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“Overall, the album is really about love…all kinds of love. Angry love, jealous love, tortured love, brotherly love, sisterly love and self love.” Ostensibly a commentary on her just-released second studio album, Love To Beg, those words are in effect a pronouncement by Dana Fuchs (pronounced Fyooks) on her life’s passion to express love – beyond the obvious “challenge of monogamy” – on a spiritual level through her music.
Fuchs, 35, was raised in the town of Wildwood near the Florida panhandle. Though her family was perpetually short of money, “some beat up guitars, coffee cans and wooden spoons” were the homespun adhesives for a powerful musical bond between Fuchs and her five older siblings.
A member of the First Baptist Gospel Choir at 12, a vocalist fronting a popular local band at 16, Fuchs’ considerable talents quickly outgrew the confines of Wildwood. It didn’t surprise anyone when, at 19, suitcase and $500 in hand, she headed north to New York City. Broke but determined, Fuchs toughed it out auditioning for bands on Manhattan’s Lower East Side until she encountered guitarist Jon Diamond who would become her best friend and musical partner in the grass roots Dana Fuchs Band. Their candid song writing dramatically empowered by Fuchs’ Joss Stone/Melissa Etheridge vocals and throw-everything-you’ve-got-into-it stage presence was soon selling out the best blues clubs in the city.
Rave reviews registered in the right ears and Fuchs was offered the lead role playing Janis Joplin four nights a week in the off-Broadway hit Love Janis. Bursting with individuality, subtly hinting at vocal influence like Etta James, Mavis Staples and Otis Redding, Fuchs made her grand entrance on CD in 2003 with Lonely for a Lifetime.
With her music and acting careers blossoming simultaneously, Fuchs was enjoying the best of both worlds. She composed and performed songs for the soundtrack for the 2006 independent film Sherrybaby including the opening and closing title numbers. In 2007, she received national recognition starring as Sadie in Across the Universe. Nominated for a Grammy and a Golden Globe Award, the motion picture features the music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War as backdrops for a romance between an upper-class American girl and a struggling artist from Liverpool.
2008 brought the release of her second album, Live in New York City and a cameo appearance in the film, New York, I Love You. Searching through the press reviews this earthy evaluation from the New York Press stands out. “Dana Fuchs just sings like a bastard.”
With the release of the aforementioned Love to Beg (Ruf Records), Fuchs is really hitting her stride and ready to take on the world. Still, the impression remains that she has never forgotten her days as a young girl in Florida and the vital role that music serves in bringing together an audience as family. “It doesn’t matter what (religion) you believe in,” she argues, “just believe in the love of it all. We need each other. We’re in this love together. I look forward to stomping, sweating, crying, laughing and rocking with you all.” www.danafuchs.com
Ken Wright
