Browsing: Bessie Smith

There was no shortage of controversy surrounding Bessie Smith’s interaction with her record label. Find the fascinating, hidden decades-long fight over the Empress of the Blues’ music, some of the most powerful in blues history.

It stretches for almost two miles, rising right up out of the Mississippi River. Beale Street. It’s where gamblers lived and died, hookers hooked and killers got away with it. For the first half of the 20thcentury, there was nowhere else you’d rather be….

Until August 10, 1920, record companies didn’t even try to sell music to—or by—black people. But on that day Mamie Smith, a 37-year-old medicine show singer from Cincinnati, barreled into a New York studio.

Bessie Smith, “The Last Waltz”, JIMI HENDRIX!!! This Week in Blues Past is packed FULL of killer blues!

Discover milestone births, some touching memorials, an incredible Piedmont Blues recording session,

This is the first time Smith’s life will be portrayed in film.

“Easy Rider” is one of the most common themes in the blues. Now find out exactly what it means and why!

To be cold in hand is an expression from the 1930s that’s been popular in blues, including by Bessie Smith, Bukka White, Big Bill Broonzy and more! Find out what it means!

Coffee grinding is one of many (many!) blues metaphors for sexual intercourse.

From the early 1900s to the 1930s, certain speakeasies/brothels in African American urban communities were known as “buffet flats.” Discover the bawdy, wild hidden meanings behind this word!