November 17, 2023: AmericanStudying the Blues: Five More Icons

[150 yearsago this week, the great W.C. Handywas born. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Handy and other icons of theBlues, leading up to a special weekend post on some contemporary Blues greats!]

On justone telling detail each for five more iconic artists (in no particular order):

1)     Son House(1902-1988): What’s perhaps most interesting about the long and influential careerof foundational Bluesman Edward“Son” House is that he resisted the genre on two distinct occasions: in hisearly professional life as a preacher, for whom secular music was blasphemous;and for nearly two decades between the 1940s and 60s, when he abandoned hiscareer and seemingly retired for good. But the Blues were not done with House,and his inspiring late-career partnership with the young white musicianAlan Wilson led to new and perhaps even more influential recordings.

2)     MaRainey (1886-1939): August Wilson’s MaRainey’s Black Bottom (1985) is one of the great 20thcentury American plays, and serves as an excellent introduction to both themusic and the struggles of this iconic American artist. But because it’s setrelatively late in her career, it doesn’t include much engagement with her verycomplicated and interesting professional origins: 18 year old Gertrude Pridgettmarried 31 year old performer Will “Pa”Rainey in 1904, became known as Ma, and toured with Will as Raineyand Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues. Without intending any besmirchingof Will through the association, there’s at least a bit of Ike and Tina Turnerin that story, I’d say.

3)     Muddy Waters(1913-1983): One of the most compelling layers to the 20th centurydevelopment of the Blues is the way that the genre followed the GreatMigration, moving from Southern (and often Deep South) origins to its growthand increasing prominence in urban centers throughout the North and Midwest. Noindividual artist better reflects that arc than Muddy Waters, who was born McKinleyMorganfield in Mississippi, became there a leading figure in the foundationalsubgenre of the DeltaBlues, and then moved to Chicago at the age of 30 where he would come to beknown as the “Father ofModern Chicago Blues.”

4)     Bessie Smith (1894-1937): Thetowering and prolific artist who became known as the “Empressof the Blues” was also one of the more divisive artists of her era, atleast when it came to how she was perceived by the industry. When Smithauditioned for the influential Harlem company BlackSwan Records (which featured W.E.B. Du Bois on its board) in the 1920s, forexample, she was rejected because she supposedly stopped singing in order tospit and was seen as “too rough.” Yet that roughness also defined many of thequalities that made both Smith and her music so influential and enduring,including a sense of independenceand sexuality that were far ahead of her time.

5)     B.B. King(1925-2015): Riley “B.B.” King was a generation later than any of the otherartists highlighted in this post, and could be said to represent not just the mid-20thcentury evolution of the Blues, but also the ways that genre began to intersectwith other emerging forms like R&B, rockabilly, and rock ‘n roll. Indeed,King’s first Billboard #1 hit, “3 O’Clock Blues,”charted in February 1952, just a year after the release of a song often definedas the first rock ‘n roll hit (but one with a lot of the Blues in it as well),Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats’ “Rocket 88.” While thereare important characteristics that distinguish and define particular genres, asthe end of the day they all also intersect and cross-pollinate and evolvetogether, and perhaps no Blues artist better embodiesthose interconnections than B.B. King.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Blues figures or contexts you’d highlight?