Episode #14 Duffy Bishop
Welcome to Living A Vocal Life: A Podcast For Singers!
Welcome to the Living A Vocal Life Podcast, where I interview singers who have succeeded in creating a life in music. You’ll hear from vocalists of all genres, in different stages of their careers, including singers who’ve been on the Billboard charts and those who are teaching the next generation. What do they have in common? They're all performers with amazing stories to tell and experiences to share.
In our conversations, you’ll learn what inspired them to become a singer, the kinds of challenges they’ve encountered, and how they've overcome them. I'll also share what I've learned on my own journey as a singer and educator — practical tools and insights that will help you to live your best, most authentic vocal life.
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My dear friend Duffy Bishop is my guest on Episode #14 of Living A Vocal Life.
Duffy and I have known each other for a long time — 20 years, or maybe even more. Offstage Duffy’s a bit of a homebody, a creative maker who’s always drawing, painting, and sewing. You notice her when she walks into a room not because she tries to draw attention to herself, but because of the way her eyes light up with love when she greets you.
This quieter demeanor makes it easy to forget that the woman is an absolute powerhouse when she takes the stage. Her voice and presence are huge. You can’t help but be drawn into her every move, riveted by the raw emotion she transmits through the music she makes.
Her humble nature belies the fact that she’s won a bevy of blues awards. She was named Best Female Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year by the Northwest Area Music Association and the Washington Blues Society. The Cascade Blues Association named her Best Female Vocalist for five consecutive years, eventually renaming the award “The Duffy Bishop Female Vocalist Award.” She’s a member of the Washington Blues Society Hall of Fame, the Cascade Blues Association Hall of Fame and the Oregon Hall of Fame.
Duffy’s a lovely human being and I’m so grateful for our friendship.
I’m excited to share our conversation with you!
“We all change as we age. When I was 18 or 19 I thought, I want to make it by the time I’m, you know, 20, otherwise I’ll quit. And then, I just realized through the years that I had made it in a way that’s much more important; where you make friends for life.”
Links:
You can find Duffy Bishop on her Website or on her Facebook page.
The songs from today’s episode are called:
Hey Linda from Fly The Rocket
You Don’t Own Me from I’m Gonna Do What I Want
Everyone’s Comin’ To A Party from The Queen’s Own Bootleg
I’m Gonna Do What I Want from I’m Gonna Do What I Want
(All used with permission.) Click the links above to listen to more and download.
Theme music for the Podcast was composed by John Smith. He edits all the podcast episodes too. (Thanks honey!)
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Valerie: Hi, Duffy.
Duffy: Hi, Valerie.
Valerie: It's so good to hear your voice. Thank you for being on the podcast today!
Duffy: Thank you for having me. I'm starved for friendship and affection after being locked up for so long.
Valerie: I know aren't we all. It's just so good to connect in this time period.
So I'm going to start at the very beginning of your story. What's your first memory of singing. Do you remember?
Early Years
Duffy: I certainly do. As a toddler, I loved singing and I remember we had a house in Eureka, California. And I would get the footstool and put it in the middle of the room. And I was like four years old. And I would get up there. I'd make my parents sit down and I would sing along with records and make them watch me.
Valerie: Oh, how fantastic. I love that. And were they supportive of your singing?
Duffy: Yes. They were.
I don't know if they thought, Oh, she's going to be an entertainer. They just thought, Oh, our kid is so cute. You know, she's dressing up again. So.
Valerie: Now, these parents of yours. I kind of remember you saying something about being adopted.
Is that right?
Duffy: I was adopted, I think I was three months old as was my brother. We got him two years later and adopted him and, but mom and dad both told me from the time I was old enough to understand that out of all the babies in the world, they picked me. And I always had this picture in my head of them going through the supermarket with a basket and squeezing baby heads.
And, I don't know why that's just how it translated to me. And I thought, why would they pick a balled headed baby? Cause I didn't have hair for a long time. So.
Valerie: I love that. That's such a great image. Of course. Well, you know, if you go pick something out, you're usually at the store, right? That makes total sense.
Duffy: That's right.
Valerie: They're like, Look at that cute cabbage over there. Let's take her home.
So, did you ever get a chance to meet your biological parents? And do you know if they were musically inclined?
Duffy: I made a connection and have been close to my birth mother and my sisters and family for a long time. And my birth parents got to meet my birth mother and my sisters. And you know, what a, what a beautiful thing that is.
Valerie: Let's go back a little to around the time that you were in sixth grade, you were in a band called Effervescence.
Duffy: Yes!
Valerie: I love the story around the name of that band or the name of that singing group and how you decided you had to change it. Why did he have to change the name?
Duffy: Well, I thought it was great because I'd always heard that people that were exciting had effervescence.
So I picked it out and it was three of us little girls and I played guitar a little bit, but I thought, well, I'll be the bass player. And I made the other girl be the guitar player. And the third one probably beat on a bongo. I don't know. I looked up effervescence in the dictionary and it said bubbling laxative.
That's not a good name.
Valerie: That's not a good branding thing for a band.
Los Angeles CA
Valerie: So you were born in Redding and you grew up with these wonderful parents who were super supportive in every way about your singing and everything you did it sounds like. And then after a couple of moves in junior college and college, you ended up going to Los Angeles in 1975.
Why Los Angeles and what was Los Angeles like for musicians back then? I'm thinking that you decided that music was your life by this point, is that right?
Duffy: Well, it was, but I was married at the time and I left my band, you know, I mean, we worked all the time. I left my band because my husband's band had gotten signed to Warner Brothers.
He was in a band called Barrel House, really good band. And my ex was the drummer for that band. So they got signed by Warner Brothers and they were all excited as people are. And we got down there and of course they were given a bunch of money and put in the studio and then the company wanted to change their name.
And they changed their name to Hotcakes. Got them on a kid's show.
Valerie: Oh boy.
Duffy: I got to know of some people at Warner Brothers and it's one of those things, you know, where they shelve you for tax purposes and write you off. And by then the, the guys have spent their money and some of them my husband had gotten a pretty good drug habit going. And.
Valerie: So where does that leave you in the midst of all this?
Duffy: Yeah, so I did some backup vocals. In fact, I did a session with... it's like I've got the album. I don't know if it will ever be worth anything because he's now a pariah, but I sang on an album for Bill Cosby with two of my friends.
Valerie: Really.
Duffy: Well, I did not use Duffy. I used my name Patricia, because I didn't want to be known as a backup singer.
Valerie: Oh, interesting.
Duffy: Because everything changed through the years. Like actors didn't want to be doing commercials and backup singers didn't necessarily want to be known. If you were trying to do something else.
Valerie: Right. You get pigeonholed and then that becomes your career and you want something else.
Costume Design
Duffy: I did that a little bit,but I also became a costume designer at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. My incredible friend, Victoria Bodwell, who's an award winning costumer, she hired me and we had a great time.
Valerie: Well and this is part of your story that until I started researching you, I had no idea.
I knew you were an artist. I mean, I love the visual art you make, but until I started doing the research for this interview, I had no idea that you're also a costume designer. I mean, it makes total sense because the outfits you perform in. Well, they should have been a giveaway to me all these years. I mean, you've always had an eclectic ever-changing fabulous sense of style and the details are always there.
And so spot on. So you started that whole part of your world in Los Angeles when you were there around 1985. I'm sorry, 1975.
Duffy: I was trying also to sell just regular clothing ideas. I'd do sketches and give them to friends I knew that worked in the garment district, but I think costuming was such a good match for me.
My mom had taught me to sew early on and I always sewed stuff through high school. If you know, if I was going to do a costume. My mom would make formals for me, but she'd also let me loose on the machine and I'd make wacky things. So through the American Academy, I met these wonderful people that have remained my friends forever Victoria and her husband, Boyd, Boswell.
He was an actor and they just became great friends and they're still great friends. It certainly gave me a good background for costuming. So I knew what I could do and what I couldn't do.
And I'd teach all the incoming students. Because I'd acted before too. I thought that it was important that they need to know how to sew on their own buttons and how to pack their own kits for emergencies. Because they'd come running into the sewing room and go, Oh, I've got to go on.
And I don't, my, my button fell off. You know, it's like, My hem came down. So you go, Okay, you gotta learn to pack some duct tape. Some safety pins learn how to sew a button on, you know,
Valerie: And all that stuff puts you in good stead for any emergency that comes up, whether you're an actor or a singer on the road.
Duffy: It's not that often that we get a green room or somebody to look at, or maybe
Valerie: Sometimes there's not even a backstage area, there's just a bus.
Duffy: Or a porta potty.
Valerie: Right, right. You're in the port-a-potty changing and yeah.
Duffy: Not to have your feet touch the ground while you
Valerie: Somebody needs to make a little video of how to do that. So I'm wondering, you know, Los Angeles, how long were you there and why did you leave?
Seattle WA
Duffy: Well, if I had been down there under happier circumstances, I probably wouldn't have moved. I was under the presumption that moving would fix what was wrong, the drug abuse, and the lying and that sort of thing. Which you never, that doesn't work that way.
Valerie: No, you just take your problems with you when you move.
Usually. So things were not going so well with your husband. And then did you move by yourself to Seattle or did you move together and then break up?
Duffy: We moved together. We sold our house in LA and in the time that we lived in LA things went crazy. So the house that we. purchased for 60,000 at that time went to 90,000.
So we were thinking that was pretty good.
Valerie: Yeah. Amazing. That you could even buy a house in Los Angeles.
Duffy: Yeah. Well, you know,
Valerie: I mean these days, no way.
Duffy: We thought when we were moving to Los Angeles, I was thinking you could get something for 30,000. You know, cause that's what Sacramento was at the time.
And my mother and father in law helped us out a little bit with a down payment as did my parents. And we both chipped in, but all that was going to come crashing down pretty quickly in Seattle. We bought a house. I sent my ex up to look at the houses cause I was working. I always had a steady job.
Valerie: The practical side of Duffy.
Duffy: We bought a house and I got a job. We had a band together. And I was a fool. I mean, you know, I should blame myself too, because I knew that he wasn't completely honest all the time. He was a compulsive liar, like our current president. The similarities. Oh my God.
Anyway, I went to the bank where we were supposed to have all our money to buy him a birthday present. I was going to buy him a cockatoo because he wanted a bird. And I got there and they said you don't have any money here. There's nothing here.
Valerie: Oh my gosh.
Duffy: So I went home and of course he lied it away. Pretty convincingly. I gave him another chance to show me. You know, like I say, I was a fool.
I stayed with him another year and a half or something. Then found out that he had gotten a job, but he was not ever going to work. He was in charge of paying our bills because he said, I can do that. I had always done it. You know, you learn a lot about being stupid.
Valerie: When you're in love, you think, you want to be able to trust.
Yeah. I mean, you're supposed to be able to trust. It takes a long time to figure out that it has really, nothing often has nothing to do with you, you know? And then you keep hoping that people will change. And sometimes they do, but not unless they really, really want to and work very hard at it. So you guys were destined to break up.
And you did, and then you were in Seattle and did you start your own band at that point?
Duffy: I had to maneuver getting a new place to live because he had never made any house payments. And I had put him on my credit cards that I had had since high school. And so I was now in much debt and had no credit. So yeah, I got a job at a fabric store and because I could sew and make garments, you know, and could do all of that.
That was a good start for me. I did theater for awhile. And cabaret groups. My first job in Seattle was designing hats for a company called Favrile, where I met even more great friends that I still am friends with.
Valerie: Having that experience of being so betrayed. How did that affect you moving forward. I mean, it had to have affected you.
Duffy: Well, it makes you super cautious, but I also knew that it's not all men and it's not all people. It took me a long process to get through to where I was good.
Valerie: To recover from that kind of betrayal would take a long time. So where did music fit into your life?
Duffy: Well, I dove into theater. So I was with two different musical cabaret groups - Eine Kleine lunch music, Eine Kleine guitar cowboy music.
Eine Kleine was great fun. Three gals and Chad Henry. Chad Henry is a super song writer, actor. Um, he wrote, um, was coauthor of the play and music Angry Housewives. Did you ever hear of that?
Valerie: Oh yeah.
Duffy: Okay. That was Chad. So I was with Eine Kleine for a good long time., Also with a group called Champagne Express.
So my friend Jane Muirhead, she and I are great buddies. Muirhead, and another friend Jane Bray and I were all in the musical, Gypsy at the Cirque Theater. And Jane Muirhead moved to Indiana to be with her boyfriend. And I went on to be in a group Champagne Express with Jane Bray who played Gypsy Rose Lee in Gypsy. And a fellow was putting her kitchen cupboards in and said, I have a band I'm looking for a singer.
And Champagne Express had broken up at that time because things weren't paying, you know. We got a couple of jobs that stiffed us and we just went, this is too crazy. So Jane gave me the name of the guy putting in the cupboards. She said, they have a band, they need a singer. You should go and audition. So I called and made an appointment to audition.
With Cool Ray and the Shades.
Valerie: Great name.
Duffy: And Tom Tilney is the gentleman that was holding the auditions up on Queen Anne Hill. And I drove up there and went up to the steps and there's this red headed bearded guy sitting on the steps and he says, Who are you? And I said, my name's Duffy. He goes, my name's Duff!
Oh, well, Hi Duff. He goes, are you here to audition? I said, yeah. He goes, well, I guess I know who's going to be the next singer.
He just was so impressed that we had the same name.
Valerie: That's funny.
Duffy: He was just their friend sitting out front greeting people.
So, we walked in and he goes, you guys, this is Duffy, and she's here to say sing. And so I met the band and it was Brian Swanson, and Dave Link, and Tom Tilney, and Chris Carlson on guitar.
And so I auditioned for them. And I left the audition and they called me back and said, we want you. And so I was a new member of Cool Ray and the Shades.
Valerie: Wow. And you unknowingly had just met your future husband.
Duffy: Yes.
Valerie: Chris.
Duffy: Yeah.
Valerie: And so how long did you sing for this band?
Duffy: We met in 83 and I joined with them and we played, I think it was two years in Coolray in the Shades.
And then the sax player, Dave Link, moved to Hawaii. And we got another sax player and we played together and he goes, I think you guys should be doing your own music. And I think we should change the name and form our own band. So of course Cool Ray always blamed me, I think.
For that happening.
Yeah.
Duffy Bishop Band & The Rhythm Dogs
Valerie: Yeah. Is that when you became the Duffy Bishop Band?
Duffy: Duffy Bishop and the Rhythm Dogs.
Valerie: Love it. That's great.
Duffy: And we didn't even know how lucky we were. We played all the time and made great money. I mean, it's a good thing we did. I put money away, you know. But having no idea that our pay was going to be a lot the same in the years to come.
Valerie: Isn't that amazing?
Duffy: Yes!
Valerie: I mean, this is like the early nineties, right? Late eighties, early nineties. And we were playing in clubs in the early eighties. And I mean, we weren't making a ton of money, but we were making a living. Yeah. That does not happen so much. Now. That's not an easy thing. It wasn't back then, but it was possible.
And I know that, like I talked to Rindy Ross of Quarter Flash in another interview, and she and Marv, her husband played enough in Portland to make a down payment for a house. You know, they bought a starter home playing music. How does that happen now?
Duffy: That's what we did in Seattle, Chris and I.
Valerie: You guys did really well there. I mean, you just played your ass off.
Janis Joplin
Valerie: In '91 you played the lead in a show about Janis Joplin. Was that a turning point in your Seattle career or were you already playing a lot and well known?
Oh, we had been playing as the Rhythm Dogs all the time and got to open for a lot of people. And I was approached by Susan Ross.
Who'd had this idea and she said, I know you can do this part please. And so we broke the Rhythm Dogs up because everything was kind of scattering to the wind.
As happens with bands.
Duffy: As what happens.
Valerie: And right around that time, then this opportunity to perform as Janice Joplin came up.
Duffy: Yep. And so I took it. And the playwright, what a great lady. Susan still lives in Seattle. And it was such an inventive play. It was a day in the life of Janice waking up and going to a performance that happened in Seattle, but she had all these besides regular people that Janice would meet she had, uh, Zelda, Fitzgerald, Bessie Smith, uh, Jack Kerouac, these people that meant something to Janice.
And so there were these kind of odd dream sequences.
Valerie: That sounds really cool. What a cast of characters to have.
Duffy: Oh, and of course the woman who played Bessie Smith, I met her - EdmoniaJarrett, and became dear friends with her. She was an educator in Seattle and had retired from being a principal and a school teacher, and just was an incredible jazz singer and just a beautiful woman.
And we lost her to breast cancer years ago now.
Valerie: I'm so sorry, Duffy. That's really tough.
So, this sounds like it was right up your alley. It was musical theater, but it was singing music that, I mean, Janis Joplin was somebody who you listened to.
Duffy: I did. And well, I studied her too for this role. I mean, I came as close to embodying her as you could.
Valerie: I've seen some of the video from you doing some of these songs. Yeah, songs that you've learned and you became Janice. It's extraordinary. And then that moment led into something else that must have felt big at the time. I don't, you can tell me whether I'm right about that or not, but you ended up getting a job with Big Brother and the Holding Company, Janis Joplin's band from the sixties.And ended up touring with them. How did that come about?
Duffy: Well, when we were working on the play and Susan was writing stuff, she goes, Oh, I wish there was somebody I could talk to. And we found out that Sam Andrew was working at a bank in Seattle.
Valerie: Sam Andrew was one of the members of Big brother and the Holding Company.
Duffy: Absolutely. He was the only member that went on to one of the other bands that she was in. But we called him and he became a consultant. Chris and he had a band called Queens of Denial. They played together.
Valerie: Another great man name.
Duffy: I know.
Valerie: I like it.
Duffy: But it's also, the reason that Janice's sister became aware of us and tried suing us. So, we had been in the middle of sold out crowds and Sam had said to Laura, you know, There's this play. You ought to come see it. Unbeknownst to him. Laura was in negotiations writing her own thing for Broadway.
Valerie: Oh dear.
Duffy: So she came at us with a cease and desist and claimed she had complete control over Janice's image and all the music.
Valerie: Oh, that's too bad.
Duffy: And it was tough because the people that bankrolled it owned a restaurant and a club in Seattle, and they were just people who believed in the art of it.
Valerie: And in those days, probably nobody would think to check and see who owned the rights to Janice's stuff.
Duffy: Well, we won the suit.
Valerie: Oh you did?
Duffy: Because lawyers took it on because it became a freedom of speech and it would stop people from ever interpreting a person's life. So that's my big, a cover of a magazine I'm on the cover of LA Lawyer.
Valerie: Wow. Because this was a big case for a lot of reasons. I didn't read anything about that. That's fascinating. So then after you won the case, did you put the show back on or did it just feel like it was too late?
Duffy: We ran it as long as we could. And we switched some of the music. We got rid of the songs that were Janice's songs that she had written, like Move Over. Um, and replaced them with other songs she had covered.
And it got to be tough for the people who were bankrolling it to get it back up and going.
Valerie: It's an expensive proposition.
Duffy: We went as long as we could. And then when we decided we should stop so that they could continue getting the law suit taken care of because Jimmy and Gail were afraid that, you know, if they lost that
Valerie: They'd lose everything.
Duffy: Yeah. And pretty much they did because it took a toll on Jimmy's health. He had diabetes, he was older and he died the following year.
Big Brother & The Holding Company
But Sam was encouraged to go back to San Francisco and he started up Big Brother again. And he wanted me to come to San Francisco and move there. And I had started with Chris started, uh, The Duffy Bishop Band.
Valerie: So Sam was a part of Big Brother and the Holding Company when Janice was in the band. And then she left the band and they kind of went on, but members came and went. And. But by the nineties, early nineties, they were touring again. And they were touring with different singers and you got to be one of them.
So he obviously saw that you could play the part. So you and Chris went out on the road and toured Japan and
Duffy: Oh, Chris didn't go.
Valerie: Oh, he didn't go.
Duffy: No, there was another guitar player. I actually did two shows with the whole original band. And then James Gurley didn't want to go on the road. And then James died first and since then, you know, Sam passed on.
So when I went to Japan, it was the original drummer, original bass player and original one of the original guitar players, Sam. So Peter Alban and Dave Getz were there. I wanted to go to Japan because I figured it's not the same as.. You know, being a singer any time that somebody gets it in their mind that you sound just like someone, that's what they think from then on.
Valerie: Yeah, that's true. So Japan was cool, but you probably didn't want to keep doing the show in the States because then you're just the Janice Joplin sound alike. And you want it to have your own sound? So in 1994, you married Chris and..
Duffy: I did.
Portland OR
Valerie: And moved to Portland. Why did you move to Portland from Seattle where you guys were doing so well in the clubs?
Duffy: Uh, I liked Portland. Seattle was getting so big and so cold. Part of the reason I thought I was moving South where it was warmer, where it was going to be warmer. I'm serious, you know.
Valerie: A little, but not much!
Duffy: But in its defense, it's not as maritime gray. But I really thought there'd be less of the gray. I didn't realize how much I was affected by that.
Valerie: Now that you live in Florida, you've kind of taken care of that, haven't you.
Duffy: Oh God. I love it. And if it rains here, I'm fine cause it's warm and you go out and it's dramatic.
Valerie: It's not that chill to the bone kind of rain that we have here.
Duffy: I miss Portland. I miss great musicians, beautiful nature. Portland is a gorgeous place, but it too started changing from all the ways that we fell in love with it.
Like the height requirements on buildings were all of a sudden changing and how they infill with housing. And the gentrification constantly ripping down old neighborhoods where people were displaced.
Valerie: So in Portland, you guys continued to do well, though.
You've shared the stage with an amazing lineup of music greats: Roy Orbison, John Lee Hooker, Lou Rawls, Etta James, Ruth Brown, Bonnie Raitt.
What did you learn from watching them both onstage and off?
Duffy: Well, I had such adoration for, uh, you know, and I get very shy. So some people just dive in and talk and get a lot that way I stand back and kind of get tongue tied in and just tell them how much I love them. You know.
You know, the ones that know who they are and what they are aren't afraid be kind to somebody else and give them encouragement.
Lou Rawls was so kind, he just blew my mind. He came up and he said, Oh, that was a really wonderful set. He didn't have to say anything. Ruth Brown, hugged me and she said, Girl, you got it all going on. Her hug and those simple words meant everything to me.
Valerie: Yeah. Especially when they're said with such love and authenticity.
Duffy: Yeah. I think sometimes the older and wiser performers are just like that, you know.
Survivors
Valerie: They're survivors, right? I mean, they've seen so many things. Yeah. That makes them more gracious and able to give away that kind of encouragement.
Duffy: Absolutely.
Valerie: Cause they know how hard it is to do all of it, you know? And that's all you need is a little bit of encouragement sometimes to keep doing this thing that we love.
So speaking of being a survivor, you're a survivor in more ways than one too. I mean, you've had breast cancer when you were only 32 years old. Polyps on your vocal chords. Deafness in one ear, yet you just keep going, Duffy.
Did you ever want to give up when your body let you down?
Duffy: Uh, I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to, you know, that I wouldn't get stuff back enough to sing. You were very helpful as a vocal coach. It's so frightening when anything goes wrong with your throat. And I went to Tom a long time and
Valerie: Tom's my teacher that taught the method that I taught you.
Duffy: And he finally suggested the doctor that I went to and said, you know, let's go see if anything's happening to get rid of these polyps. Well, it wasn't just polyps. I had had a burst cyst underneath my cords. So I was so fortunate that my doctor was so good.
Valerie: Yeah. It's so important. I think for people to know that, well, first of all, you just said it all.
It's so frightening when your voice doesn't work and this is your entire life. And I've been there too. Cause I had nodules and thankfully found a good doctor who said you don't need surgery. But sometimes you do. And so when surgery is called for, and you have a good doctor and then you have a good voice teacher who can help put you back together again after surgery, that's the team right there.
Two people that you can trust to get you healthy again, and keep you going and keep you from having more problems down the road.
Duffy: And Tom was wonderful, but I was so glad when he gave me your name. And when we met, because I really had more of a connection with you, I felt like you understood what I do and who I am more, you know, that I was never going to be an opera singer.
Valerie: Right? And that you are always going to be you, but I wanted you to be able to sing the way that you do, because you have a really, you have a very special gift.
Duffy: Thank you.
Valerie: You do, you make people feel something, and that is not something everyone who sings can do. You know, a lot of singers out there who have great technique and bore me to tears.
I wish during that time period that I had been able to see you perform live more often. I had a little one, so I wasn't going out very much. And the internet, wasn't really a thing back then. So I couldn't see your performances. And it's been amazing to go online now and see the way that you are with people in the audience. You are an incredible take, no prisoners kind of performer.
I mean, I think Ellen Whyte said Duffy's presence is more like an event. And what was it, Bo Diddley said something like she's dangerous.
You are big onstage. And it's been so great to get to know you off stage too, because you're different. I mean, I know you as a quieter, thoughtful, more introverted person.
And so I would love it if you would talk about the two Duffy's and do they get on with each other? I mean, how do you reconcile those two parts of yourself?
Duffy: The thing that. You keep pushing yourself when you like to perform, but there are those times, certain times that you think, I don't know if I'll ever get beyond this.
After my throat surgery, the doctor said, Oh, you'll be good. In 10 days to a couple of weeks. That's what he told me. And I had this concert that had been booked way ahead of time in Tacoma at a big arena. Oh God. And I went out there that day and I sounded like Minnie Mouse. I couldn't sing any of the low notes. And. I was in tears. It was packed.
Valerie: That's horrible. Yeah. You know, when those doctors say you're going to be good in X amount of time, he'd probably never heard you sing. He had no idea what kind of stress those vocal chords are under when you do Duffy, when you sing as big as you do. I can't believe that! Poor thing!
Duffy: I couldn't do anything. It took two years I feel to get my voice back to where I had control of it. And then the years of maturing and your body changes. With each thing, you go through medications, aging.
When I got the acoustic neuroma, the tumor that took my hearing, I thought I'm never going to be able to sing on stage. Cause I won't be able to hear. I won't know what's going on without being able to hear in both ears. Cause you lose your direction. And it's amazing how your brain compensates and how just doing something and working at it. I never think of it now. Really.
Valerie: You've totally adjusted to just being able to hear out of one ear. Now, do you use anything special on stage? Do you use in-ear monitors now or have you just adjusted to using monitors on stage? Do you wear something to protect that ear that you still have left?
Duffy: A lot of times we don't have good monitors. I mean, I learned not having good monitors. When I do have a monitor, I don't want anything in it, except my voice. And, you know, I don't need to, because I'm not hearing out of that other ear.
Right.
Valerie: So you make it work. You make it work with what you have. That's incredible. Yeah. You just keep on going.
The thing that I love watching you do on video is take that cordless mic out into the crowd and interact with people. I mean, for somebody who's shy, you just really rock the crowd and people love it. I can always tell.
So you've made nine records in your career, is that right?
Duffy: Yeah.
Recording vs. Live Performance
Valerie: At least. Besides other people's records, you've probably been on, I mean. But how do you approach recording versus live performance? Because you're such an amazing live performer. I'm wondering if it's difficult to capture that kind of energy in the studio.
Duffy: I think that has a lot more to do with the engineer. And you learn through the years because I, I think my favorite way is for everybody to be in the room recording live, and then I'll, they'll put me enough far away, so it doesn't bleed through. And then if there's something good, I'll keep it. If not, we go back and redo it.
Valerie: Is that because it's more like a live performance and you feel like you're connecting with the musicians.
Duffy: I like to see and feel the energy, the connection of the musicians. Because I like to make eye contact and joke with them and egg them on. And.
Valerie: All of that good stuff. Yeah.
Duffy: So that we're one big amoeba.
Valerie: Right? There's the interaction is what can make a performance really work. Yeah. And then you were talking about the engineer being a part of it. Is that because it's how they talk to you? Is it their kind of bedside manner? That it's important?
Duffy: Yeah. It's very much like when you get somebody who knows, who respects you and is willing to try your ideas. And doesn't talk down to you.
Valerie: And responds to the take that you just did in some kind of way.
Duffy: Yeah.
Valerie: That's positive. When we went out to New York to make our first record for Atlantic, we were in the Atlantic recording studios, which is kind of a historical spot to be making a record.
I was very intimidated and I hadn't really done all that much recording. And the engineer in the studio had done a gazillion records. And so when I sang my part, I could just tell he was bored. It was awful, you know. I mean, it was just, maybe he wasn't bored. Maybe he was just doing his job, but you know, that energy that I needed at that point, especially in my life to feel good about myself behind the mic, it wasn't there.
And then later on many, many, many years later, you know, I've been blessed to work with some engineers where their bedside manner, just the way they talk. But, well, that was great. Let's do one more. I think you can beat it, you know, really that helps. I would say.
Duffy: Not saying the bad things about it, just saying, well, I really like what you did there, but I think you could do it one more time.
And not ever saying, could you sing that more like... And then naming some singer that they like.
Valerie: Right. That never works. That's not pulling the best out of the singer there. No way.
Duffy: I mean, all the engineers I've worked with have been men and they don't do that to male performers. But they do do that to a woman performer, not all of them. I'm saying that there are
Valerie: But that's been obviously done to you.
Duffy: Yeah. And I get my hackles up. It's that equality thing.
Valerie: Yeah. And sometimes people don't even realize they're doing it, but it's there. It's in the mix so to speak.
Duffy: There little Missy. It'll be fine. Right?
Valerie: Yeah. Little lady.
Teatro ZinZanni
In 1998, you joined the circus, kind of. So, both you and Chris were hired by Teatro ZinZanni, which is a circus dinner theater that performed in San Francisco, Seattle, and Europe. Right?
Duffy: Well, a different one in Europe. Palazzo was in Europe. But the original Teatro ZinZanni was in Seattle, and Norm Langill had gone uh..
Valerie: Who's Norm Langill?
Duffy: Norm Langill was the creator of Bumbershoot.
Valerie: Huge Seattle festival. Right.
Duffy: Right. And he also was inspired to do Teatro ZinZanni. He saw Pomp, Duck, and Circumstance, which is a European Spiegeltent show. And Spiegeltent means tent of mirrors and light.
Valerie: Oh, cool.
Duffy: These beautiful little theaters are made to completely collapse and go city to city. They're all tongue and groove, wood and beveled mirrors and crystal and velvet and stained glass. They're really beautiful little jewel boxes.
Valerie: And so did you get to perform in one of these as Madame ZinZanni?
Duffy: Yes. So they called me in Portland and said our Madame has just left. Norm thought he would try putting the show on for three months in Seattle. And Anne Wilson was playing. She was actually, at that time she was playing the chanteuse..
Valerie: From Heart? That Ann Wilson?
Duffy: Yeah.
Valerie: Okay. Wow. And I read that Thelma Houston and Joan Baez also played this role?
Duffy: Yes. Yes. And Lillian Montavechi that just passed away two years ago. Lillian was the original Irma LeDuce on Broadway.
Valerie: Oh, wow. So he thought you would be a great Madame ZinZanni.
Duffy: They called me to come and audition in Seattle. I was living in Portland to see if I could do the chanteuse part. That's what Anne was doing. So I started out, I went and I was so nervous. I auditioned in Norm Durkee's living room for Norm Langell and Reenie Duff, they were the three that were the producers of Teatro ZinZanni.
Valerie: I can only imagine how intimidating that was. Especially when you knew that these other famous singers had been in this role before.
Duffy: The only one that had been in it so far was Ann Wilson.
Valerie: Oh, okay. So Thelma and Joan Baez hadn't played it yet.
Duffy: They came after me.
Valerie: Awesome.
Duffy: You know, I joined it and Chris stayed down in Portland. They just wanted me and I did it for eight months. And then they wanted me to sign up again. And I said, you know, this is a lot. They wanted me to go to San Francisco and do the tent there,.
Valerie: And be away for that long, a period of time again.
Duffy: Yeah. And I said, how about, I'll be your go to fill in person. You know, whenever you need somebody. And so for a few years I did that and then Elvez came to Seattle.
Valerie: What's Elvez. I don't know what that is.
Duffy: Elvez was the Mexican Elvis.
Valerie: Oh,
Duffy: He was also in Menudo. He had an art gallery in LA .And he's incredible. He's so funny. But I wanted another singer with Elvez. They wanted us to sing together and they needed a guitar player. So Chris got hired. And we did that show with Elvez.
Valerie: Under the Teatro ZinZanni tent.
Duffy: And by now they had two Spiegel tents, one in Seattle and one in San Francisco. And these Spiegel tents were original tents, all owned by a family in Belgium.
Valerie: Oh, how cool.
Well, so that must have changed your whole life. First of all, normally when you're gigging and touring, you're in a different city all the time. So going to one place and being in one role for that length of time, must've been kinda cool.
Duffy: It's really wonderful. And the people that I've met. The dozens of aerialists and contortionists and tap dancers and magicians and board balancers and chair balancers and drag Queens and dominatrix, who also does a little girl act - just this amazing cast. And opera singers, I sang was several different, incredible opera singers.
Valerie: They kind of change the show up all the time, depending on the people who are available to perform, is that right?
Duffy: They originally did like eight months at a time. And then they started doing rotating casts at three to four months at a time. And now they're back to longer. Course, I don't think any of the tents are going right now with what's going on. But they opened a tent in Chicago and we're getting ready to reopen a new tent in San Francisco. And then of course, Corona hit.
Valerie: So you're not doing those anymore, but they were a big part of your life for a long time.
Duffy: Absolutely. Um, met Diane Reeves and Thelma Houston and, you know, Joan Baez, my God. Uh, and Lillian Montevechi. And there's so many, so many incredible people that are family. Another family.
Babies, be born and hanging around the tent and, uh, people that we still keep in contact with in Germany and France and..
Valerie: What a wonderful life. Perfect for you with all of your costume experience and your cabaret singing and your way with audiences.
I can see why they kept hiring you back.
In 2010, a documentary was released about you called, Who Is Duffy Bishop and Why Is She Not World Famous? And it was shown at the mission theater here in Portland. And I was there and I remember thinking how crazy it was that you'd studied voice with me for all those years and yet I knew so little about your career. Like I said, you know, the internet, wasn't a thing yet.
And, um, anyway, I was so happy for you and mystified at the same time, because the music business is so frustrating. People with no talent succeed and those with overwhelming talent aren't appreciated, like they should be. And I know that that has to be frustrating for you too.
How did you perceive success when you started out and how do you perceive it now?
Duffy: Well, I think we all change as we age. I mean, when I was 18 or 19, I thought, Oh, I want to make it by the time I'm 20, otherwise I'll quit. I'm pushing it up and up. And then I just realized through the years that I had made it in a way that's much more important. Where you make friends for life. You make friends that have children, they bring their children, their children bring their children. You're a part of their lives in important ways. Weddings, birthdays, passings, you know, they have special songs that mean a lot to them.
Even when they made that documentary I thought it was very tongue in cheek to me. I thought it was funny because, you know, making it, I was too old by then. And Chris goes, You're always saying that. You've been saying that forever. I said, I lived in LA. I know the reality. Of it. I was old when I left LA, I'm not going to just make it in my late twenties.
They want somebody that they can mold. And now it's different because so many people start on the internet. Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and I think there's more opportunity. Because record companies don't have the same power that they used to. There's more opportunity for people to take their careers into their own hands.
You know, I'm 67 years old. The fact that I can still perform. That means I've made it. I'm not.
Valerie: Right on. Absolutely. I know. Cause you've made a life doing this. You have made a life doing this for over 45..
Duffy: Yup.
Valerie: ..years. That is successful. I think.
Duffy: I started playing folk guitar in fifth grade and started doing like people's weddings and things all through the years.
I mean, I've always gotten to play music and perform and do theater. And granted I'm not wealthy, but there are things that are more important to me than being wealthy. I've got enough that, you know, I can still get hired and play someplace and enjoy that place as a vacation too, you know?
Valerie: Right, right. And, and meet new people and grow your family some more.
So, if you could go back and talk to a younger version of yourself, what would you tell her about music as a career? And would you encourage her to do anything differently?
Duffy: I wouldn't encourage anybody to do anything differently because we do what we do that takes us where we are. And I always had the yes or no to things that I didn't want to do.
Valerie: Explain what you mean by that.
Duffy: Well, in LA, one of the engineers wanted us, the three girls to be more available for dating. And I said, okay, if this means that I'm not going to have an opportunity, then that's fine.
Valerie: Not going to do that extra anything to get the gig.
Duffy: No, no. And I don't feel the pressure to do things that I did when I was younger. Like, well, if I don't do that, are they ever going to call me again?
Valerie: Thank God for that. Right. There are some things about getting older that are helpful.
Duffy: And beautiful things that happened along the way.
The New Record
Valerie: So you have a new record out. It's called, “I’m Gonna Do What I want.” And it's been six years since you released your last album. Why make another record? What made you feel like going in the studio again?
Duffy: Uh, well, we always want to make records. So we picked this time in the height of, you know,
Valerie: Oh, all of the poor people who decided to make records to release this year. Ah!
Duffy: So we're, you know, we're playing with great musicians and we're writing and we just wanted to go in and record together. .
Valerie: It's like taking a snapshot of the moment, right?
Duffy: Absolutely. I mean, I'd love to record all the time, but we're always paying for it ourselves. And then trying to figure out how we're going to recoup.
Valerie: How to recoup.
Duffy: We figured we gotta plan. This is good, you know. We're going to release this record. And we went to Journey To Memphis and performed and came back. And our drummer, right before going to Journey to Memphis, our drummer had a medical emergency with..
Valerie: Oh no.
Duffy: Yeah. His legs were going numb and he had to have a bypass in his thighs in the major arteries. So he was out for that contest and was out for when we got back. And then, then the coronavirus came. and our bass player is a respiratory therapist.
So we've been on lockdown and hence the online release. We were going to release it months ago.
Valerie: And then tour because you guys play a lot. Yeah. You come back to Portland, you go all over the place in the summer months.
Duffy: Six months of gigs have been canceled because of the virus.
Valerie: Yeah. And you know, what's amazing is that you guys are still performing.
Duffy & Chris: Live On FB
I mean, during this COVID-19 time, you and Chris have continued to entertain us all every Friday night on a live Facebook concert from your home in Florida. And you don't just show up in your bathrobe and slippers. You guys make different backdrops, and you have themes, and you do teasers to let people know about the next show.
It's a ton of work, but you seem to be having a great time. What do you love about making music now and how are these shows? Um, I don't know what, what's it like to do online stuff in this time?
Duffy: I have to say too, that this week we took off, because I knew I was doing this show, and we did some other online announcing for some things that were coming up.
So after 14 shows we took one week off and then we'll go back to it next week, but..
Valerie: 14 weeks in a row. Wow. Way to go.
Duffy: And coming up with the promos has been fun. So we're starting to work on that in our brain again, because you know, we're grabbing stuff that we have around the house and I make stuff as props and costumes.
Valerie: One of my favorites was Olive Oil and Popeye. And the things that you made to fit on Chris's arms so that they look all bulked up like he was a sailor, sailor, man.
Duffy: Sailor hat and everything!
Valerie: You guys kill me. I just love it. So this is a very strange time, but you know, there have been a lot of tough times in your life.
Hope
What gives you hope?
Duffy: Other human beings that are kind and loving like-minded human beings. I have to believe that there's a lot more good people than bad. And that even though we learn slowly, we eventually learn and we can change social injustice and we can make this a more beautiful world. We can have regard for our environment and our fellow man kind. We can even the playing field and help those that need help.
You know, it's crazy, is it Jeff Bezos that's going to be the first trillionaire? And I'm just thinking, this is insane that there is so much money out there. And yet somehow it's not going to places that we need. Education, beautiful centers where kids can go after school to either get tutors or play games or learn a profession or be mentored by older people. Art and music helps so much with our socialization, and help us get through hard times, and get through the best of times.
I gain great solace from my beautiful friends who reach out and keep in touch. And dedicate themselves to making this a better world. And I also love our nature. And I pray that we'll be able to protect our world from fracking and air pollution and killing all the beautiful species of animals.
Hopefully we can get to a point where somebody doesn't think it's really fun to pay money, to go kill an endangered species somewhere in another country.
Valerie: Yeah. We have some work to do for sure
Duffy: Boy, howdy doody.
Valerie: But there are some amazing people in the world who are leading the way and who are doing great work. And who are encouraging all of us to be leaders and join in and do what we can do in our own spheres of influence. So..
Duffy: I guess keeping ourselves educated too. Like when you hear a news item investigate and see the root of it and see how we can help the solution. And don't just sit back and say, Oh, that's too bad. And vote!
Valerie: Yes. Yes, please. Everyone vote. Because our lives do depend on it.
Duffy: It does. I think of all the young people and the new little children, new babies being born. We want them to have a beautiful world. And somehow there's gotta be an equality so that if they're a trillionaire, a billionaire, they can put some of their money to use.
And many of them do.
Valerie: So honey, where can people who are listening, find you online?
Duffy: Oh my goodness. Uh, duffybishop.com. www.duffybishop.com. And also, uh, Duffy Bishop music page on Facebook.
And those shows, that will be starting up again next Friday, you don't have to be a Facebook person to go and log on and watch them. You know, you don't have to have a Facebook account.
Valerie: You can just go to the link.
Duffy: You can just go to the link and
Valerie: watch.
Cool. Is there a link separate for every show or is there, can I just send people to your Facebook page with the link there?
Duffy: I think that probably has the link. Okay. My incredible husband does so much more of the technical stuff. He does the brilliant stuff. I make posters and little pictures and make funny outfits to put on him. So..
Valerie: You make fantastically funny pictures of our president too. I just wanna say, I love them. So Duffy, it has been such a pleasure talking with you today. I could talk with you forever because you're my kind of gal. So thank you for being on the podcast and for being a bright light in the world.
Duffy: I love you. I love John. I love Malcolm. You've got a wonderful family. I'm glad you're doing what you're doing because you too encourage women everywhere.
Valerie: Ah, thanks.
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