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the music by artists such as Robert Johnson, Blind Blake, Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace, Bessie
Smith and Koko Taylor. When this band broke up after a year or so, I started going to open mic
nights at Warmdaddy’s, a blues club in Philly, and met a lot of talented musicians who were very
supportive. I started to put together my own band in the late 90’s with some of the players I had
met at the open mic and The Deb Callahan Band was born. I began booking my own gigs and
recorded my first demo tape of five cover songs. This helped me to be able to play at more venues.
I left my full-time job and started focusing on my songwriting more and wrote a number of tunes
with Walter Runge, the keyboard player in my band at the time and a friend Jon Dichter. I
recorded my first full length CD with mostly original material
entitled “If The Blues Had Wings” in 2002.

This CD was well received. I got some great reviews, and
festival and touring opportunities. I had a new East Coast label
interested in the CD, but the label never materialized. I
recorded 5 other CD’s over the next 20 years including “The
Blue Pearl” (2005), “Grace & Grit” (2008), “Tell It Like It Is”
(2010), “Sweet Soul” (2015) and the recent “Backbone” (2023).
I’ve managed to perform regionally as well as nationally doing
a week or 10-day tours at a time for many years.

Once my 12-year-old son reached 5ft 6in and started
participating in a lot of sports and social activities I slowed
down with travelling for gigs quite as much so I could be
present for him. I have had a few regional booking agents that
I worked with over the years but have mostly been managing
and booking the band myself. I have continued to work part
time as a clinical social worker and counselor at a women’s
center and then a youth center, where I worked with
adolescents/young adults who were living on the street with
very little family support.

LL: When did you start writing songs and what is your
song-writing process like?

DC: I’ve always liked to write stories, poems and to journal
about my thoughts and feelings. I would sometimes make up
songs as a teen, but it wasn’t something I really pursued. Once I started performing with a band
and doing all covers for a while, I felt a desire to write my own material and be able to voice my
experiences, observations and point of view. When it came to putting out my first album, I pushed
myself to write and finish these songs. I had a lot of ideas, but the process of songwriting was
new at the time. I listened to a lot of other songwriters that I loved and was inspired by their
approaches. When I’m writing songs, I have a few different methods. I am constantly writing
down ideas for songs which might be a phrase or one line or could be a whole chorus or part of
a verse.

This happens even more when I decide that I want to record some music and kind of put my
antennas up more in the world. I will write down these ideas in my journal or on my phone and
I often will sing an idea into my phone. Sometimes I will try to work out the melody, a bass line
or chord progression on the guitar or piano. Other times I think about a topic I want to write
about, and I just write everything that comes to my mind about it, which could be many pages
and then later start editing down the words or ideas I like the most. I have written quite a few
songs with Chris Arms, who produced “Backbone” and Allen James who plays guitar in the band.