This week Henrietta, Eli and Bob Malenky play classic blues sung by and about women. Where as many times women sing songs that are from a male perspective, these songs are from their own perspective and detail their own lives. This is music created and recorded in the years after World War I, during a time of women’s liberation when they got suffrage, threw away their corsets and danced the Charleston! The show features the music of Victoria Spivey, Mamie Smith, Alberta Hunter, Ma Rainey, Lil Green, Sophie Tucker and others. The show also features a live performance by Bob Malenky of Bessie Smith’s “Black Mountain Blues.”
Links:
Mean Mama Blues: Bessie Smith and the Vaudeville Era – Article by by Henrietta Yurchenco
nice show eli
did i ever tell you i met alberta hunter at the cookery on 8th st. about 30 years ago. she had dropped out, became a nurse and then was rediscovered by barney joseph (whose son I knew in the swp). joseph used to own a club in the village in the 30s, which had integrated audiences and entertainers