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Deborah Coleman

American singer-songwriter

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Deborah Coleman
Coleman in concert, 2009
Background information
Birth name	Deborah Francine Coleman
Born	(1956-10-03)October 3, 1956 Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Died	April 12, 2018(2018-04-12) (aged 61) Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.
Genres	Blues, rock
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1995–2018
Labels	Blind Pig, Telarc, JSP, Ruf

Deborah Coleman (October 3, 1956 – April 12, 2018)^[1][2] was an American blues musician. Coleman won the Orville Gibson Award for "Best Blues Guitarist, Female" in 2001,^[3] and was nominated for a W.C. Handy Blues Music Award nine times.^[4]

Coleman was born in Portsmouth, Virginia^[2] and raised in a music-loving military family that lived in San Diego, San Francisco, Bremerton, Washington, and the Chicago area.^{[citation needed]} With her father playing piano, two brothers on guitar, and a sister who played guitar and keyboards, Deborah picked up guitar at age eight.^[1] She graduated in 1974 from Deep Creek High SchoolinChesapeake, Virginia. She worked in various professions, including as a master electrician, before pursuing a career in the music business.^[2]

She played at top music venues: North Atlantic Blues Festival (2007), Waterfront Blues Festival (2002), the Monterey Jazz Festival (2001), Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival (2000), Sarasota Blues Festival (1999), the San Francisco Blues Festival (1999), and the Fountain Blues Festival (1998).

Coleman's Blind Pig debut, I Can't Lose (1997), was an album of ballads, blues stories, guitar playing and singing. Her version of Billie Holiday's "Fine and Mellow" was heard on college and public radio stations around the U.S. The album Soul Be It (2002) included the opener "Brick", "My Heart Bleeds Blue", "Don't Lie to Me," and a jump blues track, "I Believe". These was followed by What About Love? (2004) and Stop the Game (2007). Time Bomb (2007) featured three women blues musicians: Coleman, Sue Foley and Roxanne Potvin.^[5]

Coleman died unexpectedly on April 12, 2018, in a hospital in Norfolk, Virginia, from complications brought on by bronchitis and pneumonia.^[2][1]