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Classic Female Blues. "Classic Female Blues" or more accurately "Vaudeville Blues," was a field dominated by women singers that enjoyed its heyday in the 1920s. Although officially introduced by Mamie Smith with her hit Okeh recording of "Crazy Blues" in 1920, vaudeville entertainers such as "coon shouter" Sophie Tucker and comedienne Marie ...
- Bessie Smith
- Koko Taylor
- Aretha Franklin
- MA Rainey
- Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Janis Joplin
- Bonnie Raitt
- Big Mama Thornton
- Shemekia Copeland
- Etta James
Bessie Smith, the “Empress of the Blues,” was one of the highest-paid Black entertainers of her time. Raised in Tennessee, Smith had a following by the age of 9, and by the age of 16, she was touring. In her mid-20s, she struck out on her own and became one of the most famous blues singersof the 20th century. Her first hit, “Down Hearted Blues,” so...
Next, we have “The Queen of the Blues,” Koko Taylor, who was born Cora Ann Walton near Memphis, Tennessee, where her musical journey began by singing the blues as a child with her siblings. In 1952, Taylor and her husband moved to Chicago, where they frequented blues clubs. Soon she was discovered and given a recording contract. Taylor later record...
Aretha Franklin, “The Queen of Soul,” grew up in Detroit, where she sang in the church choir and eventually landed a contract with Columbia. Franklin could sing gospel, soul, and the blues equally as well, with many people considering her the greatest singer of all time. She mixed gospel and R&B styles and took blues to a new level, becoming the fi...
Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was an inspirational female blues singer who recorded her first song in 1923—more than 100 recordings followed over the next five years. Rainey was born in Georgia to minstrel performers and began performing as a teen. She was known for her “moaning” style of deep-throated singing and flashy stage presence. Rainey bridged the t...
Born Rosetta Nubin in Arkansas, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, aka “The Godmother of Rock n Roll,” came from a family of singers, evangelists, and cotton pickers. Her journey into the world of music began when she picked up the guitar at the age of four, and by the age of six, she was performing. Throughout her younger adolescent years, Tharpe began to dab...
Janis Joplinwas born and raised in Texas. She loved music as a child and sang in her church choir. After a few false starts in the business, Joplin joined The Big Brother band in 1966, with whom she had a breakout performance of “Ball n Chain” at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival. Joplin’s raw singing style was like nothing anyone had heard. With her ...
Bonnie Raitt, a powerful yet unassuming blues singer-songwriter and activist, was born in California. She began playing guitar when she was eight, and her interest in blues and slide guitar began at age 14. She performed as a folk music artist while attending Harvard in the late 1960s and released her first self-titled album in 1971. Twenty albums ...
Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton was born in Alabama in 1926. She left home at 14 to join the Hot Harlem Review. By this time, Thornton was already an experienced singer, drummer, and harmonica player. She went on to gain a lot of fame as a blues singer-songwriter. She first recorded the songs “Hound Dog” and “Ball n Chain,” which later became huge h...
Next up is blues singer Shemekia Copelandwho was born in Harlem, New York. It turns out that blues is in the family as her father is blues artist Johnny Clyde Copeland. Copeland first performed at the Cotton Club when she was ten, and when she was 18, she released the Grammy-nominated album, Outskirts Of Love. Copeland’s music blends blues, R&B, an...
Next up, we have the legendary Etta James, who was born and raised in California. At five, she was singing in her church choir, and by her teens, she was singing with bandleader Johnny Otis. James launched her solo career in 1955 and signed with Chicago’s Chess Records in 1960. Chart-toppers like “All I Could Do Was Cry” and “At Last” followed. Jam...
Aug 29, 2023 · Discover the best female blues singers of all time, with music ranging from classic to modern. These incredible women have mastered their technique and style, creating unique sounds that have inspired generations of listeners worldwide.
Classic female blues was an early form of blues music, popular in the 1920s. An amalgam of traditional folk blues and urban theater music, the style is also known as vaudeville blues. Classic blues were performed by female singers accompanied by pianists or small jazz ensembles and were the first blues to be recorded.
- Scott Billington
- Ma Rainey. 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.
- Bessie Smith. 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 Patton were just beginning to record.
- Memphis Minnie. 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.
- Blue Lu Barker. 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.
Jul 28, 2010 · The ‘classic female blues’ era had begun… Listen: Mamie Smith and her Jazz Hounds - Crazy Blues (1920) Ma Rainey. Female artists owned the blues in the 1920s. That’s fact. Thanks to Mamie Smith, female blues artists were in hot demand and one of the first to make her mark was Ma Rainey, aka the ‘Mother of the Blues.’.
But you can hear many incredible, less-famous women of the blues appear in the Spotify playlist further up, in the company of more famous names like Bessie and Mamie Smith, Holiday, Joplin, Memphis Minnie, Ma Rainey, Etta James, and Dinah Washington. Blues hounds will likely recognize most, ...
