My book The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu just got a brand-new blurb from hunky blues guitar god Joe Bonamassa for its upcoming eBook release Jan 2012 via Guitar International!

“Every blues guitarist needs to know blues history and where the blues are coming from. Debra’s book will teach you those things you really need to know.” – Joe Bonamassa

Thanks Joe! And a big shout-out to HP Newquist from the fantabulous National Guitar Museum for introducing us. Better brush up on my Freddie King and SRV in case there’s a jam session in my future!

For all the latest news on the upcoming release of The Language of the Blues eBook, please join the book’s new Facebook Page.

Hubert Selby Jr. – It Will Be Better Tomorrow is a beautiful film about a beautiful writer. It’s even narrated by my future husband Robert Downey Jr.

Can you figure out how this film is connected to Devi? While you’re ruminating, watch it right here.

Hint: Compare the film credits to the credits for “Demon In the Sack” from Get Free.

DEVI DRUMMER JOHN HUMMEL

Yes, it’s true, DEVI drummer John Hummel played drums on LADY GAGA’s track “Rock Show” from Disco Heaven: The Fame B=2.0.

Our beautiful drummer also played on her beautiful songs “Fooled Me Again, Honest Eyes” and “Wonderful.” Check them out and you’ll hear John’s deep, heavy-ass groove.

If you wanna hear John REALLY beat the crap out of the drums, try the DEVI track “Demon In The Sack” (listen close in the headphones for an aural treat tucked under the guitar solo).

Here’s what John has to say about playing with Lady Gaga:

Q: How did you wind up playing on several early Lady Gaga songs?

John: My house was on the market back in 2006 and [Gaga's then-boyfriend/producer] Rob Fusari came to look at at it. I was playing my drums and didn’t realize the real estate agent had brought someone in to see it. Rob heard me playing and said he was a producer and asked me if I’d like to do some session work for him, so we exchanged phone numbers. I had no idea who he was at the time. He started hiring me to lay down drum tracks for some different artists he was developing at the time at his studio. One of those artists was Stefani/Lady Gaga.

Q: Did you meet her? What was she like at that time?

John: Yes, I first met her at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, at that time I’d already laid down some drums on a couple of her songs, but hadn’t met her yet. She came to see this kid Tom (another artist Rob was producing) perform, and I was drumming for him on the gig. She was at some of our recording sessions after that. I really liked her a lot, she was really fun to work with, really enthusiastic and excited, great energy, and obviously a really talented musician, especially for her age. I think she was like 20 at the time.

LADY GAGA, ROB FUSARI

Q: I can definitely hear your heavy groove on these songs. Did you get to use your favorite Ludwig kit? What kind of direction did Rob give you, as far as what to play?

John: No, it’s not my kit, but it was a Ludwig–a little Ringo style Fab Four set up. I always used my own snare drum though. I used a few different ones, all Ludwigs. I mostly used a late ’70s Supraphonic 402, but the one that’s actually on The Fame is an 1966 Acrolite.

Rob would usually play me rough tracks of the songs with either a click or a loop, and just have me play what came naturally. He really didn’t give a lot of direction. I really enjoyed working with him, he always made things feel so easy, and he made that tiny drumkit sound ten times it’s size!

Q. What was her look at that time? Had she gone blonde and gotten into her style yet?

John: She looked a lot different; her hair was dark, long and straight with bangs.

It’s so fun and inspiring to hear Lady Gaga in a more “rock” context on these songs – she sounded fantastic even then! And John’s playing always turns me on, even when he’s playing with another girl.

DAVE BILE did a cool video remix of DEVI’s All That I Need video, adding some after-effects to take it to a darker, moodier, grittier place. We love it!

Dave is the tattooed, dreadlocked, killer guitarist for BILE and VULGARAS, two of my fiercest, favorite bands (my brother SERVO plays drums in both!).

Dave is also a very talented director– check out his video for the haunting Vulgaras song Bruja Rising (that’s my brother in the mohawk).

I’m psyched to announce that not only did Dave shoot DEVI’s show at Arlene’s Grocery 2 weeks ago, he’s also going to make a video for “When It Comes Down”. Stay tuned for live video (finally!) plus a great concept video for WICD.

GET FREE is Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. That means you can use music (and videos!) from the album in remixes, mashups etc. as long as you credit the band (BY), don’t sell (NC=Non Commercial) and let others use what you make (SA=Share Alike). Have at it!

“There are so many ways covering a song of this magnitude could’ve gone wrong for any band, but Devi hits the nail on the head with this creative, yet respectful, interpretation. This is not just Devi playing Neil Young, this is Neil Young being played through Devi, and the end result is absolutely fantastic.” – Guitar International

I think “The Needle and the Damage Done” is one of the most perfect songs ever written. Neil Young didn’t even need three minutes to paint a haunting picture of junkiedom; the Harvest version is 2:17.

We never intended to cover it, let alone record a 6:21 rock version. But I played the intro one day in rehearsal while John was adjusting the cymbals to his liking. Next thing I knew, Dan and John had kicked in, and the whole thing fell together, and then moved into this sprawling psychedelic jam.

Still, I figured that would be the end of it. You just don’t want to touch such an iconic song.

But when Devi was recording basic tracks for Get Free, we threw “Needle” down at the end of the night, just for the heck of it. I guess after recording for 12 hours we were ready to cut loose, because the jam really took off.

Later, at SST, a very patient Jerry Ramos engineered til 3 am, while I added ambient layers of acoustic and electric guitars. I wanted to create the kind of album closer that would send the listener drifting off to dreamland under the headphones. You’ll have to let me know if it works for you.

I first heard “Needle” at 16, when I fell helplessly in love with my high school’s golden boy. Mike was six feet of slim-hipped, long-legged basketball star charm, with a hippie soul. Girls sighed as he ambled down our preppy halls in worn Levis and a faded polo shirt, curls the color of dark honey brushing his broad shoulders.

I sat behind him in math class, and never dared imagine he’d notice nerdy little me. But one day he turned around, ran a finger up my shin (freshly shaved, thank God), looked into my eyes and murmured, “Mmm, sexy.” Uh oh. I was a goner.

Knowing him as well as I do now, I’m sure he did it mostly just to see the look on my face. But our little moment gave me the courage to sit that afternoon with the clutch of girls who gathered around Mike in the courtyard after lunch to listen to him strum his Yamaha and sing  “Needle,” “Heart of Gold,” and “If” by Bread (that was a swooner!).

I bought Harvest that weekend, and fell in love with Neil, too.

Somehow, Mike and I connected. We had both skipped a grade, were in deep, embattled conflict with our moms, and loved music passionately. Mike had a (tall, gorgeous) girlfriend but we began hanging out, and I went on agonizing breakup watch.

We fell into a pattern – Friday afternoons I’d climb into his battered white Valiant. We’d go to McDonalds for vanilla shakes and fries, and then to his family’s home on River Road, where he’d play me his faves–one incredible ’70s-era singer/songwriter after the next, from Neil to Dan Fogelberg–and serenade me with his own beautiful renditions.

Yes, he and the girlfriend finally broke up; yes, he and I finally made out; and yes, he broke my heart by taking up with the school femme fatale two weeks later.

I forgave him when he showed up at my college dorm room that fall. We stayed friends-who-fool-around-sometimes through the next four years, even as he battled personal demons and the pull of drugs, which almost dragged him under.

For years, he stayed safe in adulthood and a flourishing executive career, visiting me in NYC every August for the US Open. But one year another tall, gorgeous girlfriend busted his heart, and he didn’t come. And the pull came back.

When his brother called, I knew the news was bad. A combo of hard drugs, a vicious bar punch, and cracking his head on an unforgiving wood corner on his way to the floor left Mike near death, deep in a coma.

There he stayed for a month, and then one day he was back, but how back, no one knew. His brother called again to say that when the doctors brought in a tray of variously shaped blocks, to test whether Mike could distinguish colors and shapes, he put them in his mouth, like a toddler.

Mike fought his way home, though, losing his sense of taste, hearing in one ear, peripheral vision and some frontal lobe activity, but not his sense of humor, his foxiness, or his passion for music. He even struggled through finishing his MBA. One strange side effect was that music began pouring through him again. He could pick up the guitar and effortlessly perform a huge catalog of songs he hadn’t played in a decade.

“How the heck do you remember the chords to all those songs after all this time?” I asked him, when I came to his parents’ home to see him.

“I have no idea,” he replied, chuckling.

The pull came back, too, and, combined with a little less impulse control, landed him in jail a few times. I wrote “When It Comes Down” (Get Free, track 2) for him after that, but honestly, I don’t care what trouble he gets in. I’m just happy he can still sing to me.