“The blues doesn't lie and that’s its power. It looks pain directly in the face and sings anyway. It says, this happened, and I am still here. That’s not therapy exactly, it’s something older than that. The women who gave me my foundation, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Etta James, Tina Turner, they weren’t processing their pain for an audience, they were transmuting it.”

Dana Fuchs: Ready to Rise with the Blues

On Friday, July 3, Ruf Records drops "Ready To Rise," the new live single by powerhouse blues-rock vocalist, Dana Fuchs. Recorded during the same unforgettable night that gave us “Live In Denmark” this fiery performance captures Dana’s raw energy, soul, and unmistakable stage presence at its finest. "'Ready to Rise’ came out of the darkest stretch of my life, losing my sister, my parents, my brothers, one after another," recalls Fuchs. "But the song isn’t about the darkness. It’s about choosing to come back to the living. Every time we play it live, that choice gets made again, and we make it together, in real time, with every person in the room. That’s resurrection. That’s what this music is for.” Last March Ruf Records released Fuch's full-length album, Live In Denmark by Blues-rock powerhouse Dana Fuchs. Recorded in a single, unforgettable night at Godset in Kolding, Denmark, in October 2025, Live In Denmark captures the raw intensity, emotional depth, and unfiltered power that have made Fuchs one of the most compelling voices in contemporary blues-rock.

(Photo: Dana Fuchs, a powerhouse blues-rock vocalist)

Live In Denmark showcases Dana Fuchs’ legendary stage presence in its purest form: unfiltered, powerful, and deeply moving, reaffirming her status as one of blues-rock’s most authentic performers. “This album Live in Denmark is raw, honest, and alive in ways I didn't think were possible to capture. It's me at my most vulnerable and most powerful, all at once. Thanks for sticking with me through everything. I cannot wait to get back out there starting in Germany this spring and share this music with all of you again," says Fuchs.

Interview by Michael Limnios                       Arcive: Dana Fuchs, Previous Interview 

Special Thanks: Dana Fuchs, Kevin Mackall & Doug Deutsch

You mentioned that this song was born out of the darkest period of your life, yet you insist it is not about the darkness, but about choosing to come back to the living. How difficult was it to transform that deep personal pain into such an uplifting anthem of hope?

It wasn’t a decision I made consciously, it was more like the song made it for me. When you lose your parents, your sister, your brothers, one after another, grief doesn’t arrive all at once. It accumulates until you realize your eyes are open but you’re not really there. Writing “Ready to Rise” was the first time I felt like I was actually beginning to awake again. The difficulty wasn’t transforming the pain, music and the blues has always known how to do that. The difficulty was being honest enough to admit how far under I had gone, and then honest enough to say, I’m choosing to come back anyway. That choice is the song.

You have stated that every time you play “Ready to Rise” live, the choice of “resurrection” is made all over again, together with the audience in real time. How do you experience this deeply moving, healing connection with the crowd while on stage?

I feel it before I can name it. There’s a moment in that song where the room always shifts, where it stops being a performance and becomes something shared. People are carrying their own weight into the room, their own losses, their own grief they haven’t fully put down yet. When we lock in together on that song, something lifts. Not just for me but for everyone. I’ve had people come up afterward in tears, and they’re not sad tears. They’re the kind that come when you finally let something go. That exchange is why I do this. That’s the whole reason.

This single was recorded during the same “unforgettable night” in Kolding, Denmark, that gave us your full-length live album. What made that specific concert so special that it captured you at your most vulnerable and most powerful all at once?

Honestly, the pressure of knowing we were recording stripped away any safety net, and what was left was just the truth. The audience at Godset was completely present from the first note.  Fully attentive, open, right there with us. That kind of crowd asks everything of you and gives everything back. When we played “Ready to Rise” that night, I wasn’t performing a song about grief and resurrection. I was living it all again in front of those people, and they were living it with me. You can’t manufacture that in a studio. It either happens in a room or it doesn’t, and that night it happened completely.

“The biggest challenge is resisting the pressure to shrink. Attention spans are shorter, the industry wants everything to land in the first ten seconds, and there’s a constant temptation to smooth out the edges and make something more digestible. But music, and certainly the blues, lives in the edges.” (Photo: Dana Fuchs, one of the most compelling voices in contemporary blues-rock)

For many artists, making music acts as a form of therapy. Do you believe that the blues has a unique, almost magical quality to transform the most negative emotions into something beautiful and redemptive, both for the artist and the listener?

The blues doesnt lie and that’s its power. It looks pain directly in the face and sings anyway. It says, this happened, and I am still here. That’s not therapy exactly, it’s something older than that. The women who gave me my foundation, Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Etta James, Tina Turner, they weren’t processing their pain for an audience, they were transmuting it. Turning it into something that outlasts them. What I find almost miraculous about the blues is that the darker the truth it tells, the more it connects people. Somehow the most personal grief, when you sing it honestly enough, becomes everyone’s. That’s not magic at all, that’s just what happens when music doesn’t flinch.

Having been a powerful voice in the contemporary blues-rock scene for years, how do you see the genre evolving? What is the biggest challenge for an artist today to keep this traditional roots music feeling fresh and authentic?

The biggest challenge is resisting the pressure to shrink. Attention spans are shorter, the industry wants everything to land in the first ten seconds, and there’s a constant temptation to smooth out the edges and make something more digestible. But music, and certainly the blues, lives in the edges. It lives in the pause before a note lands, in the roughness of a voice that has actually been through something. What I see evolving, and what gives me real hope, is a younger generation of artists and listeners who are hungry for exactly that. They’re tired of the polished and the manufactured. They want something that feels true. My job isn’t to make the blues feel fresh, it’s to keep playing it like I mean it, because I truly do. The authenticity takes care of itself when the music comes from somewhere real.

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(Dana Fuchs / Photo by Billy McMenamey)