Rachel Nagy

The Detroit Cobras were an American garage rock band from Detroit, Michigan, which was formed around 1994 by vocalist Rachel Nagy and guitarist Mary Ramirez, with a constantly changing assortment of (mostly male) sidemen. Nagy died on January 14, 2022, and no plans to continue without her have been announced.

History

The Detroit Cobras signed with Sympathy for the Record Industry and released their first album, ''Mink, Rat or Rabbit'', in 1998. After a three-year gap, they released a second album, '' Life, Love and Leaving''. The two albums consisted entirely of cover versions of popular songs from the 1960s. In 2001, they were one of thirteen Michigan-based bands featured on Jack White's '' Sympathetic Sounds of Detroit'' compilation album: the Detroit Cobras' contribution was a cover of Otis Redding's "Shout Bamalama."

Their retro-garage rock formula proved popular in the UK and prompted the London-based Rough Trade Records to sign the band. They released an EP, ''Seven Easy Pieces'', in 2003 and their third album, ''Baby'', in 2004. ''Baby'' broke with the Cobras' tradition in that it included one original song, "Hot Dog (Watch Me Eat)". ''Baby'' was picked up for release in the US by Bloodshot (who added the songs from the ''Seven Easy Pieces'' EP to the end of ''Baby''. In April 2007, Bloodshot released the band's fourth album, ''Tied & True''.

The band was known for multiple line-up changes, although the band consistently fielded the classic rock and roll instrumental configuration of rhythm guitar (always played by Ramirez), lead guitar, bass and drums. Nagy and Ramirez generally had a touring line-up different from their recording line-up. Greg Cartwright of Reigning Sound (aka Greg Oblivian of The Oblivians) proved to be an especially prolific collaborator. Perhaps their most famous sideman was Don Was, who was their bassist for one gig in 2008.

In the summer of 2008, The Detroit Cobras went on tour in support of X on their 13x31 tour. For the summer of 2009, The Detroit Cobras headlined a tour with the Dex Romweber Duo in support. The band apparently stopped touring for several years after that, although they always played a few gigs every year, usually near Detroit but sometimes farther afield. In May and June 2014, they went on an extended tour of the Midwest and the West Coast. In April 2018, they traveled to Europe (for the first time since 2004) to play two festivals in Germany and Spain, which led to an extended European tour in October and November 2019. A US tour was planned for 2020 but canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Another tour was planned for 2022.

Nagy died on January 14, 2022 in New Orleans