Influential Blues singer Sippie Wallace, mentor to Bonnie Raitt, was born on this day in 1898 in Houston, TX. Sippie was born Beulah Thomas and like her fellow Texas Blues singer Victoria Spivey, carried the tradional Texas based Blues that emphasized risque lyrics and a rough-cut, rural vocal style. While in her teens, Sippie began singing in various tent shows and in the clubs and brothels of Houston. She moved to New Orleans with her younger pianist brother Hersal in 1915 and married Matt Wallace two years later. They moved to Chicago in 1923 and Sippie quckly gained a reputation as a hard-bottomed Blues singer and was signed to OKeh Records that same year. her first two releases Shorty George and Up The Country Blues , co-wtitten with her brother George, made her a Blues star. She followed with Special Delivery Blues (with Louis Armstrong on cornet) Bedroom Blues and the erotic I`m a Mighty Tight Woman. She recorded over 40 sides for OKeh, nearly half of them written by Sippie or co-written with her brothers. Wallace`s husband and brother George both died in 1936 (Hersal had died of food poisoning ten years earlier) and, grief stricken, SIppie took to religion. She sang only in church untill 1966, when longtime friend Victoria Spivey coaxed her out of retirement. She recorded an album Sippie Wallace Sings The Blues for the Storyville label that included pianists Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery and featured Sippie`s signature song Women Be Wise. The album was a major influence on a young Bonnie Raitt, and helped inspire her to take up Blues. Raitt later helped Sippie get a contract with Atlantic Records, and the resulting album , Sippie, featuring Raitt`s slide guitar, won a Grammy in 1983. Also check out Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey on Spivey Records. youtu.be/rf9gvuVXt0U
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 13:30:10 +0000
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