Debra Fotheringham

I finally made it to the Homestead for a summer concert this year! Pretty bad after making a major point of promoting it in an earlier post! Between weather and priorities at home, it's been a long time coming. This was a tough one to not go to. It's been a long time since I've seen Debra  Fotheringham perform, so I made a point not to miss her this time. Debra  is definitely one of the premier singer/songwriters on the local scene, but before Debra  came on-stage, there was a delightful opening act, Selja Sini, a young girl from Finland. Pronounce that something like Celia. She's also a singer/songwriter. She accompanied herself on a ukulele. Amazing how popular ukulele has become of late. She did a fine job. Find her onFacebook@:

https://www.facebook.com/seljasini?sk=wall

Back to Debra . You'll notice Debra 's instrument is no wimpy little thing!

That's a pretty good sized guitar for a little girl, and believe me she plays it with authority! Her skill as a percussionist translates into her guitar playing. As I told her afterward, she "beats that thing to death!", and unlike me, she makes use of all the frets! Her playing style is unique and really sets her apart. As you may have guessed, I'm impressed. If that were all there was to admire about Debra  it would be enough, but she doesn't take a back seat as a singer either. And no, she's not one of those low voiced females I'm known for liking. Her style is also more jazz influenced than most of my favorites. Her frenetic guitar playing suites her vocals well. She has 2 albums out. One has 10 tracks and the other is a 6 track EP. As far as I could tell, she covered the majority of both albums. There wasn't a bad tune in the set list. Memorable to me were: Across Oceans, Summer Rain and You are Truth. I love how You are Truth transitions into Bossa Nova and Portuguese. The only cover performed was pretty unique for her, Willy Nelson's Crazy. That song was a Patsy Cline signature and Debra  wisely chose to play her own arrangement rather than copy either of the legends aforementioned. There was a good crowd who demanded Debra come back for more at the end of her set. She hadn't planned an encore, but managed to pull 2 songs out of the hat. The last played was Fire, which to me is her best song. I told her as much after the show when I had her sign a copy of the EP for me. She doesn't like to perform it because she finds it hard to get the words right. Funny thing for the songs author to say, don't you think? It is the most frenetic of all her songs with words, notes and chords coming at a 90 miles per hour pace so maybe she can be forgiven for not liking to play it, but I'm so glad she did! Thanks Debra  and Selja for a great night!

BTW, the Jed Wells photos on the EP are outstanding!