b. 26 March 1906, Covington, Georgia, USA, d. 20 September 1962, Almon, Georgia, USA. Weaver's mother taught him his first lessons on guitar, and he moved to Atlanta in the 20s, where he played with musicians such as Charlie and Robert Hicks (aka Cha…

b. Rosa Deschamps, 24 November 1896, Henderson, Kentucky, USA, d. 6 April 1968, New York City, New York, USA. Henderson was a person of many aliases; her most well-known stage name was the one she took from her husband and vaudeville partner Douglas …

Led by Gus Cannon, the Jug Stompers were the finest and most blues-orientated of the Memphis jug bands, recording for Victor from 1928 to 1930. The permanent members were Cannon himself (playing rushing, syncopated banjo and a fruity, ribald jug) and…

Like contemporaries Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Victoria Spivey, Sippie Wallace sang gutbucket blues in a jazz-band setting. Enormously influential on subsequent generations of female blues singers, Wallace served as a musical mentor to Bonnie Raitt…

In contrast to such contemporary country blues musicians as Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton, guitarist Lonnie Johnson performed a sophisticated, jazz-inflected blues. Active throughout most of the 20th century, he left a profound imprint on …

Perhaps the most important and certainly the most popular of the jug bands, the Memphis Jug Band flourished on record between 1927 and 1934, during which time they recorded some 80 tracks - first for Victor Records then later for OKeh Records. On one…

The original tough-mama prototype for nearly every female blues singer to come, hard-living, big-voiced Bessie Smith was also the first blues singer with a mega-hit recording career, achieved in part via collaborations with some of the most notable m…

b. 29 November 1894, Macon, Georgia, USA, d. 1 March 1970, New York City, New York, USA. Hegamin was recorded from 1920 onwards, in the wake of Mamie Smith's breakthrough for black singers. Her background was in vaudeville, which required versatility…

b. c.1902, near Dallas, Texas, USA. Glinn's career as a blues-singingrecording artist and vaudeville performer was brief but successful. She was the protégée of Hattie Burleson, a Texas blues singer who first heard Glinn sing in a Dallas church. Alth…

b. Elizabeth Mary Landreaux, 31 March 1895, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, d. 17 March 1963, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. As a teenager, Miles sang with outstanding early jazzmen including King Oliver, Freddie Keppard, Kid Ory and Bunk Johnson. By the …

b. 22 December 1919, Mississippi, USA, d. 14 April 1954. Growing up in Chicago, Green began to sing in clubs in the mid-30s. By the end of the decade she was appearing regularly at some of the city's best-known nightspots, and was recording with arti…

b. 9 March 1903, Sandersville, Georgia, USA. The birth date was supplied by Big Bill Broonzy and, at the time of writing, it is not known whether Georgia White is still alive. Her first record was recorded for Vocalion Records in 1930 in the company …

Victoria Spivey rose to fame in the 1920s and 1930s with other first-generation blues stars like Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Sippie Wallace. She performed her own witty, often lewdly suggestive compositions to the accompaniment of a piano (which she…

Mamie Smith is widely regarded as the first female performer to record a vocal blues, with her 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues." This record proved to be enormously influential to legions of blues singers, helping to popularize the genre. However, Smi…

b. Mildred Rinker, 27 February 1907, Tekoa, Washington, USA, d. 12 December 1951, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA. By the early 20s Bailey was singing and playing piano in silent-picture theatres as well as working as a song demonstrator and performing i…

One of the earliest recorded blues acts, Hunter sang with a clarity of diction and tone that made her music accessible to white audiences. At the height of her popularity, she recorded with nearly all her great jazz contemporaries, among them Louis A…

b. Ethel Howard, 31 October 1896, Chester, Pennsylvania, USA, d. 1 September 1977, Chatsworth, California, USA. One of the most influential of popular singers, Waters' early career found her working in vaudeville. As a consequence, her repertoire was…

While several women rose to fame as blues vocalists in the early 1930s, few succeeded as instrumentalists. Memphis Minnie was a notable exception. A forceful guitarist who once reportedly beat Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar picking contest, Memphis Min…

A singer/guitarist equally fluent in gospel, blues, and jazz, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, like Little Richard and Al Green after her, reflected a quintessentially American artistic tension between the sacred and the profane. This combination of the secula…

In the 1930s, the Delmore Brothers popularized the close-harmony style of bluegrass singing with such hits as "Brown's Ferry Blues," "Nashville Blues," and "Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar." The Louvin Brothers and Doc Watson are among the many artists …