Fuck Yeah! Queer Music

This is my love letter to all the queer musicians out there, making art and kicking ass. If there's an artist you think I should know about, please let me know, I love new music! (I also reblog/post on general queer and trans stuff, as well as some more personal things, hope that's all right).

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Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor

 

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a week, but queerphonics beat me to it. Well, I hope you guys don’t mind a little repetition. Ma Rainey. Mother of the blues. An incredibly important, but still vastly overlooked singer, especially in the modern day. So many artists have taken inspiration and influence from her, from Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin, even popular favorites like Beyonce owe Rainey a great deal of gratitude. Ma Rainey began performing in the early 1900’s, and was one of the first black women to put out a record. She put out well over a hundred records over the course of her career, and even recorded with Louis Armstrong in the 1920’s. Rainey was one of the first professional blues singers, and greatly helped spread the popularity of the genre, primarily across the South. Her distinctive voice was incredibly strong, but still sounded like the blues. It could be low and mournful, it could wail. She made you feel something, and it’s easy yo see why she’s called the mother of the blues. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect voice for the genre. She passed away in 1939 at the age of 53.

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a week, but queerphonics beat me to it. Well, I hope you guys don’t mind a little repetition.

Ma Rainey. Mother of the blues. An incredibly important, but still vastly overlooked singer, especially in the modern day. So many artists have taken inspiration and influence from her, from Bessie Smith to Janis Joplin, even popular favorites like Beyonce owe Rainey a great deal of gratitude.

Ma Rainey began performing in the early 1900’s, and was one of the first black women to put out a record. She put out well over a hundred records over the course of her career, and even recorded with Louis Armstrong in the 1920’s. Rainey was one of the first professional blues singers, and greatly helped spread the popularity of the genre, primarily across the South. Her distinctive voice was incredibly strong, but still sounded like the blues. It could be low and mournful, it could wail. She made you feel something, and it’s easy yo see why she’s called the mother of the blues. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect voice for the genre.

She passed away in 1939 at the age of 53.

  1. fyeahqueermusic posted this

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