Lucille Bogan (April 1,1897- Aug.10,1948) was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She was born Lucille Anderson in Amory, Mississippi in 1897, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1916 she married Nazareth Lee Bogan, a railwayman, and gave birth to a son. She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens. Later that year she recorded "Pawn Shop Blues" in Atlanta, Georgia, which was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago. In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Chicago, where she waxed her first big success, "Sweet Petunia", which was later covered by Blind Blake. She also recorded for Brunswick Records, backed by Tampa Red and Cow Cow Davenport. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson. Bogan sang straight-talking blues about drinking, prostitution, gambling, lesbianism and other facets of what her generation called 'the life'. The jazz critic and sexologist Ernest Borneman grouped her with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith in the "the big three of the blues" By 1930 her recordings had begun to concentrate on drinking and sex, with songs such as "Sloppy Drunk Blues". Around 1932 she returned to Birmingham, and, apparently to conceal her identity, began recording as Bessie Jackson for the Banner record label. She was usually accompanied on piano by Walter Roland, with whom she recorded over 100 songs between 1933 and 1935. Her final <b>...</b>
Lucille
Bogan
Bessie
Jackson
1935
20s
30s
40s
