Show 19: Women's Legacy in Blues
This show centers women not as a sidebar but as one of the main engines of the tradition. It follows the blues through classic female blues, postwar shouters, and later stylists who kept turning pain, wit, and authority into song.
After three weeks, the Copacetic Communion has finally resumed for its nineteenth episode. Today's theme will focus on the female blues artists whose inspired sounds take hold of any listener in earshot. Up first to start the show is a track by an 83-year-old Alberta Hunter, who sounds just as vivid and fresh as she did in the 1920s. Here's "Darktown Strutters' Ball," released on a comeback album by John Hammond and Columbia Records in 1978. Here it is, what seventy years of singing the blues sounds like.
This show centers women not as a sidebar but as one of the main engines of the tradition. It follows the blues through classic female blues, postwar shouters, and later stylists who kept turning pain, wit, and authority into song.
| Order | Track | Artist | Segment | Bridge | Story |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Darktown Strutters' Ball | Alberta Hunter | 1 | - | |
| 2 | See See Rider | LaVern Baker | 1 | - | |
| 3 | Jelly Roll Blues | Sweet Emma Barrett | 1 | - | |
| 4 | St. Louis Blues | Lucille Hegamin | 1 | - | |
| 5 | Black Snake Blues | Victoria Spivey | 1 | - | |
| 6 | Dinah's Blues | Dinah Shore | 1 | - | |
| 7 | Backwater Blues | Bessie Smith | 1 | - | |
| 8 | Runaway Blues | Ma Rainey | 1 | Yes | - |
| 9 | If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home) | Memphis Minnie | 2 | Yes | - |
| 11 | Hard Working Woman | Mississippi Matilda | 2 | - | |
| 12 | I'm a Mighty Tight Woman | Sippie Wallace | 2 | - | |
| 13 | Man Stealer Blues | Lucille Bogan | 2 | - | |
| 14 | Telephoning the Blues | Victoria Spivey | 2 | - | |
| 15 | Wild Women Don't Have The Blues | Ida Cox,Coleman Hawkins Quintet | 2 | - | |
| 16 | Why Don't You Do Right | Lil Green | 2 | - | |
| 17 | Cry Me A River | Dinah Washington | 2 | Yes | - |
| 18 | Stormy Weather | Billie Holiday | 3 | Yes | Story |
| 19 | Lady Sings The Blues | Billie Holiday | 3 | - | |
| 20 | My Journey To The Sky | Sister Rosetta Tharpe,Marie Knight,Sam Price Trio | 3 | - | |
| 21 | Trouble in Mind | Sister Rosetta Tharpe | 3 | - | |
| 22 | I Ain't Got Nothing But The Blues | Ella Fitzgerald,Joe Pass | 3 | - | |
| 23 | I Shall Be Released | Nina Simone | 3 | - | |
| 24 | Looky Yonder | Odetta | 3 | - | |
| 25 | Today I Sing the Blues | Aretha Franklin | 3 | Yes | - |
| 26 | Ramblin' | Aretha Franklin | 4 | Yes | - |
| 27 | Hound Dog | Big Mama Thornton | 4 | Story | |
| 28 | Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On | Big Maybelle | 4 | - | |
| 29 | Slip-In Mules | Sugar Pie DeSanto | 4 | - | |
| 30 | Something's Got A Hold On Me | Etta James | 4 | - | |
| 31 | That's All Right | Bonnie Lee | 4 | - | |
| 32 | Wang Dang Doodle | Koko Taylor | 4 | Story | |
| 33 | Spoonful | Etta James,Harvey Fuqua | 4 | - | |
| 34 | Killing Me Softly With His Song | Roberta Flack | 4 | - | |
| Last Kind Word Blues | Geeshie Wiley | - |