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8 Ma Rainey Songs That Defined the Blues.

(ThyBlackMan.com) When I think about the roots of blues music—the raw honesty, the pain wrapped in poetry, the joy carved out of hardship—I think of Ma Rainey. Her voice was more than a sound; it was ...
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‘Mother of the Blues’: Ma Rainey’s Jacksonville roots as an openly bisexual music pioneer

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Blues legend Gertrude “Ma” Rainey electrified Jacksonville’s LaVilla district in the early 1900s, building her reputation as the “Mother of the Blues” while breaking barriers as ...