Have blues, will travel once more

Ann Rabson won’t be sitting at home feeling lonely after Saffire — the Uppity Blues Women finishes up its farewell tour.

In fact, Rabson won’t be doing much sitting at all, unless it’s on her piano bench. Once the tour puts the final flourish on the award-winning blues trio’s 25-year career with a Nov. 7 show at the University of Mary Washington, Rabson’s next few calendars already are spoken for.

“Saffire’s traveling very heavily until November, and my time is going to be taken up for a couple of years,” Rabson said.

The pianist, guitarist and vocalist and her Saffire partners — guitarist, vocalist and harmonica player Gaye Adegbalola and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Andra Faye — will stop by Gravity Lounge tonight to share music from their new album, “Havin’ the Last Word,” and favorites from past CDs before they dive full time into their busy solo careers.

“I guess we were all ready, and 25 years sounded like a good round number,” Rabson said with a husky chuckle.

There’s no love lost among these ladies, who will be helping out on each other’s CDs and other projects from time to time. Rabson said they remain supportive of each other’s work. The time simply had come for each to concentrate on her own projects.

For Rabson, that included a recent stint as a judge in an international band competition in Memphis and a trip to Ohio to play for a one-woman show at Dennison University that required her to perform “everything from gospel to Crosby, Stills and Nash.”

She also has a live album that’s set for release in a little more than a year, plus an instructional DVD “on how to play barrelhouse piano like I play,” she said.

“I’m touring pretty heavily on my own,” Rabson said.

Meanwhile, Faye has a busy schedule teaching music privately, leading workshops at West Virginia’s Augusta Heritage Blues Week and performing with musicians in the Fredericksburg area.

Adegbalola is touring behind her own recent solo album, “Gaye Without Shame,” and has included performances in Charlottesville. She juggles her performing career as a solo artist with her work in the duos Neo-Classic Blues with pianist Roddy Barnes and Blue Mama Black Son with her son, Juno. She also is an educator, speaker and workshop leader.

The Saffire story began back in the mid-1980s, when Rabson, a computer programmer, was teaching guitar lessons to Adegbalola, then an award-winning science teacher. Teacher and student decided to form their own duo, and fans have been following their musical adventures since the earliest albums, including “Middle Aged Blues” and “Hot Flash.”

Faye, who was a guest performer on the second album, “BroadCasting,” replaced original bassist Earlene Lewis in 1992 and performed on subsequent albums, which include “Cleaning House,” “Live and Uppity” and “Ain’t Gonna Hush!” She brings bass, mandolin, fiddle and guitar to the mix.

The musicians entertained with music by blues women who’d spoken up before them, including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Sippie Wallace. Audiences have enjoyed rediscovering the outspoken blues legends through the Uppity Blues Women’s new interpretations of their songs. But the trio also made an impact with original blues songs its members added to the tradition, including Adegbalola’s “Middle Aged Blues Boogie,” which won a W.C. Handy Award for best blues song in 1990.

Rabson has fond memories of past Charlottesville performances. Early in her musical career, she was raising her daughter and couldn’t venture too far from home. Charlottesville was one of her frequent stops.

“Charlottesville was sort of my home away from home. I played Charlottesville and D.C. and Richmond,” Rabson said. “I used to play the Corner Deli back in the ’70s. I used to play the Mousetrap.”

Rabson comes from a musical family that includes her sister, violinist Mimi Rabson; brother, pianist Steve Rabson; nephew, bassist Kenji Rabson; and daughter, multi-instrumentalist Liz Schnore. All appeared on her “In a Family Way” CD.

During the family CD project, “everybody under the age of 10 got sticks,” as in drumsticks, so nobody would feel left out.

So remember the name Georgia Rabson Schnore, because now “my 11-year-old granddaughter is a great drummer,” Rabson said. “I figure when it comes to Volume 2 of ‘In a Family Way,’ we can get the next generation involved.”

If things ever settle down, Rabson said, she would love to add a new instrument to her arsenal.

“I didn’t start playing piano until I was 35 years old,” she said. “That’s one thing I would love to do, is learn to play the upright bass. Maybe the mandolin.”

And when you’ve made a career out of being uppity, retirement isn’t in the game plan, Rabson said.

“I’m doing what I want to do,” she said. “I’m living what I want to do.”

But if you still can’t get enough of those Uppity Blues Women, keep an eye on iTunes, where a new documentary film, “Hot Flash,” will appear.