Deanna Bogart
The Girl in The Band
November 29, 2007
By Martha Thomas
Photography By Bryan Burris
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The toe thing is important to Deanna Bogart. It’s not just that, on the dark side of 45, she can still hit a note on the piano with the tip of her cowboy boot while pounding the keys with her hands — an act of agility at any age. It’s that she gets the right key. “If I mess up and hit two notes instead of one, it really annoys me, and I let people know,” she says. “I’ll do it again and get it right.”
Much has been made of Bogart’s energy (she was described by Down Beat magazine as “an extravagant entertainer”). Her onstage habits include bouncing on the keyboard with her backside, snatching up her sax to serenade the drummer (who happens to be her husband) and grabbing one of the band members for a dance.
But Bogart is always in control. She knows the note she’s hitting, where she is on the stage and when it’s time to drop the sax and get back to the piano for the final chorus. “I understand the power of schtick,” she says, “but I need to validate it. If I’m going to play with my tush, I know the glissando.”
Bogart has labeled her style “Bluesion” and it’s an apt moniker for music that, while rooted in the blues, weaves in boogie-woogie, R&B, funk and classic rock. But it’s her commitment to the blues that is important: It’s a musical genre that is all about heritage, about, as Deanna puts it, “doing your homework — everything emanates from a solid base.” It’s this knowledge that is bringing her attention these days.
The Maryland-based Bogart has been playing guitar and piano since high school. She toured the country with the bands Cowboy Jazz and Root Boy Slim when she was in her 20s, started her own band in 1988 and went on to make several recordings with a handful of labels. She has also been raising a daughter, now 14.
Deanna Bogart has plugged away over the years, writing songs with increasingly sophisticated lyrics, playing with her own band, sitting in with others. She has appeared on stage with the likes of BB King, James Brown, Doctor John, the Neville Brothers and They Might Be Giants. She’s also won several Wammie (Washington-area) music awards and was nominated for the Blues Foundation’s 28th annual Music Awards’ Instrumentalist of the Year. It’s only recently that Bogart has begun to garner national recognition for the work she’s been doing all along. In the world of blues and jazz, it’s not too late for Deanna Bogart to become a household name.
Bogart is scheduled to headline at the Women in Blues Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, in November. “I needed someone with stature,” says Michele Seidman, producer of the event, which is in its second year. “Deanna Bogart’s name kept coming up, over and over.” Seidman said she was thrilled that Bogart agreed to play for the event — and was also thrilled that Bogart answered her e-mail in person.
Deanna Bogart is funny that way. She gives equal energy to a tiny venue, like Baltimore’s minuscule Club 347 on Calvert Street, or a festival stage. Her fall concert schedule jumped from gigs at the annual Poolesville (Maryland) Day and the Charles County Lobster Festival in La Plata to the Motor City Blues & Boogie Woogie Festival in Detroit, which was scheduled to be broadcast on PBS. She’s set to spend the last part of October touring with the Tommy Castro Band as part of the West Coast Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue.
Bogart describes herself as “a divorce brat” — she grew up all over the country, mostly in Detroit, New York and Arizona — and took up music to make friends. “I was the new kid, but I wasn’t the hottie, and they ignored me till I picked up the guitar,” she says. “I was the girl who could strum and sing any Eagles song known to mankind.”
But she wasn’t a wild child. “I always liked order and organization,” she says. While she brushed against danger during her touring days — when she hobnobbed with such notorious partiers as the Grateful Dead — she never succumbed to the lure of drink or drugs. “I saw firsthand what it did to wonderful and talented people,” she says. As a teenager she would even go to bars with her older sister just to be the designated driver. “I got used to being the responsible one.”
Bogart moved to Maryland in 1981 to play with Cowboy Jazz and ended up staying. The region has been good to her, she says. Close to Washington, D.C., clubs, it is also a good place to raise her daughter. “This area has supported me,” she says. “I’ve been able to make a living making music without spending too much time on the road.” Her song writing and the band have evolved over the years. “It’s been a constant and gradual journey,” she says.
Now that her daughter is in high school, Bogart is taking on a heavier touring schedule. The timing is good. “Deanna is becoming more and more significant,” says Women in Blues producer Seidman. She points to the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Tour on the West Coast. “She’s the only girl on the tour with the boys. It’s very exciting to see this dynamo woman up there on stage with them.”
Despite her fusion style, Bogart deserves a place in the blues hall of fame, Seidman says. “Whether purists like it or not, she’s bringing people into the genre, and she’s keeping the blues alive and breathing.”
Bogart says she wants to keep growing and changing while remaining true to the blues. “What never ceases to stun me is that all the music that’s out there, all the genres and tunes in history, all come from just 12 notes.”
