Lady Dottie finds new career fronting soul-rock band
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Says Lady Dottie of her bandmates in the Diamonds: "With these young guys, they're teaching me and I'm teaching them. Gospel and blues is what I grew up on, not the rock 'n' roll. Lady Dottie & the Diamonds
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Valley View Casino, 16300 Nyemii Pass Rd., Valley Center
Admission: Free
Info: (866) 843-9946
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego
Admission: $12
Info: (619) 232-4355
Web: ladydottieandthediamonds.com
JIM TRAGESER - Staff Writer
It was picking cotton that inspired her to come to San Diego, and her cooking skills that actually brought her here.
So there's a bit of good luck and maybe even a touch of fate that have led to Dorothy Mae "Lady Dottie" Whitsett becoming one of the most popular musicians in San Diego County.
Whitsett, whose Lady Dottie & the Diamonds plays at Valley View Casino Saturday night, said she first dreamed of moving to California as a child while working in the fields of her native Alabama.
"Ever since I was a little girl, I was always wanting to come to California," Whitsett said by phone last week from her San Diego home. "I used to stand in the fields picking cotton and see the planes going overhead and say, 'that's going to be me someday.'"
It wasn't until 1984, though, that she found her way to San Diego.
"I was working as a gourmet chef in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Abbey. I transferred to the Abbey in San Diego. I came here when they first opened up."
Now retired from her culinary career, Whitsett has put a renewed focus on her music ---- a passion she's always nurtured, but didn't plan on making into a second career.
Growing up the fourth of 13 children, Whitsett said her introduction to music came in church.
"I started in church. The Lord gave me the gift. I didn't really have to take lessons, I feel like I know what to do."
Whitsett said her parents were pretty strict, and so she was an adult before she heard any popular, non-sacred music.
"I was 20 before the devil got a hold of me!" she said, laughing, about her family's view of non-church music.
During travels that took her from Alabama to New York, New Jersey and then Atlanta, Whitsett said she sang in a variety of local blues bands wherever she was.
"I feel like I've been singing professionally all my life; I'm just now getting paid," she said of her musical career.
As for the current, and wildly popular, band, Lady Dottie & The Diamonds, Whitsett said it grew out of a jazz duo she formed with keyboardist Joey Guevara.
"The piano player, Joe, we've been together about 12 years," she said. "I met him down at the Bayou (Bar & Grill). I was working the kitchen and he was playing in the bar by himself, and I used to come out when I finished work and just try to sing some with him. That's how we started. The other guys came along in the last five years."
Besides Whitsett and Guevara, the band has several of Guevara's bandmates from local rock band Operator X: Stephen Rey on bass and Brian Cantrell on drums. Dirty Sweet's Nathan Beale is one of two guitarists, the other being Isaiah Mitchell. Dan Guevara plays horns.
The calling card of Lady Dottie & The Diamonds ---- besides the dance-ready music they play, seamlessly blending '60s R&B and soul with straight-ahead rock 'n' roll (think Tina Turner sitting in with Blind Faith or Creedence Clearwater Revival) ---- is the combination of a middle-aged black woman fronting a band of young white guys.
But Whitsett says the band's makeup was more accident than design ---- she was looking for musicians with a high energy level who could play blues, jazz, soul and rock, and the members of the band all ended up being people Guevara knew, or friends of friends.
"I was singing with a lot of bands in San Diego years ago that do jazz. But I knew I could do blues, and when I found the guys are as good as they are, we started going more into the blues.
"With these young guys, they're teaching me and I'm teaching them. Gospel and blues is what I grew up on, not the rock 'n' roll."
With their second CD coming out this weekend, their regular weekly show at the Tower Bar in San Diego, and some mini-tours as far afield as San Francisco, Whitsett said she's curious to see where it all leads.
"We've not really put it out yet," Whitsett said of the new CD. "Like my momma said, we'll see."
But whether Lady Dottie & The Diamonds becomes the next big thing or not, Whitsett said the band's infectious dance grooves will continue. Giving listeners a good time is the band's only real aim, and Whitsett said the band members know they've got that part down.
"Everybody who comes gets up and dances. They don't feel like they can't get up and dance. They just come right in the door wiggling, 'cause they know they're going to get something good."
Lady Dottie & the Diamonds
When: 4 p.m. Saturday
Where: Valley View Casino, 16300 Nyemii Pass Rd., Valley Center
Admission: Free
Info: (866) 843-9946
When: 9 p.m. Saturday
Where: The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd., San Diego
Admission: $12
info: (619) 232-4355
Web: ladydottieandthediamonds.com
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