If Bessie Smith has the title "Empress of the Blues," then Ma Rainey is the unquestioned "Mother of the Blues." While Rainey wasn't the first blues singer to make albums, but by all means she should have been.

In an era when women were unknown in blues, Rainey is the most celebrated of them all. As music historian Chris Albertson has said, "If there was any other woman who sang the blues before Rainey, no one remembers hearing her."

Ma had been singing music for more than 20 years before she recorded her debut album. She was fostered the blues idiom, and did so by linking the spirit of country blues with a classic style.

With the coming of blues records, Ma Rainey became more influential immortalizing such songs as "See See Rider" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Like the other blues divas, Rainey had a repertoire of pop and minstrel songs as well as blues, but she maintained a rougher, heaver vocal delivery then the other blues singers who followed her.

Rainey's records featured her with jug bands and guitar duos. In addition, her records also featured horns and piano jazz accompaniments.

Since her passing in 1939, Ma Rainey's influence has touched such singers as Ruth Brown, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Etta James.

Posted by Andrew on Wednesday, 05/8/2013 @ 13:37pm

To Tom Lane

Ma Rainey is already an inductee.

Posted by Roy on Monday, 08/11/2014 @ 09:42am