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FB: One of the things I’m really enjoying, for the moment, is not spending 8+ hours at a time in a
vehicle! I do love to travel, but with this pause, I realize how much it’s been taking out of me. My
recent albums have featured baritone, and a range of interesting cigar-box guitars—great fun to play,
and I think, fun for the audience too—but it means I’ve often been traveling with up to 5 instruments.

Lots of luggage, lots of lugging…hours and hours in airports and tour vans; it might take a little longer
before we all get too nostalgic and miss that side of the business!

It’s very difficult to say how things will bounce back from this pandemic. Will people flock to live gigs,
just because they can? Will they become acclimatised to staying at home and continuing the trend for
online amusement and streaming that was already a growing reality before the lock downs? Being
forced to move to on-line gigs may be a great thing, allowing musicians to stay in touch with fans, and
make new ones, in places they can’t regularly visit. Ever the optimist, I hope that new possibilities
will emerge along with the challenges. There will be good things, but they will still be different things
to actually sharing in a communal moment with fellow music lovers at a live performance. Nothing
like seeing and hearing a real, live sweaty musician, in the moment, and playing for you!

LL: What do you think the blues community (venues, organizations, blues DJ’s, fans) can do to help
support artists post COVID-19?

FB: Creating a sense of community is something that I think Blues does really well. Over the many
years I’ve been exploring my passion for this music, it’s taken me on lots of adventures round the
world. I’ve met some of my heroes, I’ve made new friends, I’ve played and learned from colleagues
and strangers alike. Every time I move to a new town, I go straight out and look for the local gigs and
find out if there is a nearby Blues society to join. One mistake a musician could make, is to think that
the music scene is just about the performers. Venues, DJ’s, fans, blues societies, festivals, promoters,
bookers—we are all in this together and need to support each other. Maybe all we can do right now is
to recognize and respect our connectedness and stand ready for the ‘re-opening’.

LL: What can your fans look forward to from you post COVID-19?

FB: Currently I am working on the liner notes for a 20 Year Celebration release of my very first solo
album ‘Blues in My Heart’. I like the synchronicity of a 20-year anniversary, in 2020. It’s an acoustic
album of fingerpicking/ragtime blues, signaling the sort of material that would take me on to win the
International Blues Challenge a couple of years later. In the intervening years I’ve gone on to explore
all sorts of regional Blues styles, most notably the cigar-box and swampier electric Mississippi stuff
that appears on recent albums. It’s very cool to revisit this earlier repertoire, and I love the re-
mastering job that my friend, Grammy-nominated sound engineer Joseph Cara has done on it. So, I’ll
be getting my acoustic chops back up to speed and looking forward to introducing a wider audience to
that aspect of my playing, whether that is (hopefully) live on tour…or maybe on-line. The album is due
for release in USA/Worldwide on Fresh! from Reference Recordings.

More recording projects are in the works—both electric and acoustic—and I continue songwriting. I’ve
also launched a new website (Blue Empress Art) featuring work by both myself and my husband, Rev
Steve Clarke, aka ‘The Preacher’. I always have a lot of projects going on; many more than I can
actually bring to fruition! Many of the recent tour cancellations have made commitments to re-
schedule for 2021, so with a bit of luck I might even get a chance to play for you in your neck of the
woods, wherever that maybe.