by Frank Matheis
“You have to play the truth.”
The Windy City of Chicago is known mostly for its world-renowned Chicago Blues style, but it’s not a heavy acoustic scene. There are nonetheless a few fine acoustic blues musicians in Chicago, like Frutland Jackson, Diamond Jim Greene and Jimmie Burns (often but not always acoustic) and the brilliant bard Donna Herula. She is one of the women in a field dominated by men, making her mark on the acoustic genre.
Thecountryblues.com was reminded of the blues chanteuse when she appeared in a radio show performance video with Louisiana bluesman Marcus “Mookie” Cartwright where she shined as accompanying slide guitarist on King Biscuit Time – KFFA Radio at the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Arkansas on April 12, 2019 with the late, great Sonny “Sunshine” Payne.
The singer/songwriter and fingerstyle and slide guitarist has paid her dues and she is one of the few women players in the genre, and a swift player at that. Mostly she leans to Delta Blues but she also masters the intricate Piedmont style fingerpicking with alternating bass. By now, Donna Herula has made a notable name for herself. She played as far away as South Africa and she was a guitar teacher at the prestigious Old Town School of Folk Music. She was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame and played at the Chicago Blues Festival, but the best is yet to come as her music career is in ascent. All that and she holds a demanding day job as a mental health counselor and licensed family therapist. As they say, if you want something done go to the busy people.
She’s the perfect role model example of today’s blues women – dignified, intelligent, charming and very serious about the music.
Thecountryblues.com reached the musico by phone in her home in Chicago during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown on April 19, 2020 to let her tell her story:
Donna Herula: “I’m in Chicago – everybody around me plays Chicago blues. There are so many great acoustic blues players and I don’t think they get as much recognition as the electric players. Playing at the Buddy Guy’s Legends Blues Club in Chicago has helped my style, because I play a lot of Delta blues and country blues… I just fell in love with slide. I love slide guitar, so I’m a passionate aficionado. I hear slide in my ears. I also like the fingerpicking style. I just taught Mike Dowling’s “Swamp Dog Blues.” I like tunes like Sylvester Weaver’s “Guitar Rag” or Elizabeth Cotten and Etta Baker. I also play Piedmont style but I started off doing more of the Delta blues like Big Bill Broonzy “Hey, Hey” or Drop-D tuning like “Big Road Blues,” “Future Blues,” which are non-slide songs.
I first started playing piano when I was 5. My mom wanted me to take piano. I really wanted to play the guitar. So, I finally got a guitar at 8 or 10. My dad had passed away when I was 10 years old so I got the guitar. I just love guitar. Even I went back to a journal when I was a little kid and I looked at it, and I had written way back then what I wanted to be –a great guitar player. That’s what I wanted to do with my life as a young adult.
I like a lot of different styles. My brother’s friend kind of taught me a little blues when I was 11 years old. I started playing in high school in an all-girls band. I wrote my first blues song when I was 15. It was called “Mid-Term Blues,” and it was a song that I did for my high school variety show. I had a really good teacher that helped me understand music theory in my junior year instead of math. I was so into it. I took music theory and this band teacher showed me how to orchestrate music for a jazz band. He helped me with that and I ended up playing it for my high school variety show and had a couple of back-up singers for this “Mid-Term Blues” song. That’s how I got into it. I played some classical, I played some jazz.
Then I ended up hearing Son House’s “Death Letter Blues,” and that was it for me. I’m very much hooked into the emotions of a song. I guess that’s what I really liked about Son House, is that it was his guitar playing, it was the lyrics. You have to play the truth.
That’s just the kind of person I am. I am like a helper. I’m a teacher. I like to see people grow. I don’t want to see people in pain. I am very touched by people going through a lot of heartache. Son House spoke to me when he talked about the pain that men and women feel and how it’s here in your heart. When I heard him play “Death Letter Blues” it just totally rang true. It was the truth for me, especially because my dad had died when I was 10 years old and the whole concept about going to somebody’s funeral and having it looked like 10,000 people on the burial ground. It’s how you feel. The words and the music and the slide guitar just impacted me so much, and that was it for me. That just led me down this whole journey. In my heart, I want to be like Son House to create music that has the spirit of Son House.
That’s why acoustic blues just calls out to me with the emotions. I like a lot of other players – Bukka White and Mississippi Fred McDowell, R.L. Burnside, and many different players like that. I made a study of all the various blues artists, fingerpickers, Piedmont players, Delta blues players, slide players – and just got educated. Now, I really love to do educational programs at libraries and different places. I view myself as a performer, as an educator, and that’s my calling, the acoustic blues.
I was inducted into the Chicago Blues Hall of Fame back in 2016. That was definitely a highlight. Being able to play in South Africa, in Durban, South Africa was great. I played an acoustic blues set and then some electric with a pick-up band out there. People loved it. They were very used to electric every year. Then, they said that they wanted to hear more [acoustic] blues like Donna Herula played in the festival. That’s what I was told. That was really cool. I was featured in Acoustic Guitar magazine as one of the up and coming Resonator players in 2016 –that meant a lot to me.
I think there’s were two things that really helped me as a musician, and one was getting connected with the Delta Cultural Center down in Helena, and the other one was being involved as a student and as a teacher with the Old Town School of Folk Music. I went to down to the International Blues Challenge as a solo player back in 2009 from the Illinois Central Blues Club, because they didn’t have a Chicago Blues Society. I played down there and there was a scout at the Delta Cultural Center- his name was Jack Myers and after I got done playing, coming down off the stage and he asked me, “Would you consider coming to Helena, Arkansas, and playing on King Biscuit’s Flour Radio Show.” I went down there and they wanted me to meet Sonny Payne. They said, okay, you’re going to play song and then we’re going to go on and do something else.
Sonny Payne was a wonderful man, one of my big inspirations. The first time I went on the show I played a song – and I was worried that maybe Sonny wouldn’t like me or something. Sonny heard me play and then he said, “Why don’t you play another one?” I was shocked. From that moment Sonny and I became really good friends and I’ve probably been on the King Biscuit Flour Show, numerous times now. I had a great relationship with Sonny, who is this award-winning radio show host. He gave me a lot of confidence. He really cared about me. I love that guy and in my latest CD I even wrote a song about him. They had me play Robert Nighthawk – he was called Robert Lee McCollum or McCoy – but he was born in Helena, Arkansas, and when I was down there they had me play at a symposium at the Delta Cultural Center and at the King Biscuit Blues Fest.
I got to play at the Chicago Festival for the first time, because I had been going to the Chicago Blues Festival since I was a little kid – especially as a teenager. I’ve been going since I was a teenager and then they were doing a Robert Nighthawk commemoration and they asked me to play. I had submitted to play at this type of blues festival, only knowing like one Robert Nighthawk song. And I was hired and then I had to learn a whole hour’s worth from February to June when the festival was. That was really a great experience, because you know being from Chicago, being born and raised in Chicago and being able to play the Chicago Blues Festival on one of the stages was really great. I felt good about that.
I wanted to learn slide guitar. I had been playing for years, and I ended up in this blues fingerstyle free class at the Old Town School of Folk Music. There I met a bunch of people who were really involved in acoustic blues. One of the people in the class, her name was Lori Lewis, she had been friends with Honeyboy Edwards. Actually, she was a volunteer at many blues festivals throughout Wisconsin and Illinois. One day before class, she said, “Hey, you want to come with me to see Honeyboy?” Of course! So, we went over to Honeyboy’s house and we brought him some chocolate and liquor and he was playing with us and it was just really fun.
I love the blues, I love to play, I love to improvise. I’m also a singer and a songwriter, in addition to playing guitar. I really worked on my voice. I’m really excited about this new CD that’s going to be hopefully coming out this year – if not, next year, because of the coronavirus. I’m really excited about my new CD because I really have worked hard on my voice and I’ve worked hard on my songwriting, in addition to my slide and regular fingerstyle guitar playing. Look out for the CD when it comes out later this year or next year. (2020 or 2021)
I have taken some lessons with Rory Block individually when I met with her at her house. I was very much influenced by Rory Block, and others like Del Rey and Mary Flower. I’m just amazed by how much passion Rory Block has. We became friends, and I kept on asking her for some lessons and she finally gave in, and I have taken some individual lessons with her over the weekend and I asked her, “How come you haven’t done this for other people?” She’s said that I was so persistent that I would never stop asking her until she gave in and gave me some lessons. Rory Block has been a great mentor and Andy Cohen. I went out to the Centrum blues camp out in Port Townsend, Washington, and took some lessons from people there, including a weeklong master class with Maria Muldaur, which really helped me develop my voice. There’s been a definite change in my voice. I think if people haven’t heard me or haven’t heard me recently, I guess what I’d want them to know is to take another listen and to listen to my new stuff that’s coming out in the next year. The CD is produced by Jon Shain. He won the International Blues challenge solo/duo competition in Memphis last year, 2019. He’s my producer.”
