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Making a Scene Presents Gerry Casey’s Interview with Gina Coleman

Gina grew up in the South Bronx, New York, surrounded by rhythm, grit, and the kind of life experience that eventually turns into real blues. Her musical story began early. At five years old, her grandfather gifted her a piano and lessons, planting the first seeds of a lifelong relationship with music. In middle school, she joined the Latin drum corps “El Primer Grupo de Batuteras Cheerleaders y su Banda,” where she played drums and learned what it meant to drive a groove from the inside.

High school took her to Wellesley, Massachusetts, where her musical world expanded fast. She played multiple instruments—including sousaphone in the marching band—and by senior year she had become drum major, developing the leadership and stage presence that would later define her career as a bandleader. During her undergraduate years at Williams College in Williamstown, she stepped back from formal music instruction, but music never truly left. After graduation, she began a career as an educator in Lenox, Massachusetts, building her life around community, purpose, and service.

Then came the night that changed everything.

A few coworkers brought Gina to a small club in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, called La Cocina, where an open mic night competition was underway. After a few rounds of tequila and a lot of encouragement, her coworkers dared her to sign up and sing. Gina insisted she wasn’t a singer—but she took the challenge anyway. She walked onstage and performed a cappella, choosing the only song she could fully remember: “Mercedes Benz.” What happened next surprised everyone in the room, including Gina. She brought the house to its feet and won the night’s competition—and suddenly, the idea that she “wasn’t a singer” didn’t hold up anymore.

Within months, a local guitarist approached her to form an acoustic duo called The Siblings. Not long after that, she formed the acoustic folk/funk band Cole-Connection, continuing to shape her voice and confidence as a front person.

In the summer of 1999, Gina was invited to perform in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of A Raisin in the Sun. The cast included Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Viola Davis, Kimberly Elise, and Gloria Foster. Gina was cast as a gospel blues singer, and the role pushed her deeper into the emotional power of blues-based music. Near the end of the show’s run, Ruben Santiago-Hudson gave her a CD collection titled Men Are Like Streetcars and told her plainly that her voice belonged in the blues. He urged her to take that direction seriously. Gina listened—and that advice became a turning point.

She asked members of Cole-Connection to begin performing blues music, and what started as a shift in repertoire became a full musical calling.

Twenty-five years later, Gina is best known as the founder, lead singer, primary songwriter, and cigar box guitar powerhouse behind Misty Blues, the acclaimed band that has been delivering a unique blend of original and traditional blues since 1999—seasoned with hints of jazz, soul, funk, and tent-revival gospel. Misty Blues became finalists in the 2019 International Blues Challenge and have built a reputation as one of the most hardworking and consistently compelling blues acts in the Northeast.

Gina and Misty Blues have recorded 18 albums, with tracks featuring notable collaborators including Charles Neville, Eric Gales, Joe Louis Walker, Justin Johnson, and Kat Riggins. The band has toured extensively throughout the Northeast and across the continental United States, as well as Canada and the United Kingdom. They have earned multiple nominations from the Independent Blues Music Awards and were honored as the 2021 CFAB Music Realm Entertainer of the Year. Their music receives regular airplay on SiriusXM Bluesville and has gained strong international attention, including chart standings on the Roots Music Report. In 2024, Gina and Misty Blues had the distinct honor of having one of their songs used in a presidential campaign advertisement—another sign of how far her music has traveled.

Now, as she continues leading Misty Blues into the next chapter, Gina is also stepping further into her solo career. Her debut solo album, Unequivocally Blue, was released in 2025, with a second solo album scheduled for spring 2026. Her upcoming recording project is a tribute to the “Uncrowned Queen of the Blues,” Ida Cox, honoring a foundational voice in blues history while continuing Gina’s lifelong mission: to tell the truth through song, deliver it with soul, and keep the blues alive by making it personal, present, and powerful.

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