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Posted by Blues Society of Western Pennsylvania - Maria K Monday, April 4, 2011 9:22 PM




In honor of Women's History Month (March)....The blues goes back a long way and many women added to the blues scene. The following was provided by the Music Maker Relief Foundation, Inc. Music Maker aids the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music to gain recognition and meet their day-to-day needs. The organization provides those musical traditions to the world so that the American Culture will flourish and be preserved for future generations. (www.musicmaker.org)

Precious Bryant, born in 1942 in Talbot County, Georgia, was a traditional Blues player. Precious declared many times that Music Maker helped the players make their music and minimized their hardships. She stated that "I will always be playing the Blues as long as I live. The Blues tells the TRUTH. Sometimes it be sad, sometimes it be HAPPY-it W0RKS all kind of WAYS." Her lively guitar and rich vocals have been dubbed "musical treasures." She has earned the secure place in American Musical history as George's "Daughter of the Blues." ~Gary Dumm







The Snake Lady, Willa Mae Buckner, 1922-2000, (from Augusta, GA) ran away from home at the age of twelve to join an All Black Tent Show. She later learned to strip, sing bawdy songs, swallow swords and handle snakes. She played many carnival shows in the South in the early days of her career. In 1946 she settled in Spanish Harlem in New York. She studied foreign languages at night school, worked in restaurants and did domestic work. In 1964 she went back into snake handling and joined a traveling sideshow. In 1973 Buckner quit the road and moved to Winston-Salem where she worked as a bus driver. Duffy and Guitar Gabriel met her in 1989 at a drink house. She worked into the Music Maker group and began touring with them. Eventually, she played Carnegie Hall. She was known for the line, "I didn't learn anything, but at least I SAW something."~Harvey Pekar



Beverly "Guitar" Watkins was born in 1939 in Atlanta, GA to a gospel beat. Her musical talents were attributed to the musical influences of her grandfather's porch banjo and the Hayes' Sisters (her aunts). By 1958 she was playing rhythm guitar and bass with Billy West Stone and the Downbeats Blues/Jazz Group. Through the years and a succession of odd jobs, she spent her weekends playing guitar. After meeting Piano Red, Beverly joined a Blues Outfit that gained fame as "Dr. Feelgood and the Interns" in the early '60s. The Beatles "dug" songs of theirs like "Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo." It has been said that Beverly not only rocked, but sang the Blues and played lead guitar like a man. ~Gary Dumm





Cora Mae Bryant, born in 1926, was the daughter of Georgia guitar legend, Curley Weaver. In her youth, she traveled the Blues back roads with her father, playing at house parties and fish fries. She met up with Buddy Moss and Blind Willie McTell, guitarists extraordinaire. Someone once said of Cora's music..."Boy, some music goin' on and you couldn't hear nothin' on the floor but shoe heels hittin' the floor, folks be just a dancin', havin' a good time. Cora, herself, declared, "I don't write songs. When they come to me, I already know 'em. I get no pencil and write 'em. I write 'em in my head." Hitting her stride, Cora Mae hoboed around the South getting on the Blues and off Moonshine. There is a Blues "Museum" in her home. It is a fountain of blues knowledge for researchers (she knows hundreds of old songs). ~Gary Dumm

There are many notable female players from the past. This was just a sampling. Their lives were interesting and involved.