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Not only did she achieve immense success in soul and gospel genres, but her association with female blues artists demonstrates the deep-rooted influence of blues on other music styles. You can’t deny the huge impact Aretha Franklin had on the music world as the first woman ever inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
May 16, 2024 · The blues, a genre birthed from the depths of African American hardships, resilience, and the unyielding spirit of expression, has been shaped significantly by the contributions of numerous women. These women not only defined the genre but also paved the way for future generations in music. Their stories of triumph, struggle, and unparalleled talent have […]
Aug 5, 2019 · The Depression and the growing preference for the swinging music of big bands and vocalists like Holiday made the sound of the classic blues women seem passé by the early 1930s, but the sound of ...
- Maureen Mahon
- MA Rainey
- Bessie Smith
- Memphis Minnie
- Blue Lu Barker
- Hadda Brooks
- Ruth Brown
- Big Mama Thornton
- Koko Taylor
- Etta James
- Irma Thomas
The singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, who became known to many through the film adaptation of August Wilson’s play, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, was a pivotal early blues figure, and a transitory figure between vaudeville and blues music. She began her career as a duo with her husband, Will “Pa” Rainey, in traveling Black minstrel shows such as the Rabbit’...
In the 1920s, the “classic” female blues singers were a nationwide phenomenon, dominating the field while guitarist/singers such as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Pattonwere just beginning to record. None was more popular than Bessie Smith, the “Empress of the Blues,” who sold millions of records and was so successful that she traveled in her ow...
Lizzie “Memphis Minnie” Douglas was the first prominent female guitarist in the blues, playing with a virtuosic swagger that helped place her among the most popular blues artists of the 1930s and 1940s. She began performing on the streets of Memphis as a homeless teenager, cultivating a not-to-be-messed with persona that earned the respect of male ...
When New Orleans native Louise “Blue Lu” Barker moved to New York with her husband, the guitarist Danny Barker, she was immersed in the city’s thriving jazz scene. While Danny secured a gig with the Cab Calloway Orchestra, the couple had another enterprise, recording a series of humorous and sometimes risqué blues songs such as “Scat Skunk” and “Do...
Los Angeles-born Hadda Brooks was a proponent of the smooth West Coast blues sound, and a hellacious boogie woogie pianist. While many of the most prominent early blues artists were reared in the South, where they learned the vernacular music of their communities, Brooks studied classical music for twenty years, only learning the boogie style that ...
Ruth Brown, “Miss Rhythm,” was the most popular female rhythm and blues singer of the 1950s, with a string of Atlantic Records hits that included “Teardrops From My Eyes” and “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean.” While her popularity waned for several years in the 1960s, her talent as an entertainer ultimately gave her one of the most durable care...
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was a big-voiced singer and harmonica player best-known for her 1953 recording of “Hound Dog,” made in Los Angeles for Houston’s Peacock record label. The budding songwriting team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, known for their legacy of hits with the Coasters, had provided her with a song that befitted her tough pe...
Gravelly-voiced singer Koko Taylor was one of the few prominent female singers in Chicago blues, the electrified version of the rural Mississippi style that coalesced in the 1950s, and that provided a template for many rock and roll bands, including the Rolling Stones. A protégé of the composer and producer Willie Dixon, Taylor recorded what many c...
Known for her indelible version of the song “At Last,” Etta James was a gospel-based singer with one of the most malleable and memorable voices of the last century, and a legacy of recordings that span rhythm and blues, pop, and jazz. Yet, almost everything she recorded was imbued with the spirit and tonality of the blues, from “Wallflower,” her fi...
“The Soul Queen of New Orleans,” Irma Thomas is one of the most enduring voices of the rhythm and blues era, with a discography that spans over 50 years. Known especially for her early collaborations with the songwriter, arranger, and producer Allen Toussaint, including the blues ballad “It’s Raining,” she enjoyed her biggest hit in 1964 with the s...
- Scott Billington
Nov 4, 2020 · Nov. 04, 2020, 2:16 p.m. ET. Jackie Venson has never forgotten her first big breakup. In 2011, during her senior year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, she fell out of love with music. A ...
- Stephen Humphries
Nov 8, 2022 · 1. Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Sister Rosetta Tharpe, also referred to as the “Godmother of Rock and Roll,” is one of the most important people in music history. From the 1940s to ’60s, Sister Rosetta cultivated and mastered her thunderous combination of stompin’ gospel, and electric blues rock guitar.
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Jan 5, 2018 · The pioneering singer influenced blues, jazz, rock and beyond with her powerful voice and inventive delivery, displaying a greatness rooted in the ability to channel her life story into her work.
