Prove It on Me Blues

During the 1920s, the "Mother of the Blues," Ma Rainey, commanded massive audiences on the Black vaudeville circuit. In June 1928, she entered a Chicago studio with her Tub Jug Washboard Band and recorded one of the most explicit, unapologetic anthems of the classic blues era. "Prove It on Me Blues" is widely interpreted as a bold statement of same-sex desire, daring the authorities to catch her while wearing men's clothes. Backed by a raucous, syncopated rhythm section, her commanding contralto performance is a defining, radical statement of queer defiance decades before the modern civil rights movements.