Music: Keys to the highway

Drafts of cold air could be felt even back by the bar area at Famous Dave's in Calhoun Square, where Davina Sowers finally sat down following her fifth or sixth hour of performance in a 14- or 15-hour span.

"There actually is a method to this madness," she said, referring to her band Davina & the Vagabonds' busy winter schedule.

You'd think that a woman who moved to the Twin Cities from Key West, Fla., would choose not to leave her house this time of year unless it was to get on a plane headed south. Instead, the booming-voiced singer/pianist played four gigs around town over the past week with her bouncy, guitarless blues quintet. She and the guys have 17 more booked between now and the end of February.

Talk about striking while the iron's hot -- even when it's below zero, as it was around Famous Dave's so-called Butt Rockin' Blues Brunch two Sundays ago (an awkward name for any kind of food event, don't you think?).

"It's good for me to get out even when it's like this outside, because I'm the poster child for melancholy women," Sowers, 29, quipped.

There's a more pressing reason for her insanely hectic calendar, though: "I decided I'm gonna make a go of it for at least one solid year," she said firmly.

Sowers made a big splash at Duluth's Bayfront Blues Festival in 2006 and has been riding a growing wave ever since. She quit her waitress job at Applebee's last year. This year, she's performing at a variety of places in different parts of the metro area, and she mixes up her musical styles at each place -- i.e., a jazzier set at the Dakota or Rossi's, a bluesier set at Famous Dave's or the Narrows (all venues in the past month's rotation).

The bassist in the group, Michael Carvale, is the guy to thank for bringing Sowers to Minnesota. Now her husband, he met her while performing in Key West with the Lamont Cranston Band, with whom she made her first few area appearances after moving here three years ago.

"She came up here in the bitter cold of February, and the first gigs she went to were one in Fargo and another at the VFW Hall in Hibbing," he recalled. "And she stayed anyway."

Sowers actually grew up in industrial Altoona, Pa., where her mom's fourth husband (her adopted father) got her hooked on old blues and jazz recordings that he played on his vintage Victrola record player. You can hear the rustic influence in her music. You can see the influence of some of the other music she grew up on.

"I also got way into bands like Bauhaus, Sisters of Mercy and Front 242," she admitted, looking down at her tattooed arms under a head of jet-black hair.

In Key West, Sowers spent several years busking on the streets with a guitar, playing to tourists for tips. The Vagabonds are her first band, hard to believe when you see her confidently fronting them. They've already recorded two albums, both of which include cover tunes -- ranging from "Hey Good Lookin'" and "I'd Rather Go Blind" to way-oldies like "St. James Infirmary" -- but are loaded more heavily with original songs, about nine or 10 per CD.

Or she used to, anyway.

Ellis' big 'Break' Local coffeehouse folk vet Ellis has a CD-release party Saturday at the Cedar Cultural Center for "Break the Spell," the album she made last year in New York with Marc Cohn's regular producer, Ben Wisch. Getting to work with Wisch was a wish come true, Ellis said, but it came at a price -- a big price, in fact. Without a label, the proudly DIY singer put up the money for the studio sessions by soliciting money from some of her most trusted sources: fans.

"They're my extended record company of sorts," Ellis joked about the "handful" of devotees who loaned her funds, which she now plans to pay back through CD sales -- just like a record label.

Production-wise, the disc is a noticeable step up from previous discs, offering dramatic turns on piano, organ and electric guitar in songs such as the opener "How Would It Be" and the antiwar song "City on Fire." But it doesn't sacrifice Ellis' stark appeal. These are actually some of her most intimate songs yet.

"I felt strongly about these songs, and I knew it would take some time to get them right in the studio. But it was time well spent."

Stasiu's fracas The owner of Stasiu's Place tried to quell backlash against his Nordeast bar after an incident last Friday that he admits was "horrible all-around."

That night's headliners, Baby Guts and A Paper Cut Band, pulled out after a patron reportedly yelled homophobic slurs and physically harassed the solo opening performer, Coyotes. Several witnesses, including Guilt Ridden Pop label proprietor Keith Moran -- who wrote about the incident on the message board at modern-radio.com -- faulted the club for not defusing the situation or ejecting the patron, a regular there.

"[It] was the first time I have ever advised a band not to play a show," said Moran, who was careful not to blame Stasiu's booker Christy Hunt.

Stasiu's owner Brad Schutte said the troublesome patron "definitely crossed the line" but was too big to eject, and left soon after the incident.

"It's a bar -- these things happen," Schutte said. "I'm a guy that was going to see Black Flag at Duffy's when I was 12. I support bands. I don't support homophobia."

XL Recordings has set an April 8 release date for Tapes 'N Tapes' David Fridmann-produced sophomore album, "Walk It Off." The band will return to Texas for the South by Southwest Conference in March to kick-start the promotion. ... Motion City Soundtrack's next outing is a big one: The Honda Civic Tour, opening for Panic! at the Disco. They land at the Myth on May 27.