Ma Rainey

            Gertrude “Ma” Rainey was born in Georgia in 1886, and by the time she was 18 she was touring with song-and-dance groups, minstrel troupes and vaudeville tent shows, most famously with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels. [1]   Although she was not born in the Delta and not raised in the blues tradition, she would go on to become one of the primary proponents of the blues, and one of the premier recording artists of the “Classic” blues.

             Rainey 's musical background was in vaudeville, popular, and Western classical styles, and she was unfamiliar with the Delta blues until, in a small Missouri town, a young girl visited her tent and sang a “strange and poignant” song about losing her man. Rainey learned the song and incorporated it into her act, and, like W. C. Handy who also stumbled serendipitously upon the Delta blues, she found that it elicited a great response from her audiences. [2]

             Continuing to tour the southeastern United States, Rainey played a crucial role in spreading and popularizing the blues style before the advent of the recording industry. Subsequently, Rainey became one of the most popular artists to make commercial blues records, exemplifying the “Classic” blues style.

     Bibliography

      [1]  Wald, Escaping the Delta, 11.       [2]  Ibid.