Many people, blues fans in particular, have long been aware of out musician Gaye Adegbalola and her blues trio Saffire:The Uppity Blues Women. Saffire's new release, Deluxe Edition (Alligator), is a twenty track compilation comprised of live and studio recordings, and provides a splendid overview of the blues divas' work. I spoke with Adegbalola shortly before the release of Deluxe Edition.
AfterEllen.com: You were nominated for a couple of Outmusic Awards in 2005 for your album Neo-Classic Blues. What did that honor mean to you?
Gaye Adegbalola: I was thrilled to receive it. In particular, just to have recognition by another community. The blues community has been receptive all along. But since Roddy (Barnes) and I hooked up, with his being an out male and my being an out female, we've been playing to more GLBT audiences. So for that particular community to recognize us, it was a thrill, because it was recognition by your peers.
Another interesting thing is that I'm so much older than the rest of the competitors. To be out there at my age – another generation to be recognized, that was special, too.
A third part of what made it so special to me was that one of the nominations was for producer of the year, and that CD was my first production work. What was exciting about that, too, was that I had done that CD in response to Martin Scorcese's The Blues program on PBS. It was seven segments, two hours each, fourteen hours of blues, and they didn't have fourteen minutes about women. Women were the ones who first made blues commercially viable. Instead of just sitting around bitching about it, I thought I'd do the CD.
AE: I had no idea.
GA: There's the birth of it (laughs).
AE: You balance a career as a solo artist with being a part of Saffire. When you are writing a song, how do you decide what is a Saffire song and what is a solo song?
GA: When I write a song, I don't go in thinking that it's for anybody. Just really for me. I write it from my heart and sometimes they're personal experiences and sometimes they're observations. After it comes out, the first thing I check on is whether it has an electric or
acoustic sound. And whether it needs a thumping or acoustic bass line. The music is quite similar, it's just that Saffire has more instrumentation.
Saffire is also known for its humor in regard s to present day situations. Whereas a lot of what Roddy and I do is humorous, but it's a carryover from olden times. The last songs that I have been writing have more to do with out things that are relevant today. I just finished writing one called “I Ain't Ashamed.” I wanted some more “protest” songs. I found the one thing lacking in the GLBT fight for equal rights is that we don't have any songs like the civil right movement of the sixties had. I've been looking and working in that direction.
AE: Much has been made of the fact that Saffire's roots are in the mid-Atlantic region versus, say Chicago or New Orleans or another more blues-associated area. Can you say something about that?
GA: There are all kinds of blues. There's a West Coast blues, a Texas blues, a Memphis sound blues, which is entirely different from Chicago blues, which is essentially electric. Most people associate the blues with Mississippi or Memphis or Chicago, but in Virginia and the Carolinas, your typical blues is called Piedmont.
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