Little Tiny Kennedy

Little Tiny Kennedy did female impersonation along with recording a number of releases in the 50s. The above album contains five of his tracks from 1952, though to my taste the real prizes were his guest vocals with the Tiny Bradshaw Orchestra in 1952 for the King label, doing "Newspaper Boy Blues" and "Rippin' and Runnin'"

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Patsy Valdelar, or Vidalia

I've seen several spellings for Patsy's last name, but Vidalia seems to be the most accurate. When she recorded two tracks for Mercury in 1953 they resurfaced as by Patsy Valdelar on the various artists album below. It features her two tracks "Keep Your Hands on Your Heart" and "Rock Me." The screen captures above come from the wonderful DVD documentary "The Nightlife That Was," directed by Stephen Tyler in 2004. While she lacked success as a recording artist Patsy is still known as the Toast of New Orleans, for emceeing the shows at the Dew Drop Inn for two decades and for hosting the Gay Ball at Halloween, said to be the biggest party of the year. Born in 1921, she died in 1982.

   

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For researchers I strongly recommend the "Nightlife That Was" DVD and the book "The Soul of New Orleans," by reknown music historian Jeff Hannusch. He wrote a whole chapter on Patsy, one of the few sources of information you're likely to find. A short article by him mentioning her can be found by Clicking Here.

  

Big Mama Thornton

 

Rumored to be lesbian, Willie Mae, or Big Mama Thornton (1926 - 1984) is mostly known today as having the original version of "Hound Dog," had had a hit with it in 1952, four years before Elvis scored even bigger with it.

Little Richard

I don't need to say much about Little Richard, as he's been a visible part of our culture for over 40 years, most recently on TV in a Geico commercial. I couldn't resist making up my own version of that, complete with fake pic including myself in the ad. In the center of the collage above is his recording of "Dew Drop Inn," though I prefer Esquerita's earlier one. Little Richard, born Richard Penniman, was born in 1932 and is the only artist featured on this show who is still living.

Esquerita

There's lots of excellent material by Esquerita (1938 - 1986) and it's easy to see that he and
Little Richard influenced each other. Esquerita however just couldn't get a hit, a shame.

  

Bobby Marchan

      

Bobby Marchan (1930 - 1999) had a long career, recording on quite a number of record labels, with some mainstream success, such as in 1960 with the #1 R&B hit "There Is Something On Your Mind." He also sang lead on the 1958 hit "Don't You Just Know It" as released by Huey Piano Smith & the Clowns. And he founded his own drag troup, the Powder Box Revue, which toured extensively.

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Long John Baldry

  

Long John Baldry (1941 - 2005) had a lot to do with the British blues boom of the 60s,
and sang vocals on the album credited by some with starting that boom, "R&B from
the Marquee," by Blues Incorporated. He was quite influential on his own as well, helping
start the careers of Rod Stewart and Elton John. Baldry and Steward produced the
"It Ain't Easy" album that in 1971 yielded his most known American hit, "Don't Try to Lay
No Boogie Woogie on the King of Rock & Roll." And he was openly gay, even in the 60s.
Before you start guessing, his name came from his being 6'7" tall. He lived in Canada
the last 20 years of his life. Below, a collage of some of his albums and reissues.

   

Janis Joplin

   

This show has been about early blues by gay, lesbian and bisexual artists, from the 1920s up to 1970. And I'm going to end the show with a very bluesy artist, who came upon the music scene in the mid 60s with a career that burned fast and hot, going out abruptly with her drug overdose in late 1970, at age 27. I'm talking about Janis Joplin. She had much album success with the San Francisco band Big Brother and the Holding Company, and as a solo artist in 1970 she was working on her next album. She died before it was finished but enough of it was done to enable the album, called "Pearl" and released the next year, to become her biggest selling album, with her biggest single, "Me and Bobbie McGee." From that same album I'm closing the show with her bluesy cover version of the 1963 hit by Garnett Mimms. Janis Joplin and "Cry Baby."

Selected Links

Kokomo Arnold
Long John Baldry
Billy Banks
Gladys Bentley
Esquerita
Alberta Hunter
Bessie Jackson
Frankie Jaxon
Janis Joplin
Little Tiny Kennedy
Hedda Lettuce
Bobby Marchan
Ma Rainey
Little Richard
Bessie Smith
Big Mama Thornton
Patsy Vidalia
Ethel Waters
Billy Wright