By Wayne Laepple
WILLIAMSPORT — When Saffire the Uppity Blueswomen come to Williamsport next week, it will be a bittersweet homecoming. The Sept. 18 performance, at 7:30 p.m. at Site B, 618 Cemetery St., is Saffire’s swan song. After 25 years, the three women who make up this dynamite act are going their separate ways.
It all ends on Nov. 7 in Fredericksburg, Va., their hometown, with a final show at Mary Washington University.
“We love Billtown,” said Gaye Adegbalola by phone from her Fredericksburg home. “Our manager, Bonnie Tallman, lives there, and we’ve had wonderful times in Williamsport.”
Saffire has appeared at Penn College, at the Genetti Hotel and at the Billtown Blues Festival during the 25 years they’ve performed together. Adegbalola reckons the trio has appeared in Williamsport nearly a dozen times.
She recalled their first appearance at one of the early Billtown Blues events.
“It was held at a farm, and the porch of the farmhouse was the stage,” she said. “It had been raining, and I was barefoot. I jumped off the stage and got shocked by the microphone. It was an electrifying experience.”
Saffire has developed a reputation for their brassy, take-no-prisoners approach to blues music, and with seven albums to their credit and thousands of fans, they’re going out on a high note.
The “Havin’ the Last Word Tour” is just that — their last words as a trio. Adegbalola wrote four of the songs on the album, including “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and “Bald Eagle Blues.”
“In these songs, as in others I’ve written, I’m embracing my age,” she said. “They’re songs of self-love. So many women go through a downer when that first gray hair appears.”
A former teacher (she was once Virginia Teacher of the Year) and a cancer survivor, Adegbalola’s songs range from the hysterical “School Teacher Blues” to the raunchy “Silver Beaver” (I’ll leave that one to your imagination) to the aged chestnut “Sweet Black Angel.”
“These songs are part of who we are,” she said. “We’re an extension of the blueswomen of the ’20s and ’30s, women who spoke their minds, like Sippie Wallace and Alberta Hunter.”
One of her most popular songs, one requested by many audiences, is “Middle-Aged Blues Boogie,” about an older woman marrying a younger man.
“That was quite revolutionary when I wrote it back in 1980, before Saffire got started,” she said.
The other members of Saffire, pianist Ann Rabson and multi-instrumentalist Andra Faye, also write songs, and when these three women take the stage, anything can happen.
Rabson specializes in barrelhouse piano, singing old-time blues by the masters of genre, but she’s no slouch as a songwriter. She wrote or co-wrote four songs on the current album, including “The Bad Times,” the story of her triumph over cancer. Andra Faye came to Saffire from country music, and her mandolin, fiddle and bass chops are incredible. When this lady sings Willie Nelson’s “Crazy,” she makes strong men weep. Her songs, such as “Blue Lullaby” and “Too Much Butt” on this album show her talent as a song-writer as well.
“We don’t ever use a set list,” said Adegbalola. “We try to read our audience and do songs we think will work with them.”
Saffire shows are always rollicking, joyful gatherings, and their affection for each other, their music and their audiences is always obvious. Whether playing an intimate club or a festival venue, they are always accessible, and their message of sisterhood, strength and joy always shines through.
“Being OK with who you are is our message,” said Adegbalola, who is already moving on to a new-to-her format, an electric blues band, while she considers other options. “I’ll keep writing and performing. Saffire is going out with a bang.”
