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Raw and emotive vocal styles
- With their raw and emotive vocal styles, female blues singers have been able to convey the pain, joy, and resilience that are at the heart of the blues. They have used their music as a means of self-expression, addressing issues of love, heartbreak, and social injustices.
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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.
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.
- 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
- 4 min
Jul 1, 2020 · Women Who Shaped The Blues. By Chris Wheatley. From the earliest days of blues as entertainment, women were at the forefront. Theirs were the first black voices to be heard on record, and therefore the first to disseminate the twelve-bar art form across the nation (and the world).
Jan 18, 2024 · From the early pioneers like Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey to contemporary artists like Etta James and Susan Tedeschi, female blues singers have broken barriers and carved out their own unique place in the music industry.
Oct 14, 2011 · Women such as Bessie Smith carried music and the blues into the minds and hearts of popular culture years ago, and presents the contemporary music world with a solid blueprint for good things, both coming and already arrived.
Despite the genre being male-dominated, female blues singers made their mark by infusing their unique perspectives and experiences into their music. Their contributions brought a fresh and powerful dimension to the blues, captivating audiences worldwide.
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