Ashley felt it necessary to explain the presence of a washboard as its not a common site in France as theirs are attached to the 'lavoire' and therefore not at all portable. This is possibly why skiffle didn't catch on in France. One of the keys to a good 'rounded' show is variety and Rag Mama Rag certainly provided it by swapping instruments - guitars, ukuleles etc. - and different musical styles.
This was one of those evenings that no one wanted to finish as the assembled watched Foreign Secretary's younger sister cavorting across the floor with the landlord to the strains of "Bright Lights, Big City", which as a concept seemed far away in this sleepy village.
Their recent CD 'Rag Mama Rag - Live' is one of the better ones available from touring acts, well recorded and a great representation of their show. The George is building a reputation as a small but friendly venue putting on quality acts, with occasional bigger venue gigs locally such as recent performances by Amos Garrett and The Mike Sanchez Band. Forthcoming acts include Ben Andrews, Kent DuChaine, Michael Jerome Browne and Gorden Smith.
Tim Porter
BLUES IN BRITAIN MAGAZINE
Bluesnight at The Dorchester Arts Centre
Blues in Britain 13/12/03
It was with great pleasure that Rag Mama Rag were welcomed for their second visit to Bluesnights. Having thoroughly enjoyed their first performance in Oct. 2002 I was looking forward to this one. The duo - Ashley and Deborah Dow - set out to show us what they are about and it is top quality musicianship! They performed a very wide range of material from the 1920s to their own recent compositions. Delta, ragtime, boogie-woogie, folk, it was all there. Ashley has four instruments: National Steel, Henderson (US Virginia), a Weissenborn Hawaiian laptop and a ukulele. On the latter he did a couple of number, with Deborah on spoons; talk about jumping in your seats, those handful of tunes really cracked along! Their sets ranged from slower melodies to fast paced rocking blues, throwing in some superb finger picking for good measure.
One number in the first set that really did it for me was "Swim Against The Tide", an own composition that was outstanding both in lyrics and tune, with excellent chopping rhythms.
The second set started with John Lee Hooker`s "Dimples - always a foot tapper. There followed three self-penned compositions that were of a very high standard. Using his Weissenborn, Ashley played "Hardtimes", a slow haunting Delta style Blues with a throbbing bassline and riff setting the mood. He segued into Leadbelly`s "CC Rider", the tempo picked up for this thumping rocker, then on to Tampa Red`s "Boogie Woogie Dance", the fingerwork on this one was stunning. A very classy rendition of Doc Watson’s "Deep River Blues followed. Time for some audience involvement with Cab Calloway’s "Minnie the Moocher". It is quite interesting how a particular song can get everyone’s vocal cords opening up. That was great fun!
No way were we going to let them get away without an encore and it was into Bukka White’s "Fixin To Die". This was a superb barnstormer, and finally Casey Bill Weldon’s "Just As Well Let Her Go", another cracker. A wonderful evening, with each set packed full of numbers, amiably presented by an unassuming yet multi-talented couple who did not leave anybody disappointed. There is absolutely no doubt about their calibre! A must see!.
Lewis A Harris
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8:00 PAUL JONES
The classic blues show, featuring Ashley & Deborah Dow-better known as Rag Mama Rag-in the studio for a chat & a couple of songs from their new album STRUTTIN` & STROLLIN'
BBC RADIO 2 Thursday 11 January 2001
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Friday 15 September 2000
The Bottleneck @ The Jazz & Blues Cafe, Week Street, Maidstone
STEVE JAMES (USA) plus RAG MAMA RAG
This will be Steve's third visit to the club. A tremendously popular performer, great guitar, great voice & a great sense of humour ~ his stories are almost as good as his songs! RAG MAMA RAG are Brits but they live in France. They are one of the rootsiest duos I've heard, very authentic renditions of all the deep delta stuff plus first rate originals ~ a class act.
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Rag Mama Rag
The George Hotel, Lower Brailes 7/1/02
Traditionally the first music session of the New Year is a sedate affair in Lower Brailes, in deepest Warwickshire, particularly with a cold and foggy night in prospect. We thought we might have to augment the numbers with family, friends, and even give stray dogs a warm welcome. This was not to be a typical night as Rag Mama Rag`s reputation for providing a fine evening of entertainment had preceded them, and we were swamped with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd who had braved the elements and come from far and wide.
Colin Wills, alias Crazy Cactus, the power behind The Banbury Blues Festival, was accompanied by Kent DuChaine, who was mourning the temporary loss, of his legendary guitar Leadbessie.
Rag Mama Rag consist of British husband and wife team Ashley and Debbie Dow, who live in Dol de Bretagne in Brittany but make frequent forays to the UK and keep themselves busy on the French Festival circuit in the summer. Ashley is a strong performer on guitars, ukulele and vocals, also thumping out the beat on his foot activated 'drum' pick up. Debbie plays a mixture of washboard, with attachments, and spoons, and her harmonica playing is beautifully sensitive and all too rarely she adds vocals.
Songs on offer included Robert Johnson's "Kind Hearted Woman", Bukka White's "Fixin' To Die", Bo Carter's "Cigarette Blues" and through to Ry Cooder - many having the Cooder treatment' of the early blues, particularly "How Can A Man Stand Such Times And Live". Outstanding were an evocative version of the American Civil War tune "Rally Round The Flag" - as an instrumental, and Homesick James "Set A Date".
RAG MAMA RAG - Red Lion, High Wycombe March 2006
Ashley Dow - Guitar/Vocals/Bass Drum, Deborah Dow - Harmonica/Washboard/Spoons/PercussionThis was a very good gig from this English duo based in France. Playing blues mainly from the 20s and 30s they went down very well. Ashley plays a mix of national steel, acoustic, lap steel and ukulele while Deborah supplies all the backing including vocals. The material was mainly covers with a few good originals thrown in, amongst the material were 'Swim Against The Tide', 'Going Down to Brownsville', 'Dr Jazz', and 'Dimples'. The crowd really enjoyed the very relaxed feel to the evening and I'm sure would have quite happily stayed for even longer and the band sold a good number of their different cd's. Hopefully they will be back again in the future and are really worth seeing. CDL
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SUTTON BLUES COLLECTIVE
Station Pub, Sutton Coldfield 4/10/06
Blues in Britain/issue 59
France based Rag Mama Rag (husband and wife team Deborah and Ashley Dow) put on a superlative performance at The Sutton Blues Collective this Wednesday. They were exactly the right sort of act for the ambience of this club. A complex combination of traditional country blues with songs from names such as Tampa Red, Leadbelly, Robert Johnson and Blind Boy Fuller were performed together with original songs penned by Ashley Dow, and even a Ry cooder tune. Ashley has a voice ideally suited to singing this style of blues. Both halves of the set were a seemingly endless stream of songs accompanied by Ashley’s fast and driving guitar playing backed by Deborah playing at different times on washboard, harmonica, spoons and an African drum, occasionally providing backup vocals. There was even a couple of numbers played on the ukulele to provide light relief from the more intense sons.
During the interval I spoke to Ashley about his guitars. His main instrument during the evening was a Washburn parlour sized guitar. The other two guitars were a 1990’s National and a John Pearce copy of a 1930’s Wiessenborn lap steel guitar, a thing of great beauty with Ashley proudly told me that he’d managed to get in a bargain from a well known online auction house. Rag Mama Rag is definitely an act not to be missed.
Clive Sheard
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