It was 1pm on a Sunday afternoon when my phone rang. “Hellooo!” I overenthusiastically and nervously answered. Ivy and I had originally planned to speak at 12pm but I’d known she had a gig the night before (it was actually two gigs the day before), and that she has a young daughter with whom she might like a little extra time, or maybe she just a few more snoozes on the alarm. Either way, it was 1pm and her somewhat rough voice returned the greeting. I asked her about last night’s show while I shuffled around trying to decide how to record our conversation. I had met Ivy once or twice in passing, mostly just a hello here and there. I had also sent over some photos (that you’ll see here) that I was pleased with. In the twelve years I’ve been aware of Ivy and her music, that was the extent of our interactions. I didn’t love that It had taken me so long to get her into the publication. I feel that way about a great many artists who come through the club.
Shortly into our conversation I realized Ivy had the gift of making people like me, an acquaintance, feel like an old friend. It turns out Ivy Ford isn’t an enigma. If you’ve seen her perform, you have essentially met her in-person. She’s bold, sassy, joyful, complex, and more. All her smiles and laughter might lead you to make the mistake of thinking that she’s just a musician. She is, but she’s also watching and listening, adjusting, and finding new ways to ensure that every show is the best show she can give. What I mean to say is that, like many of us, she is so much more than what we see. I think she embodies the essence of the blues community: shared joy, shared sadness and shared laughter. With twenty years of music behind her, I can’t wait for the decades ahead of Ivy Ford, the “Blues Kitten;” we, the audience, are in for a real treat.
AP: Are there any questions you hate being asked in interviews?
Ivy: No,not at all. Nothing is really off limits, I’m pretty open to anything. I mean there are questions that get a little repetitive but it’s good to start with those because it gives a little foundation or background for people to grab on to, so I don’t get too uptight about that kind of stuff.
AP: How are you feeling these days?
Ivy: Well, very well. Other than just tired all the time, because I’ve been working a lot and busy. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, because obviously it’s always a good thing to be working and busy. That means you’re in demand. It’s good. It feels nice to be wanted and in demand.
AP: I think it’s okay to be both, to feel tired and grateful.
Ivy: True enough.
AP: Does it ever bother you when people refer to you as “up and coming” after making music for the last 15+ years?
Ivy: You know, if someone says that they mean it in the most positive way, as a compliment. Knowing it’s coming from a good place–that’s the main reason it doesn’t bother me. I’d rather be “up and coming” than “here and has been.” Last weekend we were way up north doing Big Bull Falls Blues Fest in Wausau, Wisconsin. I have a lot of fans that have followed me over the years, but there were a handful of people I did a meet-and-greet with and they said, “I feel bad I didn’t know who you were; I’m so sorry.” I said, “ You don’t have to be sorry!” They didn’t know who I was before; hopefully though now they’ll never forget. So I don’t get too worked up about comments that others might feel snubbed by.
AP: I feel like if record companies and the music industry as a whole would just show the same support for the blues that it does for other genres that there would be no question of how the blues are going to survive. I think the blues would be one of the most popular genres out there if the industry would just let it happen.
Ivy: (emphatically) Yes! I said it last weekend. Last weekend, this guy was being a smart aleck, kinda persnickety, taking little jabs, saying stuff like, “The old people come to the festivities for the blues,” and this and that. And I thought–actually, I think there is this weird stigma that the blues is only for the older generations. That’s a pseudo-stigma. For whatever reason it’s being perpetuated by these old codgers and it’s a wrong assumption. I use this example: I always play blues, and I have family history in it, and I was raised a certain way. I’m always going to play the blues, but when I was starting out I wasn’t old enough to play blues clubs. My bread and butter was any music venue or bar that had entertainment. I played at this one club in Arlington Heights years ago; it was a weekend thing that young people went to and I joked, “How they made me feel old?” When we started playing, I thought I should stray away from the blues and do something more contemporary. After the first set, some guys came up to me–they looked like they were twelve [years old]--and asked me, “Why haven’t you played any blues today?” I said, “Excuse me?” And they were like, “We looked you up on the schedule and we saw who you were and we expected you to play Muddy Waters or something.” And that was a real lightbulb moment in my head, and was like wow. It was a pinnacle point where even I needed to stop making assumptions that young people don’t like the blues. We really don’t give them enough credit. I think the blues wouldn’t be half as challenging if we stopped making those types of assumptions.
AP: Whether older generations want to acknowledge it or not, it is becoming more and more clear that the younger generation shows a high level of empathy, which might explain their connection or draw to the blues. One thing I’ve noticed is that you have a tendency to defy expectations. Are there roles in your life that you find most meaningful or take most to heart?
Ivy: When we’re on the job–this actually just happened yesterday when we were doing the Evanston gig–the coordinators at the event were talking to my drummer telling him, “We're going to do this and asking him questions or whatever.” And he goes, “No, you gotta go talk to the boss.” So it’s funny to me that people can be so assuming. That’s always endearing, having the respect of my peers. A common compliment I get from audience members is they love what I do, all the way around: the performance, the entertaining, all of it. So, as far as categories and me, I consider myself an all-around entertainer; it encompasses being a decent musician, a respected and respectful band leader, and a person with a decent work ethic, working on bookings like that. I also have a kid, and when people know that they’re always like you’re such a good mom and are so surprised how I do it all. The boss, entertainer, and good mom are probably the three most rewarding, and I like the compliments I get on those.
AP: Your mom comes to quite a few of your shows, is she, was she, ever your manager?
Ivy: It’s funny, people will ask her, “You must handle her.” and she’ll say, “Oh, no, no, I just come along. She does all her own stuff.” She is my right hand person though. We joke though. We like each other and we’re best friends. People still try though, they say stuff like, “There must have been a time when she was a teenager and it was rough?” She’ll say, “No, I never had any rough patches rearing Ivy.”
AP: Speaking of Vivian, your daughter, you used to do some Instagram promos with her back in the day.
Ivy: I joke, “I don’t know where she gets that from (wink, wink).”
AP: What has life been like personally and professionally since having her?
Ivy: I try my best to incorporate both on the regular because they both exist. I had a lot of people asked me when I was pregnant with her. They would ask if I was going to slow down and not work as much, I said, “Oh no.” I remember I had a couple gigs at Legends where I was definitely showing and could have had the baby at any time. The last gig I did was at Navy Pier, me and the guys, and I had her ten days later. Then she was about three or three and a half weeks old and we did the Crossroads Music Festival in Rockford, Illinois and she was with me. I had to carry her around with the headphones, and tuning my guitar during sound check, then jumping over to the corner to breastfeed her before I went up. Now that’s she’s a little bit older, she’s seven–seven going on thirty I swear–there’s been times she’s gone to shows with me and gotten up to sing with me. This last Chicago Blues Fest, we were playing on the Rosa stage and I had to laugh because I don’t remember if it was the night before or the car ride there, but she said, “Mom you know I’m going to get up on stage and sing with you.” And I said, “You are?” She said, “Yeah, just so you know.” I closed out my set, she came up and handled it like a pro, and same with the band. She usually sings the “Sunshine” song, “You Are My Sunshine.” That’s kind of become our thing; you want to talk about melting your heart strings. I don’t know who was more touched by it, the audience or me. I kind of hope for something like that but to actually think, to have it come to fruition by her own motivation, she might have the performing bug after all. People ask me, “Do you think you’re going to get her into music and this and that?” My response is always, “If that’s what she wants to do.” If she wants to be a pro-wrestler and she’s passionate about it, then hell, she can do that too, I support whatever she wants to do. If it happens to be that she wants to do the performance thing and music, I have a lot more to offer in that department.
AP: You played with J.B. Ritchie for a while. I don’t really have a question, I was just thinking about him. After being at the club for 18 years all the people you see come and “go” it takes its toll on you.
Ivy: The first time I went to Legends J.B. invited me to come down and watch his show. There used to be a place in Highland called The Alley and it was a bowling alley and bar. He used to host a jam there. I was only about twenty. It was a Super Bowl Sunday. I had my own car so I went out there to introduce myself to him. Shortly after that we exchanged numbers and we kept in contact. I kept going to some of his local shows, then I turned twenty-one and he was playing at the House of Blues. After a while he started introducing me to a lot of Chicago musicians that I know now. At the time I wasn’t really that prolific of a guitar player; I could hold my own a little bit. I think at a show at Legends and I had driven with him. After we went to Kingston Mines, and Joanna Connor was playing. It was 2 or 2:30 in the morning, and this could have been my cocktail talking but I remember saying, “You know J.B., I go to all your shows anyway. I know your music. You keep switching out your bass players here and there. I bet you I could probably learn to play bass for you; yeah, I’m coming to your shows anyway, I may as well.” A week later he calls me, “Hey I’m going to take you up on your offer.” And that’s how I became his bass player for many years. I started getting work with my own shows, and I said, “Well, hey, I could use another guitar player at the shows I’m getting, I can afford one and if you want to work.” So he was my other guitar player and I was his bass player so the two of us never went anywhere without each other because we were both working so much. We worked well with each other on stage, but we got along with each other off stage too. Just like my musicians I have now. We joke because people will say, “You guys are so tight, you can tell you guys know each other.” Well we do, but we don’t mind each other's company off stage and that goes a long way.
AP: You’ve been playing a few gigs over at Captain Mike’s in Kenosha; how’d that come about?
Ivy: So it started off as a once in a while thing, and it turned into a now–unless I have other stuff, every week with the sax player. His name is Rogers Randall and he plays with Dave Weld (and the Imperial Flames). He was one of the original musicians who knew me when I was 11 years old and the only song I knew was “Chain of Fools.” It’s wild, I’m grown and have a kid of my own and he and I have been working together. It’s nice and cool and people ask us how we know each other and we’re just like, “We have a lot of history.” So yeah, Captain Mike’s and I usually do that every week unless I’m on the road. The owners are great and I’ve known them for years. When they asked me to come on they said, “We’re probably too small for you, but we’d love you. You can do whatever you want.” So it’s really great, I can workshop some new stuff or just keep my chops up. Them being so close to home also lets me come home at night.
AP: There’s something to be said for a smaller venue, taking some of the pressure off.
Ivy: Yeah, it’s nice because it’s also all about the music. I get in there, do my thing, everyone enjoys it. The staff that’s there, about 4 or 5 bartenders, have been there for years; we all know each other. It’s a nice vibe so we all look forward to Thursday nights.
AP: I saw in another interview you were working on a new album called Hard Love, did that ever come to fruition?
Ivy: No, it never came to fruition. You know, during Covid, we all had a lot of downtime. So I tried to take that as an opportunity to work on some original music, but once we started getting some good momentum on it, we started working a lot more. I won’t say it’s completely scrapped, but it’s not on the forefront as much as it used to be just due to the sake of time. I have material. I want to put out more original music; people ask me all the time about it. When I put out my original 3 albums–Time to Shine (2018), Harvesting My Roots in 2019, and Club 27 in 2020, it was like boom, boom, boom. I felt like I had a lot of stuff back to back. The work has picked up and the travel has picked up so, it felt like it was okay to come back to it.
AP: Playing and traveling seems to be a thing a lot of blues artists like to do, at least more so than being in the studio cutting albums.
Ivy: Yeah, it’s a whole different animal, I used to not like it at all. I have a better appreciation for it and I value it for many reasons, but it can take a lot of planning, time,energy, and finances. When you’re working, you see the fruits of your labor in a much faster turn around and a much more livable turn around rather than doing the album stuff.
AP: You’re 31 now, Buddy turned 88 this year. Doing the maths–that means you’ll be playing another 57 years minimum. Does the prospect of that feel exciting?
Ivy: I’m hoping. It kind of goes back to what’s the goal and stuff like that. Even when I was still holding a day job doing music part time. My biggest thing is wanting to play because I want to play. Not wanting to play because I have to, and I don’t want to say I had to deal with a lot of shitty gigs, but they were really taxing for very little money, but I did it because if it wasn’t for the hundred dollar gig I my gas tank might be empty or I might not be able to do this or that. Over the course of about 6 years, I was able to build a network of opportunities to build my confidence in getting certain opportunities while simultaneously having the means to turn down some of those gigs that don’t suit me or serve me, and gives me the opportunity to put all my energy into other things that I really want to do. Now whether that’s playing gigs on the road or not on the road, if I want to take time to and finances to record my music, or just take a break and spend time with my family.
AP: I’ve had to fire clients before because they weren’t a good fit or, more directly, were too difficult to work with. Have you experienced much of that?
Ivy: Oh yeah, definitely. Most of the time, gig opportunities that come through fit into my schedule for the most part so I don’t typically have to make hard decisions like that. However, I have to consciously make practice with being okay giving up a gig I’d rather not do because I’ve already been on the road for a week. Just like this past week, I did 8 or 9 shows in seven days. I made it work, but I was doing a “get back home, shit, shower, shave, and then back on the road” type of thing. Or just for my own mental and physical health, because it can be a lot of grunt work too. I had a handful of opportunities in the last year or so to go back overseas on tour; some of them I couldn’t do because I had commitments here professionally. Other ones, I could but I didn’t want to because I don’t want to be away from home that long. I did have a European tour that was set up a year ago, but in the months leading up to it–it was a combination of things, some personal home things healthwise, my kiddo was a little bit younger. I also, I’ve done this a bunch before, I got through it and I made the best of it, but when I reflected, I didn’t think it would be a good fit. So it was a combination of things that I took into consideration that I didn’t think it would work out. I definitely got some flack for it and had threats levied against me that if I didn’t do this, “You’ll never work in this town again.”
AP: What is this, the [19]20s?
Ivy: Right, yeah. Which, you know, even to some of my close musical peers they asked me, “What happened to that? Weren’t you supposed to do that?” I told them no, and why. A lot of the initial reaction was shock.
AP: I can see how that would be a tough decision to make, but the idea that you should be grateful for and take every opportunity that comes your way seems like a great way to undercut yourself, become bitter, or like you said, get to the point you don’t want to play anymore.
Ivy: Exactly, and they would look at me and ask, “How were you not afraid to do that?” I’m not saying it’s easy but now I have no regrets from not doing it. I do think I would have lost my mind and I would have had regrets about following through with something that would have been detrimental in the long run. Now I’m like, shit, I’m not sure I would have made it out alive so to speak. That one really gave me a lot of confidence boost to make decisions that I want to fit me better. I don’t think it’s talked about, I know it’s not with my musical peers, again, I’ve got a gig I’m not going to turn it down. As musicians we’re conditioned to drop everything for the gig. I’m not saying that’s not a good thing; there is a sense of dedication and motivation in that to have that grind or hustle, you know, you might miss out on some opportunities. On the flip side, I think it would be conducive and positive to start introducing a healthier perspective on that balance. Hell, I’m still trying to find that shit.
AP: One of the best things to come to a head in the last five to ten years is the idea of self-care. We’re not good to anyone especially ourselves if we break down. My default of that is one meal a day minimum with my wife, no phones, no emails, just the two of us, and our dogs of course.
Ivy: Those little things are very important. I kinda joke, not that I hold myself to higher responsibilities, I’m very much a type A overachiever, I’ve got to do it all, be the best all the time. In the last few years, yeah, I can function barely in that and then stop and do some reflection about the longevity of this and I see it as a really bleak future. So let me figure out what little steps I can take to figure out the balance to have a better overall wellness and happiness both personally and professionally because they go hand in hand.
AP: How do you measure your own success?
Ivy: I think success…definitely you have to be happy at the end of the day, coming home looking in the mirror and be happy with yourself and where you’re at. That’s not just because, Oh I was able to play 300 shows in 365 days.” That used to be a concept or accolade that I would strive for.
AP: To be the busiest in the business?
Ivy: I do get praise for that. People will say, “Hardest working woman in the business” or “Hardest working woman in the blues,” or like, “You’re always working.” I get that from fans or from peers. “We saw your schedule, you’re everywhere, that’s great!” When they say that, even if it’s subconscious, there’s a lot of positivity, the feel of I’m doing something good. On the flip side, if I’m not able to come home for a few days or late at night–oh my gosh that was really nice to hear but how am I feeling now? When the lights go down, how do you feel? That's a sort of conflict I have to resolve all the time. One of the biggest components I think of why people do enjoy my craft of music and entertainment is because there’s such an authenticity and I have genuine joy when I do it and you can’t fight realness. That feeds off of me and people pick up on that, just like people pick up on if I’m in a bad mood or not feeling right. There’s a lot of value in that. Some of the best compliments I get is, I’ll be on break and someone will come up and say, “You’re great on stage, but I’m talking to you now and you’re just like you are on stage.” I’ll be honest, I don’t have time to try and be someone different. Some people feel like they’ve got to, we’ve all got insecurities. I think what it means to be successful is to have that inner joy, and be joyful about what you do, because if you’re not you can’t be successful. There have been times, sometimes recently or in the past, where I’ve kinda lost a little joy whether I’m running myself a little hard and don’t have capacity left and have nothing to give. So I’m running on fumes and then you run into not being as genuine as you could and that’s a recipe for bottoming out so to speak. While I’m trying to achieve that, because again finding those balances, figuring out how to maintain, clearly at one point I loved doing what I do all the time, but with life when other joys come in that make you happy you have to listen to that. They can be so important, like in my case, the big thing is my kid and my family that comes along with that. If you’re not watering or nurturing those plants they’re going to die and then you’re going to try to find it somewhere else and then you’re going to run into trouble and maybe get into some bad places. Sex, drugs and rock and roll (small laughs)
AP: Tell me something nice about your band mates.
Ivy: Oh, well, what can I say? I think the good thing is that I don’t really have anything bad to say, we’ve been playing for many years together, we’ve spent a lot of time in close quarters together. They’ve been with me through inclement weather, the other band is running late or there’s technical difficulties. I think one of the biggest testaments at the end of the day is we have each other's back and we’re very respectful of each other’s time. That goes a really long way. In a more superficial way, our drummer Dave, Jim, my bass player, and I always joke, (usually he always gets to the gig before we do), we ask,”Do we know exactly where we’re going?” and “Oh, we’ll just look for Dave’s van.” My bass player and I joke around a lot. We have a lot to say to the point we pick up really well on each other's social cues so we can have conversations without having to say too much. It’s the little stuff like that. Last weekend we were on the road and we stayed in a house all weekend. It was hilarious; we were all watching Antiques Roadshow. This is quite a picture. People probably think of us as rockstar musicians and are like, “What do you do when you’re off the show?” Oh you know, eating snacks and combos and watching Antiques Roadshow–and we enjoy it. So it makes for a good time, an ongoing relationship. I also know that they have my back and that I would never ask them to do something I wouldn’t do, so we have a really good relationship. I saw a quote recently on Facebook. It was Duke Ellington and it said, ”In order to have a successful band you have to have a gimmick, and my gimmick is I pay them money.” I try to make sure we keep working and that everyone is paid fairly and I think that it goes a long way. One testament to our relationship is the other day we were out the night before we had kind of a late night gig and we had to get on the road by 9am the next day only to burn up in the sun for 2-3 hours with smiles on our faces and then hurry up to the next gig for the next 4 or 5 hours. And we’re all willing to do it again the next couple of days. Our history together is filled with examples like that.
AP: Tell us something nice about yourself.
Ivy: I try my best to think of everyone else that I’m working with or in personal relationships. I try to be very giving, sometimes to a fault. But I have a strong belief and motive to be of service, especially for people who have my back, most of the time I don’t even have to ask for it to be reciprocated.
AP: Lastly, anything upcoming you want to promote?
Ivy: I think a big thing is I want to promote that I do have an active social media presence. I post up my whole schedule. Sometimes people ask, “Where can I find you?” and I tell them, “You can google my name and literally it’ll be the first thing to come up.” And, if you click it, the first thing that pops up is my schedule so you don’t have to click on anything else it’s right there. I would think that’s a given, with the internet, it’s not like trying to find the city of Atlantis. So yeah, I just want to promote my website and the schedule there.
Check out one of my favorite artists performing today on her website and social media pages..
www.IvyFordMusic.comThis is where you can find where’s she’s playing, her calendar is right there, don’t be a goon.
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