San Diego Union Tribune December 2004

The Best 10 Bands in San Diego

Lady Dottie and the Diamonds

Who They Are: Dorothy Mae Whitsett, vocals, Joe Guevara, piano-vocals, Steven Rey, stand-up bass, Nate Beale, guitar, Andy Robillard, drums

What They Play: Old-fashioned blues with a modern twist

Latest Release: None; this is the kind of music you need to hear live.

One the Web: www.myspace.com/ladydottieandthediamonds

Next Local Gig: Every Monday night at the Tower Bar on University Ave., Wednesday nights at Henry’s Pub in the Gaslamp.

The Skinny: Without even realizing it, 60-year-old Whitsett has created a San Diego supergroup.  Her old-fashioned blues band, Lady Dottie and the Diamonds, is made up, not of aging blues rockers, but of young, hipster musicians.

 But Whitsett, a cook at the Mission Café, doesn’t care that she’s playing with members from Gogogo Airheart and Jejune.  She’s just interested in their skills.

 “The only time we practice is when we’re playing,” she says. “Well, really they all just follow me.”

 While the band doesn’t perform original music, its covers of Etta James and Aretha Franklin songs are gritty and passionate enough to sound like the real thing. The band fuses a rollicking piano with sultry stand-up bass, but the show-stealer is the Alabama-bred Whitsett. Her voice sounds like a combination of all the greatest blues albums you’ve ever heard.

“I’ve been singing all my life,” she said. “Not in a money-making way; I’ve just been singing the blues for fun. That’s sufficient enough for me.”

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