Show 32: Bessie Smith's Legacy

For today's 32nd episode of the Copacetic Communion Blues Show, I have elected to focus on a small group of towering figures in the mythology of the blues. This group is made up of Ma Rainey and her protegee Bessie Smith, along with the insurmountable contemporaries who helped shape her sound. Miss Smith was first discovered in 1917 by Frank Walker at a performance in a gin mill. Just six years later, in 1923, Bessie released "Down-Hearted Blues," accompanied on piano by jazzman Clarence Williams, to great success. "Down-Hearted Blues" was, for all intents and purposes, the number one song in America, although this was long before actual hit charts.