Sugar Drops

SUGAR DROPS marks the Red House Records debut of Davina and the Vagabonds and a major milestone for singer, songwriter, and pianist Davina Sowers: for the first time, she brought the band into a professional recording studio to capture her music in a fully realized studio setting. The Minneapolis-based artist headed to Nashville’s Compass Sound Studio, where she teamed with producer and Compass Records co-founder Garry West to translate the raw energy of the Vagabonds’ live performances into an album with greater depth, texture, and sonic detail.

Davina recorded alongside her husband, trumpeter and string arranger Zack Lozier, and a remarkable cast of Nashville musicians, including bassist Todd Phillips, guitarist Doug Lancio, and Hammond B3 legend Reese Wynans. Rather than smoothing away the rough edges that made the Vagabonds such a compelling live act, the sessions leaned into Davina’s instinctive, expressive performances, allowing the musicians to build arrangements around her powerful piano playing, gravelly vocals, and sharply observed lyrics.

The result is SUGAR DROPS, a vibrant distillation of bluesy barroom swagger, graveyard jazz grooves, roots-rock energy, and noir-ish confessionals. Boisterous piano, guitar, horns, strings, and a swinging rhythm section give the songs a cinematic quality, while Davina’s commanding voice remains at the center of every performance. Drawing deeply from blues, jazz, soul, gospel, country, and the Great American Songbook, she creates something that feels both steeped in musical history and unmistakably her own.

“It represents about 100 years of Americana; I did exactly what I wanted to do,” Davina says of the album. SUGAR DROPS is the realization of that long-held vision: a record that captures the spirit of a band built in bars, clubs, and countless miles on the road while taking advantage of the possibilities of a Nashville studio.

Davina and the Vagabonds have since become a formidable touring act, earning international acclaim from the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and beyond. Their reputation has carried them around the world, including performances on the BBC’s acclaimed Later… with Jools Holland and PBS’s Bluegrass Underground. But SUGAR DROPS captures a particularly important moment—the first time Davina stepped into a proper studio to make a record entirely on her own terms.

“...part Bonnie Raitt, part Etta James and a little Amy Winehouse.” — Star Tribune

“Davina Sowers is a one-of-a-kind performer whose singing… has a sassiness bearing some comparison to that of heart-thumping blues queens Ma Rainey and Ida Cox.” — DownBeat