Delta Maid
20th Jun 2009@ 13:00 Big Top
Delta Maid’s love affair with roots music began as far back as she can remember. Her biggest influence emanated from her parents appreciation for all things “Country Blues” which played a major role in her early fascination for the genre she so ardently holds in admiration. From young, Delta listened and adopted a high regard for Country Greats such as Hank Williams and Patsy Cline together with Blues legends like Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal, Stevie Ray Vaughan to name but a few. It was at thirteen years of age when her parents by chance bought a copy of Rory Block’s Best Blues and Originals from a tourist trip to New York that Delta’s life as she sees it, changed completely.
“I was in awe; words cannot describe the feeling I had when I heard this music. I became fascinated by the style of play, the whole feeling of it; nothing struck me more to the core than this. It was at this point that I began actively searching for the history and legends that were behind Delta Blues. After hearing the likes of Son House, Skip James, Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson for the first time I dived head first into a world that has since become a part of my own makeup.”
Delta had always sung and played guitar and piano on and off from an early age, never really pursuing the idea of making it as a performer until she began writing her own material. In the summer of 2007, Delta graduated from university and landed herself a job as a trainee vascular scientist, a career in music was far from on the cards…
Earlier, around March 2007 after playing a charity gig in Liverpool doing old blues covers with her brother Dominic as her accompanying guitarist, Delta got the bug for performing live. Unfortunately early on into their gigging, Dominic suffered a hand injury that put him out of playing for quite a while. “I really left the guitar work up to him, he was as much a fan of the blues as I was and could play like those I’d heard off the records.” Disappointed, but adamant she would keep up the performing, Delta had to really learn to accompany herself with her guitar as opposed to playing the odd chord or two. It was then Delta’s own relationship with the guitar began. Delta has created her own style of playing which she continues to develop.
Delta’s own songs are mainly influenced by the Blues, but they also have Country and Folk labels attached to them. As a white girl from Liverpool, a far cry from early rural Mississippi, it’s hard to draw any parallels but as she sees it, being from Liverpool, roots music is genetically bred. What the music means, where it’s from and the believability in the way it’s performed is paramount to her, this she feels must be encapsulated in her own music and performance.
Photos
Related weblinks
http://www.myspace.com/deltamaid
