Women Sing the Blues Spring Fundraiser (Postponed)

NOTE: This event has been postponed.​

A Sacramento Blues Society spring fundraiser celebrating women blues singers and songwriters. Raffle, drink specials, limited edition posters and great music!

It’s a terrible fact that women in history have often not appeared in American history books. That has held true in blues history also. Did you know that the first blues performed on a professional stage was by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey– later anointed The Mother of the Blues? Or that the very first blues ever recorded was “Crazy Blues” (Okeh Records) by Mamie Smith in 1920? And that the earliest form of this popular entertainment were all women performers who created the a genre unto itself — classic blues — and that the highest paid  entertainer in all of the 1920s was The Empress of the Blues — Bessie Smith?

Audience members will be treated to some of these classic songs as well as originals by area women singers.

Starring:
-Mz Su Mac
-Dana Moret
-Beth Reid-Grigsby
-Lisa Phenix
-Val Starr (Val Starr and The Blues Rocket)
-Ladee Bianca

Mz Su Mac is the daughter of legendary blues man Craig Horton and  was born and raised in Bigelow, Arkansas (where she hosts an annual Blues Festival.) She represented Sacramento Blues Society at the 2006 International Battle of the Blues Challenge winning the Semi-Final spot.

Dana Moret grew up in surrounded by live music as her parents owned the great roots music club, Constable Jack’s in Newcastle. Dana will be doing some Etta James, some Janis and one of her own.

Lisa Phenix made her way to Sacramento and formed her band in 2003 and is a leader in Sacramento Blues Society. She’s a relentless teacher, an advocate for self-empowerment through music for kids and adults.

Beth Reid-Grigsby started her professional career singing  “Trouble In Mind” in 1978 at the Bluebird Café. Her inspirations are many of the classic women blues singers: Memphis Minnie, Rosetta Tharpe, Lil Green, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith and  Elizabeth Cotten, Bonnie Raitt, plus jazz mavens Billie Holiday and Peggy Lee. Red’s Blues is releasing their third CD in spring.

Val Starr was born in Los Angeles and started her singing career there before moving to the Bay Area and then Sacramento in 2003. Some of her heroes are Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt.

Ladee Bianca has evolved into an icon in the San Francisco Bay Area where she’s known as “Queen of the Blues and Gospel.” She studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music before lending her contralto to the role of Billie Holiday in an acclaimed production of Jon Hendrick’s Evolution of the Blues. She has sung, recorded and toured the world with Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, John Lee Hooker and Sly Stone as a featured vocalist and background arranger. With her writing partner, Stanley Lippitt, she has a catalog of over three hundred songs and has produced, arranged and recorded nine albums.