Blue Girls – Various Artists – Complete Recorded Works – Vol 2 (1928-1930)

The success in the twenties of Ma Rainey, the blues singing Smiths (Mamie, Bessie, Clara and Trixie) and others like Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Lizzie Miles, Sara Martin and Bertha “Chippie” Hill, spawned a whole host of “want to be” female blues singers. It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of blues were recorded during that period, many by unknowns and, as one contemporary critic observed, “Every phonograph company has a colored girl recording”. Which was hardly surprising since most black newspapers of the time were full of with notices detailing the exploits of vaudevillian singers and carrying advertisements from record companies boasting that they alone possessed ,’more colored artists than any other record manufacturer”. Of these many young hopefuls, some went on to greater things but the majority didn’t managing, at most, to only ever recorded a handful of songs; their main claim to posterity being an entry or two in record company ledgers. Listening to the caliber of the performances presented here adds to the mystery as to why these artists did not develop their recording careers further. Classic, Barrelhouse and Country Blues are all here and these women really know how to sing them.