About Debbie Bond
American Singer, guitar player and songwriter Debbie Bond has been performing for decades in the Alabama backwoods and is now a regular on the Southern US and European club and festival circuit. Influenced by raw juke joint blues and the famed sounds of Muscle Shoals, Debbie's impressive story includes years of performing with traditional Alabama blues musicians, like Johnny Shines, Eddie Kirkland, Willie King, Shar Baby, Little Jimmy Reed and more. Immersion in Alabama roots music has deeply flavored her guitar playing, soulful voice and original song writing, giving her a contemporary and original sound, with soul, blues, and jazz influences. Debbie's collaboration with British born keyboard and harmonica player “Radiator” Rick has added a swampy New Orleans edge to her sound. Debbie is a blues activist and founder of the award-winning Alabama Blues Project, a non-profit dedicated to promoting and preserving the state’s blues heritage. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a “Keeping the Blues Alive Award” from the Blues Foundation, and a prestigious “Coming Up Taller Award” for her blues education work with the Alabama Blues Project. She has been recognized by the Alabama Music Hall of Fame as a “Blues Achiever” and the national Blues Hall of Fame as a “Great Blues Artist”.
Debbie Bond was born in California to a musical family. Her father was a Baptist minister and mother the church choir director. When she was eight years old, her family moved to Europe but soon after her parents separated and her father returned to the U.S., while she remained in Europe to be raised by her mother along with her two brothers. The family lived a nomadic life in Europe and West Africa while her mother pursued her studies and field research in cultural anthropology. It was in Africa that she first heard and fell in love with African music and the American sounds of the sixties that were popular at the time, in Freetown, Sierra Leone. She began playing guitar at age twelve and her first solo performance was on a Sierra Leonean TV show at age thirteen. She subsequently joined her first band while attending college in Brighton, England.  Inspired by Johnny Shines and the rich Alabama blues culture, in 1995 Bond co-founded the Alabama Blues Project, an organization with the mission to promote and preserve the state's blues heritage. That year she also toured England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany and Luxemburg opening for the Alabama duo Little Whitt and Big Bo.  In 1997 she was included on a live compilation, Alabama Blues Showcase, released by the Alabama Blues Society. 1998 saw the release of her debut album, What Goes Around Comes Around. In 2001 she was featured as one of the Alabama blues artists on Germany’s Taxim Records compilation, Blues from the Heart of Dixie. With the Alabama Blues Project, she performed many "Blues in the Schools" programs and showcase concerts, often with Big Bo McGee until his untimely death in 2002. She returned to her studies during this period to enhance her blues education work and in 2002 received an MA in American Studies, specializing in the blues. That year she also received an Alabama/Georgia State Council on the Arts Apprenticeship Award to study guitar with Eddie Kirkland, with whom she often performed and presented school programs until his death in 2011. In 2002 she restructured the award-winning Alabama Blues Project (ABP) into an educational non-profit. The ABP school programs and showcases featured many of the great Alabama blues musicians with whom she regularly performed. Through the ABP she impacted thousands of students of all ages and received multiple arts and education awards, including a KBA from the Blues Foundation in 2004. Bond is also listed as an Alabama Music Hall of Fame Music Achiever.  Overseas, they performed with King at many European festivals, including the Cognac Blues Passions Festival in Cognac, France, the Roots and Blues Festival in Parma, Italy, and the Blues 'n' Jazz festival in Rapperswil, Switzerland. They appeared in several films with King including the Dutch documentary Down in the Woods, and a PBS documentary. Bond and Asherson toured with Willie from 2003 until his untimely death in 2009.  The pair have continued to tour in the Southeast US as well as Europe at festivals, clubs, juke joints and songwriter listening rooms. They tour annually in Europe particularly on the UK blues club and festival circuit. UK shows include London's legendary 100 Club, the Ealing Blues Festival, Maverick Americana Festival, Blues on the Farm, Marlborough International Jazz and blues Festival and more. 
Debbie Bond Discography 1997, Alabama Blues Showcase, Vent Records (compilation of Alabama blues, including Topper Price, Microwave Dave, Little Jimmy Reed and more) 2022, Collection Volume 5, Blind Raccoon and Nola Blue (compilation)
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