This is the latest from The Bluesmobile’s C.C. Rider, who spends her life venerating the founding fathers of the blues. She’s walked the crooked highways of this singing country to resurrect the voices of the past. With the dirt of the Delta on her hands, she sleeps in the shadow of the giants on whose shoulders popular music now stands.
Hattie Hart
You may not know her name, but if you know the blues on Beale Street, you know Hattie Hart. Remembered now for her work with the Memphis Jug Band in the 1920s. She was known then for her big voice and wild parties. A bawdy babe, with a high vibrato she could tackle aches of pain as well as yowls of pleasure in a single note.
Hattie wasn’t just a vocalist—she wrote songs too. Her favorite topics were love and sex, voodoo and drugs. And that led to some of the Memphis Jug Band’s most beloved tracks.
Hattie was one of the most popular singers in 1920’s Memphis. But then the Depression hit. The blues moved to Chicago. So did Hattie. And we lost track of her there. She dropped out of music, and off most folk’s radar. Not mine.
Here she is, with the Memphis Jug Band. The magic of Hattie Hart. Honey take a whiff on me…
