LADIES SING THE BLUES / Volume 6

 

LADIES SING THE BLUES Volume 6

 

 

Our 6^th volume of our Ladies sing the blues series start with the (almost) complete work of Bea Booze (or Wea Bea Booze). Beatrice Booze was born 23 March 1912 in Baltimore, started to sing and play guitar at an early age, appeared in several Harlem clubs before being signed by Decca in 1942 to emulate Lil Green's success. Her See see rider blues climbed to n°1 on Billboard. She recorded again after the war with Sammy Price, Andy Kirk, George Kelly. Bea died 11 November 1986 in Scottsville, KY. Although she has recorded once under the name of Muriel Nichols, she has no relationship with the jazz singer of the same name. We are missing her 1962 odd two tracks she recorded with her friend Sammy Price for Stardust.

Singer Ramona Hicks who recorded six nice tracks in Chicago is still largely an unknown. Her real name seems to have been Lillie Mae Kirkman. 

            Although Little Tiny Kennedy is generally confused with Tiny Kennedy, the male blues shouter who recorded for Trumpet (and even so in Blues Discography!), she is a good female singer of her own who seems to have been for a short time Tiny Bradshaw band's vocalist. She recorded only two tracks that are featured there.

            At last we have the delicious Betty Lou DeMorrow. Her ten very bluesy tracks are witty double-entendre bawdy numbers that she recorded with Western Swing veteran and guitarist Dick Hartman under the band's name of Hartman's Heartbreakers. Betty was born Carrie Beatrice Clontz on 27 April 1898 in Gaston, NC. She married Ernest Goodman in 1914 and she died in Rowan, NC on 9 April 1982. It seems she didn't recorded elsewhere although she seems to have been involved in Carolina Country Music scene most of her lifetime. One of her daughter Hope Powell was one of the prominent photographer of Country stars like Dolly Parton.

 

                                                                       Gérard HERZHAFT

WEE BEA BOOZE (Beatrice Booze aka Muriel Nichols), vcl/g; Sammy Price, pno: bs; dms. New York City, 19-27 march 1942

01. If I'm a fool

02. I love to Georgia Brown so slow

03. Uncle Sam come and get me

04. If I didn't love you

05. See see rider blues

06. Let's be friends

07. Catching as catch can

08. War rationing papa

Bea Booze, vcl; Sammy Price, pno; Abe Bolar, bs; Doc West, dms. New York City, 3 march 1944

09. Mr Freddie blues

10. Gulf Coast blues

11. So good

Bea Booze, vcl; Floyd Smith, g; Hank Jones, pno; Andy Kirk Orchestra. New York City, 1946

12. Alabama bound

13. Doggin' man blues

Bea Booze, vcl; Her Dixielanders, band. New York City, 1946

14. See see rider

Wee Bea Booze, vcl; Larry Johnson, pno/og; George Kelly, t-sax; Chris Powell, bs; Panama Francis, dms. New York City, 2 march 1951

15. Don't tell me nothing about my man

16. Easy riding blues

17. I just ain't feeling right

18. I'm gonna put you down

RAMONA HICKS (Lillie Mae Kirkman), vcl; Buster Bennett, a-sax; Jimmy Adams, vb; Aletha Dickerson, pno; Leroy Brown, bs. Chicago, Ill. 15 may 1939

19. Ramona blues

20. Where the eagle builds his nest

21. Evil and blue

22. Don't be like me

23. Tell my mama on you (vcl: Reavely Randall)

24. I must have it

LITTLE TINY KENNEDY, vcl; Leslie Ayres, tpt; Jimmy Coe, a-sax; Rufus Gore, t-sax; Alexander Nelson, b-sax; Jimmy Robinson, pno; Willie Gaddy, g; Clarence Mack, bs; Calvin Shields, dms. Cincinnati, Oh. 27 february 1952

25. Rippin' and runnin'

26. Newspaper boy blues

(This Tiny Kennedy is a female singer and absolutely not Jess "Tiny" Kennedy the male black shouter)

BETTY LOU DEMORROW, vcl; Dick Hartman, g; Harry Blair, g; Cecil Campbell, bjo; Elmer Warren, fdl; Fred "Happy" Morris, bs; Pappy Wolfe, saw/wbd/perc. Charlotte, NC. 22 june 1936

27. Fetch it on down to my house

28. Give it to me daddy

29. Let me play with it

30. Oh sweet daddy oo pshaw!

31. Please Mr Moon don't tell on me

32. Grandma and Grandpa

33. Feels good

34. No hugging or kissing

Betty Lou De Morrow, vcl; Dick Hartman, g; Harry Blair, g; Cecil Campbell, bjo; Garnett Warren, fdl; Fred "Happy" Morris, bs; Pappy Wolfe, saw/wbd/perc. Charlotte, NC. 11 october 1936

35. A night in Carolina

36. My Southern movements