Donna Hopkins Band

Donna Hopkins was only 14, growing up in Arab (pronounced AIR-rab), Alabama, when she began sneaking out of the house to play guitar in bars in nearby Huntsville and Muscle Shoals. It wasn't long before she left home for good, relocating to Birmingham and later to Nashville. She then spent eight years on the road, traveling for much of that time in the Dakotas, Montana and in Las Vegas, before settling in Atlanta in the late '90s.

If age 14 seems a bit young to make a commitment to a career and a lifestyle, consider that Donna, whose blues band performs continually, has music in her blood dating back three generations. "My great grandfather, my grandfather, and my mother were all musicians," Donna recalls. "My grandfather, Tip Barbee, played bluegrass and blues kind of stuff. I remember going to hear him play on Saturday nights." Donna also remembers her mother playing guitar and organ back in the late '60s and early '70s, clad in mini skirt and go-go boots. In keeping with the family tradition, Donna's daughter India also makes an appearance on Donna's album, sharing vocals with her mom on "Everything Money Can't Buy," a cut selected by Atlanta Magazine for the first annual Atlanta Artist compilation CD.

Donna Hopkins aims for a raw, old-school approach to blues, armed only with a vintage Gibson Les Paul Custom, a guitar cable and an old tube amp (that's vacuum tube, by the way, versus the more contemporary solid-state amplifiers). She continues to maintain and nurture her own tradition of gigging and travel, which includes having completed a month-long tour of Europe, where she played blues festivals and clubs in Norway, Denmark, Sweden and France. "I just totally fell in love with Europe," she says. "I want to go back. It's amazing how well they treat you. We wish for that over here." Scandinavian countries, ironically, have a profound appreciation for blues. "Norway and Denmark were the most incredible places for the blues," she says. "They've really studied the stuff."