Angela Davis' book just out ,_Blues Legacy and Black Feminism_, is on Ma Rainey , Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. Pantheon books New York. It might be pertinent to this thread. Angela specifically mentions the freedom of travel as new for Black people after slavery, and then still rare for Black women and so the Blues singers had a privilege in all of their travel
I used to listen to Bessie sing "Easy Rider"Blues "She's wondering where her easy rider's gone"
on a train.
Charles
>>> Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> 05/08 2:56 PM >>>