Music Hall of Fame on horizon Nov 23, 2008
While college officials work on raising the funds and developing academic programs, Whitburn will work to assemble a board to determine which of the greats -- be it Bessie Smith, Leonard Bernstein or the Beach Boys -- should be part of the first class. "A great music museum should be open to all areas," Curb said. (Daytona Beach News Journal)
Who should be in the Hall? Nov 23, 2008
How do you choose an inaugural class of, say, five music artists among W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Leonard Bernstein, Hank Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Bessie Smith, Aaron Copland, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, Patsy Cline, Marian Anderson, Johnny Cash and. This music critic's choice for the one indispensable inaugural inductee: Jimi Hendrix. (Daytona Beach News Journal)
Mae Mercer, blues singer, bar manager Nov 14, 2008
"She had a deep, powerful voice. Her idol was Bessie Smith, so she sang in that idiom.". Ms. Mercer already was singing in Paris in 1960 when she met Maurice Girodias, the French publisher of banned books such as "Lolita" and "The Ginger Man," who hired her to sing at - and later to run - the Blues Bar, one of four clubs he owned in a building next door to his editorial offices. (Boston Globe)
• Community news Nov 11, 2008
The event showcases five local residents who have shared their stories about life in Jerome during WWII and will honor the local oral history of participants, Bessie Smith, Ray Fyke and wife, Thomas Mahan, Ralph Peters and Truman Beem. The event is presented by the Jerome County Historical Society. (Burley South Idaho Press, ID)
• Veterans Day events Nov 9, 2008
Veterans Day ceremony and 1940s oral history presentation, special social hour in honor of local World War II oral history participants: Bessie Smith, Ray Fyke and wife, Thomas Mahan, Ralph Peters, and Truman Beem, 5 to 7 p.m., Jerome Public Library, 100 First Ave. E., 324-5427. Special assembly honoring veterans, 1:30 p.m., Gooding Middle School auditorium, 1047 Seventh Ave. W., Gooding, 934-5401. (Burley South Idaho Press, ID)
Studs Turkel: A working man till the end Nov 3, 2008
" That led in 1945 to a radio show, The Wax Museum, where he played Bach and Woody Guthrie and Bessie Smith and began interviewing musicians. "One listener said it was like a conversation, and she was eavesdropping on it," Terkel once said. Radio led to TV in 1950 and a NBC show, Studs' Place, a fictional cafe, with Terkel talking to guests as if they just dropped by. "So true to life," he said, "that Brecht would have roared. " His leftist politics got him in trouble in 1953 when the... (USA Today)
Art for a forgotten faith Oct 29, 2008
This bond is the subtext of Terry Adkins's feather-headdress homage to Bessie Smith and of Sanford Biggers's "Ghetto Bird Tunic," a plumed North Face-style parka fit for a danced masquerade. And it is the essence of Betye Saar's talismanic little sorcerer's shrine from 1972, the earliest piece here, and George Smith's black steel wall sculpture, hanging high on a wall, its circular, spiraling shape a reference to Dogon cosmology. (International Herald Tribune)
Time To Get The Blues Oct 3, 2008
Eden's piano playing has been called "fresh and spontaneous, often filled with audience requests and participation." Portrayed by one critic as "Bessie Smith meets Diana Krall meets Janis Joplin," other critics have compared her to Diana Washington, Sarah Vaughn and Norah Jones. Winner of the 2006 International Blues Challenge, she was the student and duo partner of Delta Boogie-woogie pianist Boogaloo Ames (1918-2002). (Forest Scott County Times, MS)
Then and now Sep 22, 2008
In 1923, Bessie Smith recorded her first song, "Down Hearted Blues," a huge hit that made her known as the Queen of the Blues. The final homestand. (MLB.com -- NY Yankees Yankees)
Blues singers share their lives through song Sep 18, 2008
The great blues and jazz tunes from the likes of Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen, songs such as "Taking a Chance on Love," "Am I Blue?," "These Foolish Things Remind Me of You," and "Stompin' at the Savoy" punctuate the steamy night. This demanding show came to director Lee Godburn, a Middletown native, as a bunch of hand-written notes of music from the 1930s and a vocal book and recording from 1978. (New Britain Herald, CT)
Carla Bruni: when Carla met Jools and Metallica Sep 18, 2008
Holland accompanied her while she sang the Bessie Smith tune Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. It was hard to believe that Carla had ever been down and out. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Welcome to the Asylum Jul 30, 2008
The Austin, Texas, acoustic-blues and roots gang is partial to Bessie Smith and Robert Johnson but mixes it up with original tunes, vaudeville antics, social commentary, great harmonies, and an instrument arsenal of washboard, harmonica, singing saw, and more. Sorry kids, tonight's show isn't for the booger bunch. (Boston Globe)
Step into world of blues, love and life in 'Blues in the Night' Jun 18, 2008
Blues in the Night is a musical revue that honors the great blues and jazz standards by Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer and others. This entertaining show runs through Saturday, June 28, at the Jacksonville Beach community theater. (Florida Times-Union)
My old man: a voyage around our fathers Jun 15, 2008
It was my dad who gave me my love of music, and my first double album - which was Bessie Smith. He played jazz obsessively, humming along to Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie or Art Tatum. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Events listings May 18, 2008
9/1-9/13: "The Devil's Music: the Life and Blues of Bessie Smith.". Cape Rep 3299 Rte. (Boston Globe)
Pieces of Americana on display at college May 9, 2008
Hatch also captured other musical genres, including jazz and blues entertainers of the times such as Cab Calloway, Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. Just as eye-catching were the everyday posters the small jobs for filling stations, laundries, grocery stores and movie theaters. (Columbia Daily Herald, TN)
Critics' Picks May 3, 2008
A full-tilt, pulse-pounding Iraq-war movie; deep thoughts from Jack Handey; a site for old Suck fans and more. Yes, we all know what happens to Iraq-war movies in the marketplace of ideas. (Salon)
2008 International Festival straight ‘Out of Africa’ Apr 16, 2008
In keeping with the theme of Africa and the African influence in America, one stage will be transformed into Harlem s legendary Prohibition-era jazz haunt The Cotton Club, where local talents will pay homage to Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith. There are also drum circles and beauty queens for a fashion runway show, but one of the biggest draws every year is always the food. (Pearland Journal, TX)
How obscurity helped restore Ma Rainey's home Mar 31, 2008
"Don't like my ocean, don't fish in my sea," she sang in a song she wrote with Bessie Smith. "Stay out of my valley, and let my mountain be.". (International Herald Tribune -- Arts)
VH1 and Sundance Channel to Air Original Four-Part Documentary Series From Perry Films, 'Sex: The Revolution' Premiering on VH1, Monday, May 12 - Thursday, May 15 at 10pm* Each Night Mar 25, 2008
Their company Perry Films Inc., founded in 1989, pioneered music videos, music documentaries and music long form, and has produced over 50 films to date, including the recent "Imagining America: Icons of 20th Century Art" and the Peabody Award-winning "John Hammond: From Bessie Smith to Bruce Springsteen." Hart Perry's credits also include cinematography for Barbara Kopple's Academy Award-wining documentaries Harlan County U.S.A. and American Dream, and he was the youngest cameraman on the... (Yahoo! Wire -- Entertainment News)
He got a big sound from a small instrument Mar 17, 2008
The group was top-heavy with legends, including Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters. Given his standing in the realm of blues, Walter s inclusion in the rock hall s sidemen category is almost a slight. (Lima News, OH)
Catherine Russell Mar 6, 2008
March 11 The singer's gutsy blues croon - one of the best this side of Bessie Smith - could melt the ice in a bourbon on the rocks. Russell fetes her new CD, "Sentimental Streak," at Scullers. (Boston Globe)
Good food, drink, music are on the playlist Mar 5, 2008
Then segue into a medley: "Catfish," John Lee Hooker; "The Goat," Junior Wells; "Hungry Like the Wolf," Duran Duran; "Gimme a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer," Bessie Smith. The food here is comforting and often Cajun-tinged. (Boston Globe)
Shifting Gears Mar 2, 2008
Others we lost in 1937: wireless radio inventor and Nobel physicist Guglielmo Marconi; science-fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft; novelist Edith Wharton; actress Jean Harlow; composer George Gershwin; and singer Bessie Smith. SOURCES. (Daytona Beach News Journal)
Contributed Mattie Nichols and her assistant Brenda Baldwin led Nichols first grade class in a song written by her called, “Black History, Black History.” Mar 2, 2008
Heroes were Jesse Owens (William Pressley), Zora Hurston (Ashley Oldham), Matthew Henson (Edward Causey), Mohammed Ali (Austin Patrick), Rosa Parks (Kaylin Fulp and Grayson Campbell), Bessie Smith (Gwen Coker), Paul Lawrence Dunbar (Hunter King), Susan Taylor (Alicia Everette), Jakie Robinson (Darius Bostick), Maya Aneglou (Annie Buie), Langston Hughes (Bruce Stanback), Sen. Barak Obama (Jeff Epps) and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Mr. (Rockingham Daily Journal, NC)
Review: Jazz singer Paula West rocks the house Feb 16, 2008
She skipped nimbly across the samba rhythm of Luiz Bonfa's "Sweet Happy Life" from "Black Orpheus" and dug in with gusto to the old Bessie Smith standard "Gimme a Pigfoot," another deviation from standard cabaret fare (Billie, sure, but not Bessie). Backed by a quartet of fancy New York jazz musicians (including the rather wonderful Ed Cherry on guitar), whom she introduced to the crowd four or five times in the short performance, West sailed through her hourlong show like a breeze. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Foundation spurs young writers Feb 15, 2008
Bayeza led them in connecting the Harlem Renaissance to hip hop along a river of colorful history and later worked out sounds and rhythms for rap takes on a Bessie Smith blues tune or a Langston Hughes poem. "You've got a hook for them, then you've got them," Colley-Lee says. (The Clarion-Ledger)
BET Networks Celebrates Black History Month With an Entertaining Lineup of Music Specials, Blackbuster Movie Premieres, and Ground-Breaking Documentaries Jan 24, 2008
The film includes memorable footage of some of the blues' greatest players -- Son House, Bessie Smith, Jimmy Rushing, Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21. (Yahoo! Wire -- Entertainment News)
Way Down in Harmony, With Mythic Blues Again Dec 30, 2007
Amanda comes straight from and Nadine from Bessie Smith. Other one-note characters include a dignified, terminally weary blues singer, Bertha Mae (Mabel John), her devoted long-time consort Slick (), Tyrones partner Delilah (Lisa Gay Hamilton), whose frustrations are driving her to explore Pentecostalism, and Tyrones best friend Maceo (). (New York Times)
Lasting impactSome of the key entertainment figures who died in 2007 Dec 30, 2007
A fan of Bessie Smith and Fats Waller, he was famous for his routine of singing jazz numbers from the 1920s, interspersed with ribald jokes and saucy asides. According to his wife, Melly was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2005 for which he refused all treatment. (BBC News -- UK)
Flirting with disaster (79) Dec 16, 2007
Gimme a little Ella, or Billy, or Aretha, or Bessie Smith. Any of these singers show up Whitehouse for exactly what she is: a talented poseur. (Salon)
The rise of the rock goddess Dec 12, 2007
Inspiration-wise, Muldaur owes a huge debt to blues singer Bessie Smith, whose music she first heard at the age of eight, after her father gave her a tape of Smith's music. "It changed my life. I was a barn-rat; a major horse competitor, so I would work in the barn all day and clean the horses and muck out listening to Smith on headphones, which is probably a kind of weird thing to do. I just remember feeling that it was the most powerful music I'd heard.". (Guardian Unlimited)
The cancer that afflicts the States Oct 28, 2007
An insured woman from South Central Los Angeles lost her daughter when her insurance company prevented her going to her nearest hospital, an incident that recalls the death in 1937 of Bessie Smith, turned away from a Mississippi hospital because she was black. Moore also shows us old, mostly black people in Los Angeles who are dumped on skid row by hospitals because they cannot pay. (The Observer)
Teresa Brewer, brassy singer of '50s hits, '70s jazz songs Oct 18, 2007
She accompanied Count Basie's big band for a 1973 album of blues songs popularized by Bessie Smith. Her 1982 album, "Teresa Brewer in London," included a rock version of "Music! Music! Music!". (Boston Globe)
Tawas Bay Players to open family musical Honk! Oct 11, 2007
The production staff consists of Janie Mundy, assistant director; Blazic, vocal director; Sapp, music director; Blazic, Witt and C.J. Brummeller, choreographers; June Hudgins and Janie Mundy, producers; Debra DeBois, kid wrangler; Andy DeWilde, stage manager; DeWilde, Chris Nunn and Tom Hall, set crew; Phyllis Spencer, Mary Kiernan and Hudgins, house managers; Hudgins, publicity; Sue Duncan, Dee Bixby and Linda Skodak, properties; Suzanne Johnson, Jennifer Maser, Sandy Lixey, Lisa Denney, June... (Iosco County News Herald, MI)
Art and music bringing people together (9/30) Sep 30, 2007
" She's featured in this month's issue of "O," and immediately after our deal, she will fly to Madrid where a museum is having a solo show of her work. Our "deal" happened last weekend. It's called SlowExposures (slowexposures.org), a series of photographic and social events, the centerpiece of which is an exhibition. It all takes place in Concord, Ga., a town about the size of Crawford, maybe not even that big. Concord is five miles from Zebulon, a place that looks how Oxford must have looked... (Columbus Commercial Dispatch, MS)
Memphis Minnie honored with trail marker Sep 25, 2007
In 1980, Minnie and Bessie Smith were the only two women elected to the inaugural group of performers in the Blues Foundation's Blues Hall of Fame. Minnie's grave remained unmarked until the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund raised money for a tombstone in 1996. (Yahoo News)
The good old days Sep 16, 2007
Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith. Some candidates or their surrogates turned out for Labor Day parades in the small towns of South Carolina. (Orangeburg Times and Democrat, SC)
A Life Of The Blues Jul 23, 2007
Leonard Feather, writing in Playboy, called her "Bessie Smith in stereo!" Time magazine quoted Louis Armstrong, having just caught Dane, telling his agent, "Did you get that chick? She's a gasser." Time's critic pronounced her "on the brink of the big time, one of the few white blues singers who has ever belonged there." ... "I learned just about everything I know about how to be a woman who wasn't abused or stepped upon or exploited by listening to the attitude that I heard coming through on... (San Francisco Chronicle -- Entertainment)
Memories Of A One-Off Jazz Legend Jul 7, 2007
At school Melly once seduced former Sunday Telegraph editor Sir Peregrine Worsthorne on a sofa but said he found crackly 78s by Bessie Smith, Fats Waller and Jelly Roll Morton far more satisfying. He later joined the navy as the war ended and travelled the world experimenting with both jazz and sex in a series of hilarious escapades which he later recounted in his book Rum, Bum And Concertina. (Sky News)
ObituaryThe flamboyant life of jazz singer and writer George Melly Jul 6, 2007
A fan of Bessie Smith and Fats Waller, he was to become famous for his routine of singing jazz numbers from the 1920s, interspersed with ribald jokes and saucy asides. Too respectable. (BBC News -- Entertainment)
George Melly, the last king of the swingers, dies Jul 6, 2007
" The deathbed advice that a young George Melly received from his wool-trader father was: "Do what you want - I never did". And he followed it with unique aplomb. When the jazz singer himself died yesterday, at the age of 80, he had left few stones unturned, few avenues unexplored. Indeed, his life had been as large and flamboyant as any of the trademark double-breasted suits that he habitually wore on stage. Best known for his distinctively growled jazz vocals, Melly was also a wartime sailor,... (Daily Mail)
Obituary: George Melly Jul 5, 2007
White, middle-class and English, he was as unlike Bessie Smith as it was possible to be, but his homage to the black musicians was as successful as it was unlikely. He also began to develop an independent reputation as a writer and critic. (Guardian Unlimited -- UK)
Riverbend Festival is June 8-16 Jun 5, 2007
On Monday, June 11, Riverbend will host the Bessie Smith Strut, a downtown street blues and barbecue festival. The strut will hail three stages featuring Skeeter Brandon, Watermelon Slim, Mem Shannon, Leavin Miss Blue, Deacon Bluz and Holy Smoke. (WWalker County Messenger, GA)
'Our Voices are Many' sings of diverse past of black women May 17, 2007
"Our Voices Are Many" will give the audience a second chance to see Josephine Mayo perform the well-known "Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do," made popular by Bessie Smith. Mayo has been performing with "Our Voices Are Many" since its inception and she has performed in numerous local musicals. (Pensacola News Journal)
What's Up May 12, 2007
WHAT'S UP By JACQUELINE BURT WANG - Entertainment - New York Post Online Edition. BACK ON TRACK: Get fit and have fun at the Youth Track & Field & Wellness Jamboree. (New York Post -- Entertainment)
Loin-lovin' lyrics May 9, 2007
Sequined dames Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Sara Martin, Alberta Hunter, Mamie Smith and Ma Rainey were ribald yet classy, and backed by the top jazz musicians of the day ... The album is no dry, scholarly project; Muldaur, beguiled as a teenager by a scratchy copy of Bessie Smith's Empty Bed Blues, was mentored early by Victoria Spivey and Sippie Wallace - vaudeville queens rediscovered during the sixties folk revival. (Globe and Mail -- Entertainment)
A summer of good tunes May 9, 2007
Think Bessie Smith, Sippie Wallace and the like. hrek: The Third : The soundtrack to the animated sequel, with contributions from Fergie, Wolfmother and the always cartoonish Macy Gray. (Boulder Colorado Daily, CO)
3. Festival thumps to life behind legend's blues riffs May 6, 2007
"I like just about everybody, and everybody I hear is different." Her own style borrows from no one, she says, not even legends Bessie Smith or Billie Holiday. "I love them old girls, but I don't love them enough to try to sound like them.". (The Commercial Appeal, TN)
Rabson sings the blues in Sykesville Apr 14, 2007
Praised as having the "best left hand in the blues," Rabson, who is inspired by classic blues divas like Bessie Smith and Memphis Minnie, continues to bring the historic blues, boogie-woogie and barrelhouse music styles front and center. Baldwin's Station is at 7618 Main St. Tickets are 18, and the concert room opens for seating and dining at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call 410-795-1041. (Carroll County Times)
Take in some magic and whimsy this summer Mar 28, 2007
"Sundays in August" offers two musical evenings hosted by Inara George: "A Tribute to Lowell George" on Sunday, August 19; and "A Tribute to Bessie Smith" on Sunday, August 26. "Botanicum Seedlings: A Development Series for Playwrights" furthers new works and new voices, presenting readings of new plays on select Sundays. (Los Angeles Daily News)
Edison the Inventor, Edison the Showman Mar 11, 2007
But he permitted competitors to snatch up other performers like Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Fannie Brice and Al Jolson. The first record to sell one million copies was Vernon Dalhart;s hillbilly ditty ;The Prisoner;s Song. (Shoals TimesDaily)
'Wild' show is solid blues primer Feb 26, 2007
The legendary Ma Rainey - the mentor of the "empress" of blues, Bessie Smith - once noted that "white folks hear the blues come out, but they don't know how it got there." ... Deep and rich one minute, she scale hops often, diction-perfect like Bessie Smith, sliding and keenly aware of word meaning - although lyrics on some songs prove to be adventures for Mary - and she has an unusual but pleasant talent to break phrases unexpectedly. (Buffalo News -- Entertainment)
Black History makers laid the foundation Feb 26, 2007
The twenties saw jazz and the blues emerge as recognized art forms, each displaying a rhythmic complexity or "collective improvisation." It was a period of such timeless starts as Paul Robeson, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Eubie Blake. Eighty years later, with the Democratic sweep of the 2006 mid-term elections, African-Americans are at the peak of their political power and point with pride to the election of two Black governors and lieutenant governors, and Congressmen who have... (Buffalo News -- Opinion)
Distinguished French lecturer makes musical stop in Missoula Feb 15, 2007
Before that, he was discovering Benny Goodman, Bessie Smith, Count Basie and Lionel Hampton. . (Missoulian, MT)
Popular Music Rooted in African Culture Feb 13, 2007
There's a good chance, if you go far enough back, you'll come across names like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Bessie Smith. Regardless of where you start, whether it's rock, punk, country, rhythm , or rap, somewhere along the journey back in time you'll find an artist that wouldn't have sounded the same without those African roots. (The Daily Universe, UT)
Singer Frankie Laine dies at 93 Feb 8, 2007
Laine said his musical influences included Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and jazz artists including Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. When people nowadays say that Elvis was the first white guy to sound black, I have to shake my head; what can you do. (MSNBC -- Music)
'First of the white soul singers' Feb 7, 2007
He listened avidly to records ranging from Galli-Curci to Bessie Smith, and heard Caruso perform in person. After doing odd jobs and suffering unemployment during the Depression, he took to marathon dancing. (Guardian Unlimited -- World)
Frankie Laine, 93 Feb 7, 2007
Laine said his musical influences included Bing Crosby, Al Jolson and jazz artists including Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holliday. Laine's variety show Frankie Laine Time ran for two summers, 1955 and 1956, on CBS, and he also appeared in films including When You're Smiling, and Sunny Side of the Street. (Globe and Mail)
Frankie Laine, 93; sang 'Mule Train,' theme for 'Rawhide' Feb 7, 2007
As a youngster, Laine sang in the all-boy choir at church, but first became excited about music when he listened to one of his mother's records on a windup Victrola: Bessie Smith singing "Bleeding Hearted Blues" with "Midnight Blues" on the flip side. "The first time I laid the needle down on that record I felt cold chills and an indescribable excitement," Laine said. (Los Angeles Times)
Black Blues Are Born Feb 5, 2007
Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. While staring in the Rabbit Foot Minstrels Ma Rainey took under her wing an eleven-year-old girl, who went on to become one of the highest-paid singers in the. (Suite101.com)
Whitney Balliett Feb 3, 2007
Imagine Bessie Smith s Gimme a Pigfoot being considered militant ... Then came a couple of Burt Bacharach songs, a swinging Nashville Nightingale, a slow Stella Brooks blues, the Bessie Smith Cake Walkin Babies, and a long, intense reading of Bye Bye Blackbird that equalled any other version I ve ever heard. (New Yorker)
CD Review: Band Tribute Album Lavishes Praise With Little Originality Feb 3, 2007
Only the exclusion of Joe Henry's version of "Bessie Smith," which was a hidden gem on the storied "Basement Tapes" cut with Dylan, deserves a spot on the record. Unlike so many of the performers here, Henry seems to understand the musical dynamics that the Band emphasized in their music. (Click2Houston, TX)
Historical marker placed on Mississippi Blues Trail Jan 25, 2007
The hotel was formerly the G.T. Thomas Hospital and is best known as the place where the empress of the blues, Bessie Smith, died in 1937 from injuries sustained in a car accident. "The Riverside Hotel is a monument to our blues heritage and many international visitors come to make it a part of their cultural tourism experience," Alex Thomas, heritage trails director for the Mississippi Development Authority, said. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA)
Riverside placed on Blues Trail Jan 23, 2007
" Roger Stolle, co-owner of Cat Head Delta Blues and Folk Art, 252 Delta Ave., said the Riverside Hotel is a great choice. "I think it's no coincidence a blues marker placed in Clarksdale will be at Riverside Hotel for it's long-term continual history in regards to blues," he said. Stolle said the hotel reserves the honor as an African-American hospital where legendary singer Bessie Smith died and as a residence for many blues singers. "It's fitting in my mind because it's still an active,... (Clarksdale Press Register, MS)
Riverside trails toward the blues Jan 23, 2007
But the hotel is best known for Bessie Smith, who was a popular and successful blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. It was on Sept. 26, 1937, when Smith was severely injured in a car accident on U.S. Highway 61 on her way to Clarksdale. (Clarksdale Press Register, MS)
