Page 14 - BiTS_06_JUNE_2023

read a lot. I am close to both of my parents, and they were very supportive of me and my siblings
pursuing our interests and passions. I am the oldest of four and my two youngest siblings are
both African American and were
adopted into our family when
babies. We grew up in a pretty white
community, but my parents wanted
us to understand the cultural
backgrounds of everyone in the
family including the Irish,
Lithuanian, English and African
aspects of our family heritage. As
part of this, my parents enrolled us
in the Elma Lewis School for Black
Cultural Arts in Roxbury, MA, a
section of Boston. I studied music
and art there one afternoon a week
after school and on Saturday
mornings. I loved the music I was
exposed to there and was very
influenced by their annual
production of Langston Hughes
“The Black Nativity”. This opened
my ears and heart to the sounds and
rhythms of gospel and traditional
spirituals. I was one of the few white children in the school and this was formative for me in
understanding some of what it might be like to be a minority culture person. There were a lot of
racial tensions going on in Boston at this time in the 1970’s around children being bused to other
neighborhoods to create more equitable access to education.

LL: What types of music were you exposed to growing up, and did that music influence
you as an artist?

DC: I grew up in the 1970’s-80’s and so there was a real eclectic range of music I heard. My
parents listened to everything on AM radio and had folk, rock and pop records such as James
Taylor, Joan Baez, Barbara Streisand, Fleetwood Mac and Chicago. I listened to this and all forms
of popular music ranging from rock (Clapton, Hendrix, Cream, The Stones and Van Halen to
disco/funk such as Donna Summer, Abba, Kool & the Gang, George Clinton and The Bee Gees. My
mom was a big fan of Nina Simone and I remember listening to this music and being really affected
by the power of her voice and the sense of dignity, anger, pain and righteousness in her voice.
The words and the power in her voice really spoke to me. There was also a Bessie Smith album
in their collection that I liked a lot. I was aware that I really gravitated towards more gospel types
of sounds with singing and that I liked the blues guitar sounds of Clapton, Hendrix, etc. much
more than 80’s rock. I had a few Bruce Springsteen records, and I loved his real, gritty storytelling.
It wasn’t until I got to college and sang in my first blues band did I begin to explore more about
early blues and start to listen to people like Albert Collins, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Howlin Wolf and
Muddy Waters. I also brought songs from Aretha Franklin and Etta James into the mix in this
band and then later really started listening to the whole range of blues and soul music. As a
young adult I kept discovering a lot of music and songwriters I loved from Ray Charles, Mavis
Staples, Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and Joan Armatrading to name a few.

LL: When did you start to sing?