Davina and The Vagabonds

Davina and the Vagabonds return to Cluny 2 at The Cluny on 23 May 2026 at 6:30 pm.

“Davina Sowers creates her own Americana mishmash — a little Amy Winehouse-worthy neo-soul here, a little Great American Songbook-influenced songcraft there.” Rolling Stone

“Davina and the Vagabonds combat heartache with sugar and sass.” DownBeat

Davina Sowers and the Vagabonds have built a presence on the national music scene with notable live shows, strong musicianship, professionalism, and Sowers’ stage presence. With influences ranging from Fats Domino and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Aretha Franklin and Tom Waits, the band has toured in North America and Europe.

Much like the music, the story defies era, expectation, and classification. The often unbelievable, sometimes harrowing, and wholly inspiring journey of Davina Sowers gave birth to her eponymous band Davina and the Vagabonds in 2004. She grew up in the economically depressed Allegheny town of Altoona, PA, which she now describes as “awesome in the industrial era, but horrible for high school.” She was adopted by her much older stepfather when he was in his 80s; he passed away when she was just 13. Through him and his Edison phonograph, she first heard The Ink Spots, Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong and Louis Prima, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and many others. “Great man. He was my angel and still is,” she says.

On her own, she vividly recalls hours in front of the record player where she religiously spun Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Simon and Garfunkel records belonging to her folk singer mom. To this day, Davina still refers to music as “my first and eternal love.” Despite early dalliances with classical piano and guitar, she developed a heavy drug habit in high school, which morphed into heroin dependency, left her homeless, sent her in and out of jail, and brought on trouble. Kicking dope on the streets, she “got clean, started the band, and worked [her] ass off every day since.”

To date, Davina and the Vagabonds have performed in forty-five states, twelve European countries, and two Canadian provinces, with coverage from the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and more, in addition to performing on BBC’s Later... with Jools Holland and appearing on PBS’s Bluegrass Underground.