DANNY WEST
The Mesa Press

Ear to the Ground
Lady Dottie And The Diamonds

For those who gather their first impression based on appearances, Lady Dottie And The Diamonds might be most complex book you’ve ever judged by its cover.

Dottie, who’s real name is Dorothy Mae Whitsett, is a knee-high boot wearing, tambourine shaking, 60-something black woman from Alabama. The Diamonds are comprised of four white guys that one would expect to be in a punk band, rather than one of the hardest working blues band in San Diego.

While working in the kitchen at The Mission café in North Park, Whitsett and Joey Guevara crossed paths and eventually formed a jazz duo. Over the next few years Whitsett and Guevara were joined by Steven Rey, Nathan Beale and a man known simply as T Bone; thus fleshing out the Lady Dottie And The Diamonds. Although blues and soul music are the most prominent influences in their music, a certain punk rock energy manages to rear its kicking and spitting head into the mix.

If Howlin Wolf and James Brown were to morph into one being, undergo a gender reassignment operation and then go through a phase where they only listened to Iggy Pop for a month, the result would be Lady Dottie And The Diamonds.

Listening to their music on the car stereo or your laptop simply does not do Lady Dottie And The Diamonds justice. Their music is something to be experienced; something to be felt. Lady Dottie And The Diamonds deliver a bar room boogie so intense that it could rattle the fillings out of your teeth. Their sets reach well into the witching hour, often lasting around four hours long.

Whitsett is no stranger to the struggles in life. As one of 14 children, she dropped out of middle school to raise her siblings. Before making a living as the bona-fide blues diva she is today, Whitsett has worked many jobs, including picking cotton in the fields of Talladega as a child, a chicken factory worker, a nanny, and a chef.

Lady Dottie And The Diamonds deliver a bar room boogie so intense that it could rattle the fillings out of your teeth. Their sets reach well into the witching hour, often lasting around four hours long.

Within the confines of the 12 bar blues structure and just a few chords, Lady Dottie And The Diamonds cast concert goers into a fit of foot stompin’, hip shaking blues fury. Dotties’ intense stage presence bombards you with a blues and soul potion, leaving you wondering who this lady is shaking a tambourine mean and fast in your face.

The band is currently on tour in Spain, but will return to playing at U31 every Monday night, Henry’s Pub every Wednesday, and The Harp in Ocean Beach every Thursday night once back in the states.