The Blues Foundation Podcast - Season 1: Blues Hall of Fame Dinah Washington was the most popular black, female, recording artist of the 50’s. During the peak of her career, it seemed like everything she touched turned to gold. Obviously, she had made a lot of fans. She also counted the other musical stars of the day as ardent devotees. Her talent, charisma, and hit-making ability were undeniable, and everyone wanted to record with her. But the critics weren’t always so nice. See, Dinah was a blues singer, they felt. And they wanted her to stay a blues singer. But Dinah Washington was so good, she could sing anything she wanted. She was a phenomenal jazz and pop singer. Dinah even had a hit singing a cover of Hank William’s Country and Western standard, "Cold Cold Heart." And the critics just didn’t like that. They often accused her of selling out the art of the blues to generate hits on the charts. But it wasn’t the critics that did Dinah Washington in. They never could get to her. It was the lifestyle. Her 7, tumultuous marriages; alcohol abuse; the constant battle to stay thin, so that she’d look good on stage. In 1963, at the tragically young age of 39 years old, Dinah Washington accidentally overdosed on diet pills. During her lifetime she received a Grammy Award for Best R & B Performance. She has three recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame. Dinah was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Blues Hall of Fame in 2003. This is her story.

The Blues Foundation Podcast - Season 1: Blues Hall of Fame Booker T Washington White, aka Bukka White, was many things. Like most African Americans born into the oppressive, Jim Crow era in the Mississippi Delta, he grew up sharecropping and picking cotton for plantation owners. He also drove mule teams. Bukka was a wandering Delta nomad, a professional boxer, a preacher, he played professional baseball in the Negro Leagues, and he even spent time working on a chain-gang. But he’s best known for playing the blues. His first instrument was the fiddle. He’d play for community dances on the plantation. History tells us that while performing at the Dockery Plantation, Bukka met Charlie Patton, Father of The Delta Blues, who became his friend and mentor. He soon graduated to guitar, mastered the bottleneck, and developed a completely unique sound of his own. Before long, he was touring the south and recording as “Washington White, The Singing Preacher.” Some of these early sides feature Memphis Minnie singing with Bukka. Bukka relocated to Memphis and in the early 40’s invited his nephew, Riley B King to come up from Itta Benna, MS to live with him. Riley, of course, became BB King, King of the Blues. In the early 60’s, white, folk artist Bob Dylan recorded White’s song, “Fixin’ To Die Blues” for his debut album and it introduced him to a global audience. Bukka became a major part of the 60’s blues revival, performing to audiences around the world. This is his story. Bukka White inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1990.

The Blues Foundation Podcast - Season 1: Blues Hall of Fame We continue the series with Bessie Smith, the Empress of The Blues. Bessie Smith wasn’t born into royalty. She had to work her way up. But she had the talent, and she most certainly had the determination to overcome her humble origins. At 9 years of age, Bessie was orphaned and earning money for food by singing with her older brother on street corners in Chattanooga, TN. He ran away to pursue a better life with a vaudeville troupe, but he eventually returned to get her when she was 18. Bessie auditioned to be a singer but was assigned the role of a dancer because the troupe already had a star vocalist: blues legend Ma Rainey. But it worked out very well for Bessie. Ma liked her and she helped Bessie get her act together. She showed Bessie how to work crowds and put on a show. After embarking on her own, Bessie Smith became the biggest star on the black theater circuit, and she grew to become one of the biggest stars in the world. Some even say that her ventures into other mediums such as Broadway and film, coupled with her controversial romances and tumultuous private life, became the blueprint for the modern rockstar. Bessie has 3 songs in the Grammy Hall of Fame. "Down Hearted Blues" is included in the Songs of The Century by the Recording Industry of America and was inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped Rock and Roll. Bessie Smith was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980. Since then, she has been inducted into the Big Band Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, received a posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and has also been inducted into the Jazz Hall of Fame. This is her story.