Mother of the Blues

Ma Rainey - Mother of the Blues

Mother of the Blues
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CD Details

Artist: Ma Rainey
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2007-07-17
Music Label: Jsp Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Bad Luck Blues - Ma Rainey
  2. Bo-Weavil Blues - Ma Rainey
  3. Bo-Weavil Blues - Ma Rainey
  4. Barrel House Blues - Ma Rainey
  5. Those All Night Long Blues - Ma Rainey
  6. Those All Night Long Blues - Ma Rainey
  7. Moonshine Blues - Ma Rainey
  8. Last Minute Blues - Ma Rainey
  9. Southern Blues - Ma Rainey
  10. Walking Blues - Ma Rainey
  11. Lost Wondering Blues - Ma Rainey
  12. Dream Blues - Ma Rainey
  13. Honey Where You Been So Long - Ma Rainey
  14. Ya Da Do - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  15. Ya Da Do - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  16. Those Dogs Of Mine - Ma Rainey
  17. Lucky Rock Blues - Ma Rainey
  18. South Bound Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  19. Lawd Send Me a Man Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  20. Ma Rainey's Mystery Record - Ma Rainey
Music CD 2
  1. Shave 'Em Dry Blues - Ma Rainey
  2. Farewell Daddy Blues - Ma Rainey
  3. Booze And Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  4. Toad Frog Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  5. Jealous Hearted Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  6. See See Rider Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  7. See See Rider Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  8. Jelly Bean Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  9. Countin' the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  10. Countin' the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  11. Cell Bound Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  12. Army Camp Harmony Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  13. Army Camp Harmony Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  14. Explaining the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  15. Explaining the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  16. Louisiana Hoo-Doo Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  17. Goodbye Daddy Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  18. Stormy Sea Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  19. Rough And Tumble Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  20. Night Time Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  21. Night Time Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  22. Levee Camp Moan - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  23. Four Day Honorary Scat - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  24. Four Day Honorary Scat - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  25. Memphis Bound Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
Music CD 3
  1. Slave To the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  2. Yonder Comes the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  3. Titanic Man Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  4. Titanic Man Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  5. Chain Gang Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  6. Bessemer Bound Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  7. Bessemer Bound Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  8. Oh My Babe Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  9. Wring And Twisting Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  10. Stack O'Lee Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  11. Broken Hearted Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  12. Jealousy Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  13. Seeking Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  14. Seeking Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  15. Mountain Jack Blues - Ma Rainey
  16. Mountain Jack Blues - Ma Rainey
  17. Down In the Basement - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  18. Sissy Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  19. Broken Soul Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  20. Trust No Man - Ma Rainey
Music CD 4
  1. Morning Hour Blues - Ma Rainey
  2. Weeping Woman Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  3. Soon This Morning - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  4. Little Low Mama Blues - Ma Rainey
  5. Grievin' Hearted Blues - Ma Rainey
  6. Don't Fish In My Sea - Ma Rainey
  7. Big Boy Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  8. Blues Oh Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  9. Damper Down Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  10. Gone Daddy Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  11. Oh Papa Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  12. Misery Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  13. Dead Drunk Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  14. Slow Driving Moan - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  15. Blues the World Forgot - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  16. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  17. Blues the World Forgot - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  18. Hellish Rag - Ma Rainey's Georga Band
  19. Georgia Cake Walk - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  20. New Bo Weavil Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  21. Moonshine Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Georgia Jazz Band
  22. Ice Bag Papa - Ma Rainey's Georga Band
Music CD 5
  1. Black Cat Hoot Owl Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  2. Log Camp Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  3. Hear Me Talking To You - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  4. Hustlin' Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  5. Prove It To Me Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  6. Victim Of the Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  7. Traveling Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  8. Traveling Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  9. Deep Moaning Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  10. Deep Moaning Blues - Ma Rainey & Her Tub Washboard Band
  11. Daddy Goodbye Blues - Ma Rainey
  12. Sleep Talking Blues - Ma Rainey
  13. Sleep Talking Blues - Ma Rainey
  14. Tough Luck Blues - Ma Rainey
  15. Blame It On the Blues - Ma Rainey
  16. Sweet Rough Man - Ma Rainey
  17. Runaway Blues - Ma Rainey
  18. Screech Owl Blues - Ma Rainey
  19. Black Dust Blues - Ma Rainey
  20. Leaving This Morning - Ma Rainey
  21. Black Eye Blues - Ma Rainey
  22. Black Eye Blues - Ma Rainey
  23. Ma And Pa Poorhouse Blues - Ma Rainey
  24. Big Feeling Blues - Ma Rainey

Music reviews of Mother of the Blues

Music Review: Great music, generally not-so good sound
Rating: 4 Stars

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey (1886-1939) was an early blues singer known for her "rough" vocal style, primitive-sounding recordings, and flamboyant stage act. She was an early influence on Bessie Smith (despite recording her first songs several months after Bessie), she was older and had years more experience. While Smith had a more urban feel to her sound, Rainey's sound had a far more rural feel. I also feel that while Smith had the technically "better" voice (i.e. smoother and not as rough), Rainey had the much more varied material. She also wrote several of her own songs, many of them dealing with the hardships of poor blacks and the life of the "ghetto" in much the same way that hip-hop or rap does today, but never glamorizing it. Her voice expresses perfectly each subject matter. For instance, on Hustlin' Blues (which really does sound like Bessie Smith's Back Water Blues, no doubt), in which she plays the role of a streetwalker, you can feel in her voice the disgust with herself and her abusive pimp, and the sadness of her situation. And on songs with sexual overtones (which is really innuendo, never blatant), she sounds extremely sensual. My husband, upon first hearing her voice, thought that Ma "sounded like a hot woman" and was really suprised to find that she was actually overweight and had terrible teeth! This was no pop-tart, to be sure!

Of course, as I mentioned, there's some plagarism. Like much blues, jazz, and R&B music, there was a lot of it. The reason many in this genre got away with this is because if you were black in those days, you had little to no rights, no residuals, you were basically ripped off by those around you, and it was considered okay to "borrow" from others, whether intentionally or not. Also, nobody, except for maybe Bessie Smith, made much money as a singer or musician. They did it because they had a passion for music, not to make a buck.

I love most of the songs on these five CDs, but this set is not without it's flaws. I wish they had only included one version of each song, for the most part. There are many songs here that have two versions, and with the possible exception of Mountain Jack Blues, they are almost identical-sounding. Usually one version is a lot better than the other. I wish they had only included one version. I do not know why they chose to include both; I guess that since Ma's recording career only lasted five years, they had to fill five CDs somehow. Also, on the second CD (B), there are no less than seven songs (or maybe I should say five, since two are "different" versions of the same song), that all sound identical. I don't mean that they sound similar, I mean that they sound identical. In fact, if they didn't have spaces between them you'd swear that it was the same song. This particular CD is my least favorite despite having some great songs on it, like Shave 'Em Dry and Toad Frog Blues. The best songs IMO are found on the CD E, the final years. Here Ma is aided by excellent and (then) innovative musicians like Georgia Tom Dorsey on piano and Tampa Red on guitar. Unfortunately, times change. Paramount decided to end her contract (more on Paramount later), her sister and mother became terminally ill and Ma decided to tend to them, and classic female blues singers were starting to become passe. Instead of finding another record company and changing her style like Bessie Smith tried to do, Ma decided to retire. A shame for fans!

Now, speaking of Paramount Records (not to be confused with the movie and TV company of the same name), what a travesty this company was. Their talent scouts were adept, but they used terrible methods! They used cheap recording materials, scrimped on every level of production, and when they went out of business in the early 1930's, they scrapped all of their master recordings! This is why much of the material sounds "primitive', even "dated". In order to transfer her recordings from 78s to vinyl then to CD, searches have had to be made to find the least worn copies, because the masters were destroyed! That this and other Paramount artists' recordings exist at all is nothing short of a miracle. I feel that if Ma had recorded for a better label (like Columbia, for example), she could have become just as legendary as Bessie Smith was. Think of it: she only recorded for five years and the recording techniques were primitive and bad, yet she IS considered a legend in blues. I can only imagine how even more successful and legendary she'd be if she'd been with a better label! Unfortunately, the sound on these CDs cannot be turned up full blast because that results in distortion for many of the songs. Still, I would rather listen to talented artists with subpar recording techniques than any untalented artist with state-of-the-art recording techniques!
More Mother of the Blues free music reviews:
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Description of Mother of the Blues

Mother Of The Blues, CD A by Ma Rainey

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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