HANALEI — The only thing more impressive than Duffy Bishop’s long list of awards and accolades is her powerhouse voice. The blues vocalist has snagged a Grammy Award nomination. She’s repeatedly been honored as Best Female Vocalist by the Muddy
HANALEI — The only thing more impressive than Duffy Bishop’s long list of awards and accolades is her powerhouse voice.
The blues vocalist has snagged a Grammy Award nomination. She’s repeatedly been honored as Best Female Vocalist by the Muddy Awards, Northwest Area Music Association and Washington Blues Society. Bishop has also been enshrined in the Cascade Blues Association’s Hall of Fame.
In the four decades the blues belter has performed professionally, Bishop has shared the stage with artists such as Low Rawls, Ruth Brown, Bonnie Raitt and Etta James, among others.
“Ruth Brown said I had it going on. That was the best validation ever,” said Bishop during a telephone interview from her home in Oregon. “And Bo Diddley said I was dangerous. You couldn’t ask more than that.”
Lucky for Kaua‘i audiences, Bishop and her husband Chris Carlson will share their talents tonight at Tahiti Nui in Hanalei. Bishop will be backed by local blues band Swampdaddy. Due to popular demand, Duffy and the group will give an encore performance Feb. 3 at Joe’s on the Green in Po‘ipu.
“I feel so fortunate to get by on entertaining all these years,” Bishop said. “I think when you are young, you always wish you have fame, but pretty soon you realize that’s not the most important thing. Making a living and playing for people who care about you is very important.”
Since she first started as a child, Bishop quickly discovered her love for the limelight.
“I’ve been performing since about age eight,” Bishop said. “The first time I performed live, I said, ‘OK I really like this.’ From there, I used to play folk guitar. I used to do little gig around town for different clubs — the Lion’s Club, the women’s club — then I went into musical theater, and then bands.”
In high school, Bishop said she was fortunate enough to know older kids who played guitar and took her to see Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger.
“It just expanded my vision,” Bishop said. During the same period, Bishop would turn her radio dial in her Woodland, Calif. home to catch Bay Area radio stations 100 miles away to listen to soul, gospel and any other music she could tap into.
“I was just picking up influences everywhere,” Bishop said. “Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, Ray Charles. It’s those voices when you hear them, you go ‘Wow, how are they doing it? Where does that come from?’”
From there, her career blossomed. She played for numerous bands while exploring her passion for blues music and musical theater.
“Blues always moved me,” Bishop said. “I love musical theater, too. Often times, I do a combination of the two. I like the emotion. I like the way the voice sounds singing the blues. … There’s such power and emotion where you can hear how someone is feeling by the way they are signing. I like it when a singer moves me, where they can give the chills and make you cry and make you feel a certain way. Music is so visceral. It maps our lives. We can hear a tune and remember a certain point and almost smell the place we were when we lived those moments.”
Bishop successfully combined the two as she transformed herself into Zara, Queen of the Gypsies, seven shows a week for Teatro ZinZanni — a part circus, part theater, part concert dinner show with locations in Seattle and San Francisco (although the San Francisco show is currently closed to make way for the America’s Cup).
Earlier this month, Bishop wrapped up her performance with ZinZanni and plans to release a CD with her band.
“We are long overdue,” Bishop said. “We just finished the CD, so we are really looking forward to releasing some new music. We need to.”
Her advice for musicians just starting out is to “watch people they admire, don’t be afraid to talk to people or ask them things. I found through the years, people are willing to share their experiences because people have been there. Just continue to believe in your mentors.”
As of now, the blues singer is readying for her show in Kaua‘i, which she said will “be a really nice adventure.”
“Chris and I are very excited to be there,” Bishop said. “It will be a delicious paid vacation.”
• Andrea Frainier, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681, ext. 257 or afrainier@ thegardenisland.com.
