BWW Interviews: SABRINA DUKE's Sense of Place

Sabrina Duke sits at a raised table in her York City home. Engaging even after a long day of teaching, she is enthused and willing to talk about her music, her career, and the one thing I took away without mention: her sense of place.

Tall, thin, blonde and with all class, Duke reflected on a career that has taken her from the worlds of cover bands and punk to the R&B and soul that defines her current band, whether as duo, trio or full ensemble. But Duke doesn't want to be classified as a specific singer, which brings us right to her self-titled CD, which came out in 2013.

The collection of tracks written with her guitarist and longtime collaborator Frank Tittiger represents a large part of Duke's career. "Each song is different," Duke says. "It's not like every single song is a blues or soul song. There are so many genres of music being woven into each song, and it's more or less me just sharing a story. I'm not trying to pigeonhole what I'm doing and say I only do this kind of genre, this kind of music."

Eclectic is the word Duke uses to describe the album, and that's perfectly correct. Duke described the project: "It was something I wanted to do for a very long time," she says, "but I wanted to do it on my terms. I wanted it to be my influence and within my control and I finally found myself able to do that. I could go into the studio and say, 'I want to do these songs, this is how I want it to sound', and be a part of that process."

The songs themselves have varied degrees, at least lyrically. "All are songs I've written with Frank," Duke explains, "some of them are from ten years ago, just kind of like a collection of originals that I've been writing the past 15 years."

Duke says it wasn't hard to pick these tracks. "I've been playing them for a while, so I knew which ones meant something to me, had good reactions," she says. "There were songs on here that don't really speak to my style now, but it was meaningful then. And I've had many people love that song so much that I can't leave this off the album."

One track that seems to define Duke's sound in part is "Knockin' On Doors." "(It) is a really special song because it is the first song I wrote with Frank after my three-year hiatus. I had been in a difficult relationship, and my music kind of went to the back burner. Once that relationship ended and I contacted frank, and I 'm like, 'You know, I missed this so much, let's get back together, let's write again'."

We sat down, I had these lyrics and this melody, and the song is basically about coming out of this relationship and knowing it's a bad thing and trying to find a way back in again. I was knocking on different people's doors.

A song of note is the country-sounding "5 Questions," into which Duke gave some insight. "This song was being written for Nashville actually," Duke explained. "We had tossed around the idea of going the country route, like a blues kind of country...so we wrote that song and I decided I didn't want to do Nashville, but we kept this song because it did speak to so many people. What's fun now is when we perform the song, we perform it reggae style, just because it fits with the energy of our live performances."

The cover likely brings to mind Mariah Carey, with the classic mic shot. Carey is one of Duke's influences, but they run much deeper. "I absolutely loved music from the get-go," Duke explains. "MTV came out and I was glued to the music videos, Janet (and Michael) Jackson, Madonna, Joan Jett, Hall & Oates. Since I was two, three years old I was singing, watching myself in a mirror, performing, standing on top of tables belting out tunes as loud as I possibly could."

Duke is continuously inspired, however, as Carey, En Vogue, Whitney Houston and others came into their own. Duke also listed Aretha Franklin and Etta James, but adds, "No Doubt influenced me. I love Ryan Adams, Amy Winehouse; I never stop evolving, I feel as an artist because there's so much to hear."

Duke's history as a singer came early in cover bands, and then she found herself in the group Jack Lord's Hair. "My manager at the time hooked me up with this band," Duke recalls. "They were trying to switch it up by going with a female lead singer instead of a male, and it was a lot of fun. Really high energy, kind of like No Doubt without the horns.

"The coolest thing we did was we played the Vans Warped tour in 1997 (in Pittsburgh). We got to share stages with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Blink 182. It wasn't necessary my style but I was 17, so I didn't know what my style was."

Duke also got to take the stage of CBGB's, with her next original band, Honeyfinger. "I had no idea what CBGB's was," Duke admits, "it might have been my first trip to New York City as well. So I was like into New York City on a bus at night, into the club, play the show and then leave.

One band on the card that night was a certain Canadian rock group. "There was a list of bands on the schedule," Duke recalled. "Nickelback was playing the same stage, same night."

The early experiences as a teenager might well have been cool, but they also served to give Duke an education in music, and the business. About this, Duke is honest in her feelings. "Once I was 21," she says, "it was like, 'so what'? It wasn't significant, turning that age for me, because I was used to it already, and being around older people. It kept me out of trouble," Duke admits, but it also matured me and did give me that experience. It allowed me to figure out what I wanted at a very young age. At 23 I'd already decided I did not want to pursue music as a career, just from the traveling, and the different bands, and the head-butting and the management, and you need to give up control of this and this and this. I don't see myself traveling or selling my soul to become famous."

At that age, Duke had a record deal on the table in Nashville to do a country album. She turned it down, after a talk with different individuals, including a producer who worked with Reba McEntire among others. According to Duke, he said, "You're gonna sign a contract, move down here, waitress, perform and record these songs for a while."

"I can't do it," was Duke's reaction. "I needed to stick to my guns and do what was in my heart."

You don't find too many 23-year-olds of either sex saying that. There's Duke's sense of place.

"I'm a control freak," Duke freely admits, "and when it comes to my music, even more so. I try to be flexible, but I kind of feel like I know what I want to do with my music. What's really the point of allowing someone else to control that, when it's supposed to be a form of expression? Granted I'm not signed to a label or being played on the radio, so there's not gonna be any of that big-time thing, but you've got to be happy."

The question of balance for Duke and her family also comes in. "It's hard," Duke says. "My son is my first priority, my career teaching, which I absolutely love, is my second, and music has to be my third. I'm okay with that, because it's easy to fit music in."

Duke will be playing shows through the fall and winter around the York area. She will also appear at the Gettysburg Rocks event for the Four Diamonds Fund in February. In that month, she'll also play for the first time at Harrisburg's River City Blues Club.

"I'm just trying to share my stories and my talent and music. What you're hearing something that really happened I my life. I'm just trying to share my stories and my talent though music. When you're listening to one of my songs, it's something that really happened in my life. It's my passion coming through."

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