“Women of the blues are like none other – we don’t just come on stage and sing. B.B. played Lucille, but I shake a mean hip,” said blues performer Shirley King.
She wasn’t taking shots at the late blues ambassador. As her father, he’s the reason the blues is in her DNA in the first place. But, as she gathered to discuss “Women of the Blues: A Coast-to-Coast Collection” as part of the opening festivities for the photo exhibit at the National Blues Museum, she felt she had to give the blues divas their just due.
“I have watched women from the minstrel days and cabaret and it wasn’t no playing around,” Shirley King said. “You had to put it all out there. And when I show up, be ready – because when I show up I’m gonna show out.” Fans got a taste the night before as Shirley and several other leading blues ladies brought the house down at BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups the night before.
As they sat in the Museum discussing the nature of the exhibit Saturday afternoon, curator Lynn Ormon Weiss’ intention seemed to be to prove Shirley’s words true with the series of photos that showed leading blues ladies in action. “I call myself a ‘storyographer,’” Weiss said. “Every single woman on that wall has a transformative story that will be so visceral.”
The collection features more than 80 photographs and art of “Women of the Blues” performing, in portrait and screaming the blues. The exhibit is comprised of twelve photographers from around the world capturing the ladies in action on stages across the country and abroad.
King and a blues violinist Anne Harris sat on the panel offering insight on the life of a blues woman –and why they are often in the shadows of their male counterparts.
Harris said that blues music – and music in general – is male-dominated because of the traditional role of the woman is to be the backbone of the family, which is not conducive to fully and freely committing to the lifestyle that is often required.
“The idea of highlighting women in the blues is lifting up a gender which is underrepresented and struggles to do everything,” Harris said. “By the time you have a career as a female artist, you’ve also been raising babies – and raising husbands. It’s an underrepresented group of very hard working incredible people who do it all.”
Cookie Taylor, daughter of late blues legend and “Women of The Blues” subject Koko Taylor, expressed those exact sentiments when she called to congratulate Weiss on the exhibit’s opening at National Blues Museum.
“She said her mom used to get up there and pitch a ‘Wang Dang Doodle’ and be as fierce as heck,” Weiss said. “But when she came home she was a mom first and foremost.”
A music rooted in revolution
The panel discussion, moderated Jacqueline Dace, director of Internal Affairs for the National Blues Museum, eventually gravitated towards the genre and its impact on American music – and American history.
“The blues come from Africa – the rhythm, the sound and the origin is Africa, as well as the storytelling,” said Weiss. “The blues emerged from The Great Migration. It came on the trains and the rails by way of those coming looking for a better life. It was revolutionary in the fact that you had these individuals that were able to talk about things and express themselves in a way that they weren’t supposed to [because of racism].”
Much like women within the genre, blues in relation to the scope of music is largely unsung.
“We have to take people to the roots of the music to truly appreciate it– and the blues is the root of all American music,” said panelist Amanda Gresham, a producer and radio host. “It’s because of the blues that you have the variation of the beats, lyrics and the language.
What people don’t know is that they already do love blues – because every other genre has a blues story in it.”
And the root of the blues story is Black America.
“They lived Jim Crow,” Weiss said of the musicians. “And they had the audacity to talk about who they were and why they were men and women and why they should be respected – and why they should have a voice.
Mavis Staples, who is featured in “Women of the Blues” said, “You can’t have a movement without the music.”
“Women of the Blues: A Coast-to-Coast Collection” is currently on display at The National Blues Museum through March 31. For more information, visit www.nationalbluesmuseum.com or call (314) 925-0016.
