8/3/2006

Mischa B. Vieira-Kirby

She lugs her own gear. She drives, rather than flies, to her shows. She laughs at the idea of an entourage.

Most anyone would pass Fiona Boyes on the street and not give her a second thought, but she is the hottest woman on the blues scene and, this weekend, she is playing in Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda.

The singer, songwriter and guitar player who won the Memphis International Blues Challenge in 2003 is on her first solo U.S. tour, promoting her newest album, "Lucky Thirteen."

Boyes will play a free acoustic lunch set at Fishermen's Village from noon to 2 p.m. today, and, in the evening, will plug in her electric guitar at Gatorz Bar & Grille, 3816 Tamiami Trail, to play with the Sean Chambers Band. On Saturday night, blues fans can find her at Buckingham Blues in Fort Myers.

In a phone interview before she hit the road to Venice for the first of her Florida performances this week at Stir the Soul Coffee House, Boyes said she was just waking up after three nights on the road in the Virginia area. She had jumped into those gigs without adjusting to the time change from her native Australia.

"I'm learning my American geography," she said.

The 47-year-old's new 15-track album was recorded in three days in Austin, Texas, at the end of January. It is a mix of all the American roots music styles that Boyes enjoys, from simple acoustic blues and Mississippi ragtime to the electric guitar-led big band sounds of New Orleans.

"I like to cover a bit of ground," Boyes said.

Boyes was joined on the album by Muddy Waters' slide guitarist "Steady Rollin" Bob Margolin and noted blues producer Mark "Kaz" Kazanoff, both of whom she met at the Memphis festival. The threesome was last heard together on Boyes' 2004 live recording, "Fiona Boyes & the Fortune Tellers: Live in Atlanta," which reached No. 2 on Chicago Blues Radio playlist charts, between blues godfathers Buddy Guy and B.B. King.

"It (the International Blues Fest) turned out to be quite a springboard for me," said Boyes, who has played professionally for 20 years, leading the Australian band The Mojos before turning to acoustic style and solo performances.

Since then, Boyes has performed with and gotten rave reviews from some of the best musicians in her industry, including Pinetop Perkins, Tommy Castro, The Legends of the Mississippi Delta and, recently, 2005 Grammy winner Alvin "Youngblood" Hart.

The long-haired blond with a big smile -- "I've been told I smile too much to be in a blues band," she said -- has a deep, wolfish voice that carries the heavy double entendres that make up her personal songs. She sings about a range of topics but always remains close to the tried-and-true blues subjects of love gone wrong and drinking, she jokes.

"It's dangerous to know me -- you might wind up in a song," she said.

Boyes was introduced to the music by a man when she was in college. She immediately loved the sound, and it filled a spot in her that couldn't ever be quenched by popular music.

"There was a musical void there waiting to be filled," said Boyes, who grew up listening to big band sounds and swing jazz. "When I found blues, I said, 'That's it!'"

At that same time, Boyes took up the guitar, acknowledging that she was starting from behind other performers in terms of experience and knowledge. But her passion for the music didn't let her become disenchanted with an industry where age and gender were not on her side.

"I loved it so much, I felt quite driven to it," she said. "As a songwriter, it's a fun challenge to take things happening today, in my life now, and put them into this old-timey sound. It's a fantastic thing."

Boyes's tour runs through August, ending in Montana. After that, she hops a plane to Melbourne, Australia, to start a series of shows where she'll be joined by her husband, Steve, a Baptist minister she calls "The Preacher."

"They do things a bit different there in Australia," she said, laughing, explaining her husband's ties to the bawdy blues scene.