Dana Fuchs

They say sing about what you know. Write about your own experiences. For rising US blues and soul star Dana Fuchs, her life has been one heck of a challenge so far she has plenty of inspiration. Dana channels all of that and more into her powerful and blisteringly raw vocals on the new DVD and live CD collection, �Songs From The Road.� Capturing the gut-wrenching honesty of the emotional connection she has with her audience, on one night last March at a sold out Highline Ballroom in her home city of New York, in front of almost 700 of her fans. The package, dedicated to her late father, is a career-defining testament to Dana�s talents and her self-belief to keep going in the wake of personal tragedies. Born in New Jersey 38-years-ago and raised in Wildwood, Florida, at nine-years-old she joined the First Baptist Gospel Choir in a tiny church on the outskirts of the small rural town. She fell in love with the power of �Mama Music.� But before that, her parents turned her on to Ray Charles and her teacher played soul, funk and R&B records to her. At sixteen, she fronted a popular local band singing covers at a roadside Holiday Inn. Dana had a difficult relationship with her alcoholic father and left home at 19, to brave the Big Apple, arriving in New York with little money but big hopes of making it as a singer. She got a low paid job in a sandwich shop, living in a bare room above a florist's. No bed, she slept on the floor until finding a sofa in a skip, falling through the broken frame onto the hard wood floor, so it was back to sleeping on the floor. Her desire to make it in music did not start well. No one wanted a white girl singer churning out covers. She got a job as a waitress in strip clubs, but seeing the topless dancers earning hundreds of dollars, she began stripping for $600-$800 a night. Getting herself a decent apartment and sending money home to her family, Dana still yearned for success in music. After a friend introduced her to cocaine, she found out the hard way how that drug could make her job as a stripper more bearable (excuse the pun!). She progressed to a $1,000 a week habit, could not pay her rent, got evicted from her apartment and ended up homeless before getting a tiny one room bed sit, even trying heroin. Her sister Donna took her own life in 1999 at just 30-years-old, after battling alcoholism and drug addiction. Then in 2011, her older brother Don died in Dana�s arms at 49-years-old, after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Dana met top session guitarist and songwriter Jon Diamond in New York, who helped focus her talents to write songs, clean herself up, leave the strip joints and get an office job. Almost two decades later, Jon is still Donna�s musical wing man. @DanaFuchs
WORDS SIMON REDLEY - Blues and Soul

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Roads are there to be travelled, no matter how long and straight it looks, it will lead somewhere. The road to Hell paved with good intentions, the sunny side of the street or the enclosed, tempting and quiet cul-de-sac in which you may never depart; all have their points of interest and all should contain a reason to be there. For the superbly talented Dana Fuchs the road is one in which Ruf Records have placed her vibrant live set down for all to hear and in Songs From The Road everything sounds sweet, vivacious and only enhances the Florida musician’s reputation.

The live C.D. alongside its accompanying D.V.D. is, as always, captured in the raw. There is no trickery or enhancement placed on the shoulders of a giant, this is as if you had stepped off the street, the rain pelting it down and causing drivers to look for their next puddle-dashed victim and finding yourself in a bar off 77th Street, the heaving, appreciative mass of people cheering loudly and every sinew on the singer’s throat pulsating with desire and a set of musicians looking down with pride at their calloused fingers. Not only is it live and in the raw, but it untainted and untouched by the studio overdub and plastic, synthetic feel; it is the genuine piece of work that captures the point of going to a live gig and not having it mucked about by very clever technicians.

Dana Fuchs’ Songs From The Road captures some of her most gilded moments, her gravitas and that talked of desire but there is a sadness in the music as well in which she dedicates a song to her late brother. It is that memory that makes the listener know that this was done live, there is no way it should be ignored for the moment of tangible beauty that it is.

With a whole host of songs in which to revel and feel jealous of those who were in attendance at the gig, tracks such as Handful Too Many, How Did Things Get This Way, the utterly tremendous Tell Me I’m Not Drinking and Rodents in the Attic and I’ve Been Loving You Too Long, this may be the road less travelled, the unbeaten path but it is completely an avenue in which bliss and contentment collide with pleasure.

Ian D. Hall - Dana Fuchs, Songs From The Road. Album Review.

Wow what a voice. On this evidence Dana must be one of the finest female blues singers on the circuit.

This live album, part of the excellent Songs From the Road series - was recorded at the Highline Ballroom in New York earlier this year.

For the most part it is no holds barred blues rock. Dana has a great rocking band behind her including Jon Diamond on guitar. Right from the opener Bliss Avenue you know you're in for something special as Dana lets rip.

Her voice in many ways is reminiscent of the great Janis Joplin, with a touch of gravel , which is perfect for singing the blues.

It's not all seat of the pants stuff. On Tell Me I'm Not Drinking we see a softer side to Dana's talents.

Contrast that with the quaintly-titled Rats in The Attic where the vocals go right off the scale.

It's a great live set which comes to a piledriving end with Keep On Walkin', with a wailing Les Paul.

There was time for two encores - the Otis Redding classic I've Been Loving You For Too Long and Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles.

The DVD includes an extra track - Love To Beg.

This is a comprehensive package to get to know this fine blues singer.

John Knighton - Fatea

Probably my favorite thing to do when wandering in the stores of NYC or watching movies is silently Shazaming the unknown songs playing over the airwaves. However, there was a time when technology like Shazam did not exist and people had to remember to look up, which was often a difficult process, the music we discovered that day. For example, back in my freshman year in college, while home in Buffalo NY, I went out to see the film Across The Universe with my family.

For those of you who have not seen the epic film, it is truly is something entertaining to watch. It tells a story through the music and lyrics of The Beatles. Throughout the tale we are also introduced to characters that represent tributes to musicians like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin along with cameos from legendary musicians of the time like Joe Cocker. I remember clearly being transfixed by one of the actresses in the film, whom I later learned was actually a professional musician in her own right. This spectacular woman is Dana Fuchs. Dana unleashed a powerful voice like no other and had audiences shocked. Once we got back home that night, I quickly downloaded the entire album and Dana became a staple in my music world.

Dana’s rendition of Helter Skelter was the hook for me. Once I heard her take on that classic song, she won me over as an instant fan. Since then, I have been an active follower and have loved her music. Recently, I was given a rare treat to listen to her new acoustic album, ‘Broken Down: Acoustic Sessions,’ set to drop on December 15th. For those of you who have never heard of Dana, listen to this album first before perusing her impressive discography. This acoustic arrangement is the perfect introduction to her breadth of talent and gives true weight to her astonishing voice. Below you will find two of my favorites from this outstanding new issue.

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Almost Home is the ideal starting point here. Almost Home will give you the softer side of it all where the listener can truly hear the vocals at hand. With its presentation of the harmonica and the fueling of the guitar, Dana’s voice shines through straightaway. What starts off as somber and soft praise elevates to the signature raspy power of Ms. Fuchs. Her depth into the song reverberates through the headphones and the listener is compelled to feeling everything involved. Listeners cannot help but give in to it all. The wailing of her voice seals the deal. There is nobody else out there that can let free a fury like her voice while holding true to the sensations of the music.

Probably the next best thing on ‘Broken Down’ is Dana’s soulfully scratchy rendition of Bobby Bland’s Ain’t No Love In The Heart of the City. Transitioning to a loud passionate tune, the listener can hear a new side of Dana. Again, get ready to jump right into the power of the lyrics that are amplified by Ms. Fuch’s singing. This is Dana at her loudest and it is joyously welcomed. I love hearing the full range of her screams. She is simply not faking it when she hits those high yells. There is an intense focus and drive with each note that is honoring the song’s message. Your foot is thumping all along with the guitar as she continues to addresses us.

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‘Broken Down’ just keeps getting better and better. I encourage you all to give this album a listen come November 10th and better yet, start exploring Dana Fuch’s musical library to get a taste of her genius. I, for one, remain spell bounded by her music and voice. Oh, she is not hard on the eyes either my friends, a perfect beauty to behold. On these fall days in the city, Dana Fuchs is just what we need.

Jam On. - Punchland

Dana Fuchs: Broken Down acoustic sessions. (self released)

A career-defining moment


This is a self-released acoustic collection of powerhouse US blues artist Dana Fuch’s songs about love and loss - dedicated to her Dad, two brothers and sister who have sadly all passed on.

Dana blew the roof off at the Royal Albert Hall in London in June, at the Lead Belly Fest when she was flown over to sing just one song. A Lead Belly tune made famous by Led Zeppelin. Jimmy Page was in the house and was totally wowed.

This is the other side of Ms Fuchs - Dana stripped down with nowhere to hide vocally. Not that she needs anywhere. Mainly accompanied by her regular partner in crime Jon Diamond, on guitar and harmonica.

Pete Diamond plays guitar on three of the 14 cuts, Ann Klein provides mandolin and dobro on three and Jon Regen plays piano on two tracks.

Unfussy and subtle production from co-producers Dana and Jon, recorded in Dana’s home city of New York. Of the 13 originals, Dana had a hand in writing 12; and she gives us an emotion-soaked version of the song made famous by Bobby “Blue” Bland, “Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City,” penned by Michael Price and Dan Walsh. All hand in glove material for this singer’s singer.

Focus here is on the slower, pain enduring ballad, with the harmonica adding that extra heart string tug on songs that come from her two superb Ruf Records albums Bliss Avenue and the live CD/DVD offering, “Songs From The Road,” plus some new stuff thrown in for good measure

She really bares her soul about her own loss and her own pain, across this brutally honest slice of audio therapy, opening its account as it means to go on, with the autobiographical Almost Home. They say write about what you know. Boy does Dana Fuchs know about loss and hurt? She channels all of that and more into this essential listen.

Her life would make a gritty biopic….after a difficult relationship with her alcoholic father, she left home at 19 for the Big Apple with little money but lots of hope of being a singer.She took a low paid job in a sandwich shop, living in a bare room above a florist's. No bed, she slept on the floor until finding a sofa in a skip.

She was a waitress in strip clubs but started stripping for $800 a night. She got hooked on cocaine with a $1,000 a week habit, evicted from her apartment and ended up homeless, trying heroin and eventually moving into a one room bed-sit.]

Her beloved sister took her own life at 30-years-old after battling drug and alcohol addiction. Then in 2011, her brother died in Dana’s arms at 49-years-old, with a brain tumour. This girl has definitely known loss.

Often compared to Janis Joplin as a singer; this career defining album may hopefully dispel that myth - and result in people hearing Dana for who she is and has been all along; herself. I cannot see Simon Cowell signing her just yet!


5 STARS *****


By Simon Redley - Maverick Magazine

Dana Fuchs Broken Down NEVER! Her vocals growl the guitar strums and the harmonica pierces the emotional landscape. Broken Down the album that is stripped back like an old oak floor to the emotional heart of the song. The mix of new material and tracks from Bliss Avenue and Songs From the Road plus a cover. The majority of tracks it is a duo of Dana’s vocals and percussion with Jon Diamond on acoustic & electric guitars and harmonica. Other tracks have guest musicians who add tonal layers and re-shape the songs, but whoever is performing the dominant force is Dana Fuchs.

Opening with Almost Home, the blending of guitar and harmonica you instantly know this is a different side of Dana, no whirlwind but a gentle breeze that communicates the narrative with passion and conviction. This style continues and Dana has made the lyrics into a tonal eulogy of all the hurt, loss and love experienced What Went Right is full of yearning about love that died and trying to recall the good times. The delivery of Bobby Bland’s, Ain’t No Love In The Heart of the City, has a livelier tempo and the lyrics are sung with passion and full of Dana’s gritty tones that really suit the reshaping of a great song.

A lullaby that has a spiritual feel, with sweet gentle tones of Dana washing over you a perfect antidote to awash the stress away and resembles a tender hug as she sings “Don’t Cry without me I am only a moment away”; despite the inherent sadness that washes through Moment Away. As an antidote the piano intro and backdrop to the vocals on Wait Up, her voice rises and then fades away almost as if the piano’s damper pedal has been used on the vocal framing; the tempo stays the same but this has a different texture.

The country feel of Keepsake as Dana ‘finally finds hope’ this is a tonal poem as the words almost spoken with a lilt and the relentless strumming for the acoustic works in harmonious unity. As the album draws to the close the harp pierces on Misery, you know this is not going to be a happy ride, with her voice drenched in the hurt of yearning that you can taste on the notes. Closing the album with Sad Salvation the voice is lighter and Dana has all the pain of love loss and hurt inflected onto the lyric as the last notes fade away.

Dana’s vocals are a gut-wrenching mix of the rough with the smooth, the hope and despair of love and loss are captured in the shaping of the words into a musical journey.

The song writing is superb with majority songs written by Dana and others in collaboration. That said, one criticism of the album which has an authentic sound capturing Dana is we need the warmth of some sunshine to pierce the emotional depths. For me the album would have worked better with a dozen rather than fourteen. Despite that this is an album that has been crafted with passion and the songs are all beautiful acoustic sessions from Dana Fuchs showing a different side. Dana Fuchs, Broken Down is and album that will touch your emotional core.

Bluesdoodles gives this CD EIGHT pawprint half inchdoodle paws out of TEN ….

Track Listing



Almost Home
The Lie
What Went Right
Climb Over
Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City
Baby Loves Life
Moment Away
Wait Up
Kind Of Love
So Hard To Move
Say So Long
Keepsake
Misery
Sad Salvation - Bluesdoodles

Published: Friday, 06 November 2015 20:09
Written by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Dana Fuchs Broken Down Acoustic Sessions

Broken Down is an album that meant to be made, maybe through divine intervention. The new album by Dana Fuchs is her first acoustic record, a record that Fuchs' fans wanted for a very long time. The central theme of the album came up by pure accident during the recording session, simply by staring at photos of some of Fuchs' family members, sadly passed away prematurily.

The American Artist has always had a very close relationship with her family and such personal losses made a big effect on the New York based singer/songwriter's soul. Being on Tour has been a kind of antidote for Dana Fuchs in the last couple of years, able to discharge her sorrow night after night on stage, with her devoted fans and her band. Broken Down encapsules 14 stripped-to-the-bone songs, some of them brand new, other previously released on early albums plus the cover of Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City.

The album, as mentioned by Fuchs on the sleeve notes, is a meditation in music on love and loss on a deep, personal level. Lyrically, Dana Fuchs explores the life journey she has been through in the last couple of years with the usual, unique intensity and honesty that have been some of the trademarks of her career, together with her powerful, beautiful voice. There are songs about holding memories of the past, although painful sometimes (Keepsake, What Went Right), which the American Artist knows to be the only recipe she knows to hold on to the meaning of life. Dana Fuchs sings with her heart and soul on each song, no matter whether it is about sufference and loss (Moment Away) or love (Kind Of Love).

Jon Diamond, Fuchs' Compadre of a lifetime, shows his craftmanship once again in co-producing the album (together with Fuchs), playing acoustic/electric guitars and harmonica beautifully. One of Diamond's big merit is to be able to read and feel Fuchs' inner feelings like no other and, as a consequence, to complete musically Fuchs' outstanding singing style on the album.

The closing tracks of the record are particularly moving. Misery, a demo that Fuchs made some time ago and never saw the light of the day until now, shows a woman that is trying hard to get back on her feet, still living the pain of her personal losses ("Are you just like me? Holding on to misery... You need someone to believe in).

Dana Fuchs has announced recently to the press that she will take some time off from touring, before the Winter Tour and given what she has been through, that is perfectly understandable. This beautiful acoustic album has allowed the singer/songwriter to express and let go, under the art form she likes the most, all the pain Fuchs has been through and still going. It is not a coincidence that in Sad Salvation, the song that closes the record, there are lyrics such as "She smiles at the children selling candy on the street, remembers the good old days, a life so bittersweet. Listens to the schoolgirls sing their songs a little louder and with the weight of the world she walks a little prouder".

Dana Fuchs has got all the right to feel that pride, especially on this record. With Broken Down, Fuchs has been able to frame a crucial, although sad part of her life on a special record like this and, at the same time, to gift her fans with a body of work of incredible intensity. Broken Down is food for soul and a beautiful portrait of true artistry and poetry.



Giovanni "Gio" Pilato



Broken Down will be released November 10th 2015 and can be purchased via Dana Fuchs Website - Bluebird Reviews