Women of the Blues

by Daphne Duval Harrison

Women of the blues appear not to be as well known as their male counterparts. A case in point is Victoria Spivey who when 20 years old wrote and recorded "No. 12, Let Me Roam." for the Okeh label in 1927. Spivey continued to write, sing, and play blues for over fifty, fruitful, exciting musical years beacause "blues was her business." The looping boggie-woogie beat of Texas blues evolved through the finger's and voices of "Blind Lemon" Jefferson, Sippie Wallace, Hersal Thomas, Joe Pullum, and Spivey who added her own special twist when she preformed. ...... She recalls fondly the many nights she and Blind Lemon worked the houses and picnics

Lemon and myself continued meeting at house parties where we would give one another much needed intermissions. What a pleasure! It got so good that the landladies would try to hire both of us at the same time. We did it when we could and loved it.....The more money the house lady made the more we made...although we never worked the joints for under ten dollars per night, no perhaps, but per night. Plus stacks of those Bo dollars (silver) which people would lay as tips across the piano board, plus all you could fool the public that you could drink.

Her moaning was her musical signature, with a great example being "Arkansas Road Blues" with John Erby on piano and Lonnie Johnson on guitar.

I got my train sack and now I'm going back,
Because, I've got those Arkansas Blues.
But I ain't gonna travel this big road by m-m-m-m-m-m, by myself,
But I ain't gonna travel this big road by m-m-m-m-m-m, by myself,
If I don't take my baby, I sure won't have nobody else.

The point being most blues lovers will recognize the name "Blind Lemon" Jefferson, but how many recognize Victoria Spivey, Alberta Hunter, Edith Wilson and many other fine female blues artists who influence what we hear today. so in a small way we pay tribute to them here.

The difficulty in the study of the blues are "the relationship of a singer's blues to those of his sources - the other singers that he learned from" and "the variation or stability from one performance....to another by the same performer." They learned from show business peers, piano rolls, local musicians, Sunday School and church and in some cases such as Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, from memebers of their families. They were more flexible and eclectic in their choice of texts and music than their rural counterparts because they had more sources to draw upon. Further, they were not mere mimics who imitated whit-music hall singers, but were active participants in the evolution of the blues as it moved from coutryside to the cities and back. They transformed their personal feelings into artistic expression, which bonded them to other black women, by skillfully mixing the ingredients of heartbreak and joy to create the songs that caused thousands of black people to flock to their shows and to buy their recordings. Through the blues, these women became the principal spokespersons for black women in the North and the South. Women's blues worked its way through the interpreter's personal experience; therefore, there wa a divergence in style and depth of feeling from one singer to the next. The country style of Ma Rainey, for instance, was imbed with the horror and despair if floods, blight, or crop failure, as well as mistreatment by lovers.Her focus on topics familiar to southern rural folk was enhanced by her boisterious wit, which she displayed in live performances. Wallace and Spivey employed a modified country style but their subject matter had a definite urban perspective. Nevertheless, both of them retained the style of singing and playing that they had developed back home in Texas. Ida Cox, Bessie Smith, and Clara Smith moved away from the country syle and developed sopisticated, flexible blues styles that could handle the tough or slick sounds that city listeners were accustomed to. Yet, they employed the husky, throaty pathos, moans and groans which appealed to urban and rural blues listeners alike. This style -the city blues - grasped the issues of urban violence and neglect and rendered them in shouting, wailing, aggressive tempos and shadings.

Alberta Hunter and Edith Wilson proved that the blues could appeal to a totally different constituency than the black masses in the South or the rowdy males in the dives, dance halls, and wiskey joints run by the underworld in the North Their rise to prominence as entertainers in the more glamourous settings of the cabarets frequented by frolicking, adventure-seeking, wealthy whites created a new type of blues and blues singer - more cosmopolitan, less emotional...
Train's at the station, I heard the whistle blow.
Train's at the station, I heard the whistle blow,
I done bought my ticket but I don't know where I'll go.
Ma Rainey, "Traveling Blues"

Bessie Smith born in a Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1894. Died 1935. Through Bessie Smith, the blues were raised to an artform that was to be the hallmark for every woman blues singer who recorded during the 1920's. Smith's songs covered many of the same themes as did Ma Rainey's; she could sing about violence or the threat of prison without any hint of tears or remorse, or lonliness and abandonment with a wrenching mournfulness. Her blues emanated from the violence and complexities of the urban experience and its effect on black women. Smith's blues were the essence of "sadness...not softned with tears, but hardened with laughter, the absurd, incongruous laughter of a sadness without even a god to appeal to."

You can send me up the river, or send me to that mean ole jail'
You can send me up the river, or send me to that mean ole jail,
I killed my man and I don't need no bail.

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Blues women also employed the bragging, signifying language of males to boast of fine physical attributes and high powered sexual ability. In these blues are found metaphors that liken automobiles, foods, wepons, trains, and animals to the sex act or genitals. These red-hot mamas brag about sexual moves:
Men, they call me oven, they say I'm red-hot
Men, they call me oven, they say I'm red-hot
I can strut my pudding, spread my grease with ease
"Cause I know my onions, that's why I always please.Sackheim, Blues Lines
She tells the man to move on because he ain't much of a sex partner:
Back your horse out my stable, back him out fast,
I got another jockey, get yourself another mare.
Now, you can't ride, honey, you can't ride this train,
I'm the engineer, I'm gonna run it like a Stavin'Chain."Stavin Chain," Lil Johnson, Copulating Blues

The play on words brings some fun to these blues, such as the sportscar metaphor of Hill's "Sports Model Mama". There is nothing sleazy nor sneaky in her bragging about her sexiness for this is a woman sure of herself and unashamed.
I'm just a little sport, have punctures every day,
I'm just a little sport, have punctures every day,
You may want a limousine, but they puncture the same way.
And she brags about men's preferences for her brand of love:
When the men comes to buy you'll always here them say,
When the men comes to buy you'll always here them say,
Give me a sports model mama because they know the way.
Oliver, Aspects Of The Blues Tradition.
Cleo Gibson uses the same metaphors in "I've Got A Ford Engine":... Ford engine movements in my hips/10,000 miles guaranted/... You can have your Rolls Royce/ Your Packard and such/ Take a Ford engine car to do your stuff.
In "Rolls Royce Papa" Virgina Liston takes a different tack. She berates the man for his poor sexual performance with phrases like, "Your carburetor's rusty...your gas tank's empty...steering wheel wobbly"
Women's blues in the 1920's were often written by others, ususally men, but they represent a distinctly female interpetation. Though the themes they addresed were universal, their renditions linked them to other women who identified with the realities of which they sang.

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* Alberta HunterFolk's I ain't got a crying penny, my poor feet on the ground,
And if I ever want to be somebody I sho'got to leave this town
Alberta Hunter was a self confident youngster who loved to sing and recieved encouraging comments from family and friends. She learned the songs her grandmother sang, or those she heard on the popular piano rolls found in many stores. One day on her way to the store with 15 cents to purchase bread, she meet her school teacher, Mrs. Florida Cummings-Elgerton. As they walked and talked the older woman invited Alberta to go with her to Chicago, Hunter's eyes lit up and the wheels began spinning in her head. I got a mind to ramble but I don't know where to go.
She had a destination! She had heard her mother mention that singers could earn 10.00 a week in Chicago. After covincing her mother, the trip began. She arrived a the home of a friend of her mothers, and found a job peeling potatoes earning six dollars a week plus room and board. Her family did not locate her for about two years, but then decided to let her stay.
At age 15 Alberta tried to find a job as a singer often giving her age as 18, but Chicago was plagued with problems arising from very young girls being hired to sing and play in brothels and sleazy clubs, she had little success.
Finally she caught a break, Dago Frank's was reportly seeking a singer, she got a tryout and was hired. Hunter was much in demand on the cabaret scene in Chicago. The luxurious Dreamland Cafe became a mecca for the moneyed crowd and a show piece for black talent. She was the featured soloist there for nearly 5 years, no longer a brash ambitious kid, but a sophisticated, ambitious woman.
Paramount picked her up in July 1922 and issued more than thirty-five sides in less than two years, many of which were her own compositions. In addition to "Down-Hearted Blues", "You Shall Reap What You Sow," and "Chirping The Blues." "Chirping" was the standard twelve-bar blues which also incorporated some lines from traditional country blues, to which Hunter added her own twist with the resolution in the third line.
Well, I'm worried now but I won't be worried long.
Well, I'm worried now but I won't be worried long.
It takes a worried woman to chirp this worried song.
Typical of her early recordings, there is not a build up in intensity, but a relaxed lilt. Style and beat were as important as lyrics to her performances.
Her genius flowed from a mixture of musical talent and the powerful, complex experiences she had had as a young black woman. In late 1925 Hunter signed with the Okeh label and recorded sixteen sides most accompanied by Btradford's Mean Four, with Bradford at the piano. In 1927 she traveled to Europe with engagements in Nice, Monte Carlo and London. Work was tough to get because of problems obtaining labor permits, offers were far and few between. She endured the delays by attending concerts, sightseeing and studing the language. Roy de Coverly, overseas reporter for the Chicago Defender, wrote these lines from Copenhagen:
....later that evening came her premiere. She was nervous. She has been told, and truthfully, that Copenhagen critics were the most stringent in Europe. I was with her....before her first appearance and she was frantic about her pianist. He did not have that swing. She was to appear first in the bar...Her entrance caused a murmur of admiration. You know a brown girl does look wonderful in white satin, if she can wear cloths. And Albeta can.... "Two Tickets To Georgia!" Dark Brown voice with velvet overtone. Rhythm. Brown eyes flashing, dark red mouth smiling. White satin body swaying to the beat....White faces...softening...as the magic of a singing negro girl and her music take possession of them. Applause. She had done it.
Alberta appeared in the 1940 Worlds fair with such people as W.C. Handy, Margaret Bonds, Benny Carter and Maxine Sullivan to name a few.
Alberta withdrew from the glamour and glitter of that world after Word War II to care for her ailing mother in Harlem. After her mothers death, the fiesty little woman enrolled, at age 59 in a practical nursing course and for the next 20 years worked in a NYC hospital. She had lied about her age as a youngster, now she lied about it for reverse reasons, and began a new career at an age when most people retire. Many times during that period friends urged her to perform again but she stoutly refused, saying her life was dedicated to helping others.
In spring 1977, Ms Hunter was retiring again this time from nursing at 81. Sharp witted as ever she was busily trying to get better royalties for her early blues. She fought hard for everything with an inner drive that aimed towards success. In 1977 she returned to performing and in a short span of six years, wrote the sound track for the film "Remember My Name", record an album of new and old blues, supervised reissues of earlier work while maintaing a long running engagement at the "Cookery." Her "Amtrak Blues" is a fitting update to the theme of one she had written sixty years earlier, "Iv'e Got A Mind To Ramble." Her blues sound was fine and mellow or low-down and gutsy, demonstrating her versatility. The stage and spotlight brought her back to renewed fame and glory, her love, her life. If she ever had the blues (and who has not), she sang them right into the ground and kept on moving until her death in the summer of 1984.

* Edith Wilson
He's crazy 'bout my loving and likes my jelly roll
I want to tell you and keep you told,
I'm little and lanky and built for speed,
I got all that a good woman needs,
He used to be your man but he's my man now.

* Sippie Wallace
He left home one morning just 'bout the dawn of day,
Now he (was) gone one morning just 'bout the dawn of day,
Some old long tall woman stole my man away.


"Black Pearls, Blues Queens of the 1920's" by Daphne Duval Harrison