctious and very fun. But I definitely throw some tearjerkers in there. There's this song that kind of beckons to Roy Orbison, strangely. I don't know where that came from. I'm really excited about that. There's some covers that I'm learning, like I just learned a Kinks cover because of the tax season, Sunny Afternoon, and I've arranged that. That's just kind of what…I'm throwing whatever I can at the wall. I'm a true road dog. So, road testing is so important to me. It's hard for me to just… “Shoot for the Moon” the one that you have, I had no opportunity to road test because we were going through that what I called the big break. Do you remember that time?
John Bommarito: Mmm.
Davina Sowers: Um, so I didn't really have much, I wasn't working. I couldn't be on a stage because of the circumstances at hand that I don't even want to bring up. It just kind of shut everybody down. But with these, it's exciting for me that I can kind of just road test them for everybody. I can look at people and their faces and see what is grabbing them and what isn't. That's just really important to me when I arrange music. Who's tapping their toes and whose butts are moving and, you know, what smiles. like what is the shape of people's mouths when I'm singing. Are they getting it are they not getting it. What can I do to have them get it you know. So, there's going to be a number of songs that I'm excited to try out.
John Bommarito: May 12th. It's a midweek show at The Ark. It's a reason to get out of the house. I think that's a Tuesday, if I remember correctly. Davina Sowers is my guest today on The Song Break. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day and chatting with us today.
Davina Sowers: Absolutely! Thank you again. You are very important to me, and I appreciate you and I appreciate WEMU so much.
John Bommarito: I look forward to seeing you there.
Davina Sowers: Thanks.
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