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April 7, 2006
LIVINGSTON,
Ala.—The
University of West Alabama showcases a slice of
Alabama's rich blues history with the traveling
educational exhibition “Red Hot and Blue: a
Spotlight on Alabama Blues Women” throughout April.
The exhibition from the Alabama Blues Project, an
organization dedicated to promoting the state’s
blues heritage, is on display in the Webb Hall
Gallery. It spotlights several female Alabama blues
artists including Sumter County native Vera Hall,
Big Mama Thornton, Coot Grant, Lucille Bogan and
Odetta The display even has a listening station for
visitors to hear the artists’ recordings.
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Sumter County native Vera Hall is one of
five artists featured in the
traveling exhibition “Red Hot and Blue:
a Spotlight on Alabama Blues Women,”
which is on display at UWA during the
month of April. |
“Both Alabama blues women and Alabama blues music
have been largely overlooked by scholars and
musicologists,” said Debbie Bond, blues musician and
director of the Alabama Blues Project. “This
exhibition will increase awareness of Alabama’s
wonderful musical heritage and bring it to a wider
audience.”
These five featured women offer a glimpse into
Alabama women’s contributions to the story of the
blues. Behind the better-known recording and
performance stars, there is a rich tradition of
Alabama women in the blues. From preserving musical
traditions to running juke joints, Alabama women
have helped create and sustain the greatest American
contribution to popular music—the blues.
One of the women, Vera Hall, was a different kind of
musician, who lived almost all of her life quietly
in Alabama, working as a cook and washerwoman. Born
in Livingston, she possessed an enormous repertoire
of traditional Alabama folk and blues songs from
West Alabama. The famous folklorist John Lomax is
often quoted as saying that Hall had the “loveliest
untrained voice I have ever recorded.” Long
respected by musicologists and roots music fans,
Hall sprang to international fame when her rendition
of the song “Trouble So Hard” was sampled on Moby’s
1999 CD Play, which sold over 2 million copies
worldwide. She was inducted into the Alabama Women’s
Hall of Fame in 2005.
The exhibition comes in conjunction with the
Sucarnochee Folklife Festival, planned for April
17-22 in Livingston. The Alabama Blues Project will
also give Sumter County students an “Introduction to
the Blues,” lecturing and performing on the UWA
campus, during the festival week. Alabama Blues
Project artists Caroline Shines and Debbie Bonds
will perform at the festival Saturday, April 22
beginning at 1 p.m. For more information about the
Sucarnochee Folklife Festival or the “Spotlight on
Alabama Blues Women,” call (205) 652-3752. |
