Music Makin’ Mama

A blues legend in her own right, Ann Rabson has turned audiences on to pioneers such as Eddie Bo, Cow Cow Davenport and Brownie McGhee.

By: Matt Smith
   Thanks to modern-day keepers of the flame like Ann Rabson, many overlooked blues legends are finally getting some overdue recognition. A blues legend in her own right, Ms. Rabson has turned audiences on to Eddie Bo, Cow Cow Davenport and Brownie McGhee, just to name a few.
   "When I first started out in this business, people had no idea. They thought I had written all these songs," says the 40-year veteran of the blues scene. "The blues societies have really helped. Now, instead of asking if I know any Elvis, people ask if I know any Memphis Minnie. Still, I like to give credit where credit is due. I like to cover other people’s songs, change them up and make them my own, but I only steal from the best."
   Best known as a founder of the indomitable all-female acoustic blues trio Saffire —The Uppity Blues Women, the 58-year-old Ms. Rabson is overly modest about her own musical successes. Speaking by phone from her Virginia home, she downplays her seventh nomination for a W.C. Handy Award, the blues equivalent of a Grammy.
   "I know this is a stupid thing to say, and you hear it all the time, but I was thrilled just to be nominated," says Ms. Rabson, up for Traditional Female Artist of the Year for her CD Struttin’ My Stuff (M.C. Records). The 24th annual awards take place Memorial Day Weekend in Memphis, Tenn.
   "It’s a high point of my year, because I get to see people I only see once a year — Little Milton, Ruth Brown — and Memphis is such a great town," she says. "It’s been a while since I was up for an award, but I go whether I’m nominated or not. It’s an incredible show, and I get to see all my buddies.
   "I’m overwhelmed," adds Ms. Rabson, who plays on a bill with Guy Davis at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton May 3. "There are a lot of people I listened to and looked up to when I was a kid, but they’re just folks. B.B King is so gracious, and Koko Taylor is one of the nicest people in the world."
   Born to music-loving parents in New York City in 1945, Ms. Rabson’s family eventually settled in Ohio, where she grew up on a steady diet of blues 78s by Bessie Smith and Big Bill Broonzy. Ms. Rabson received her first guitar as a teen-ager and made her professional debut at age 17, but didn’t record until forming Saffire in 1988.
   "When I started, there was a lot of pressure on me to record," she says. "I had a couple of opportunities, but I was struggling to make a living and I saw recording as taking away from it. People shouldn’t be home listening to a record, they should be out in clubs. But once I realized how much I had gotten from recorded music, I decided not to be one of those people who didn’t record enough."
   Ms. Rabson’s first solo album, Music Makin’ Mama (Alligator Records, 1997), is a rich mix of originals and covers. Her latest, Struttin’ My Stuff, is an elegant affair, recorded with upright bassist Marty Ballou and percussionist Richard Crooks. Listening to the album is like sitting at the front table of an intimate blues joint, with Ms. Rabson’s direct, conversational vocals at the fore. Highlights include the sassy title track — a Lucille Bogan song — and the sweet original "Love Song (Ode to George)," written for her husband. She adds some fine boogie-woogie piano playing to a version of Chuck Berry’s "School Days."
   Although she is better known as a piano player, not a guitarist, she didn’t learn to tickle the ivories until age 35. Her piano influences include Jimmy Yancey and Sunnyland Slim but, sadly, not a lot of female players.
   "There were a lot of really great women, people I wanted to hear on recordings," Ms. Rabson says, "but most of the time they were sort of drowned out by the bands. But there was Mary Lou Williams, Katie Webster and Julia Lee."
   Likewise, there weren’t a lot of all-female blues groups when she and Gay Adegbalola — one of her guitar students — gave birth to Saffire. At the time, Ms. Rabson was working as a computer programmer and pursuing music part-time.
   "Gay and I had called each other about gigs, we got a third person (Earlene Lewis, since replaced by Andra Faye McIntosh), played a show and they asked us back," she says, "and it just kept building and building. There really was a big audience for an all-acoustic, all-women, uppity group. There’s a very big tradition for women in the blues, but not necessarily culturally, and we encompassed every gender and every race."
   Ms. Rabson continues to tour and record with Saffire but stays busy with solo dates as well. She’ll spend a week in the schools of Ottawa, Canada, before her show in Hamilton. No matter the audience, Ms. Rabson says, she always makes sure to leave them entertained.
   "I pride myself on that," she says. "I love playing, and the audiences can be so different. In an arts center, where everybody’s sitting down, you can do songs you can’t do in a sports bar. And there are things you can get away with a sports bar because people aren’t paying as close attention.
   "I play for kids and play occasionally in retirement communities, and I’ve even played in prisons — I won’t make the joke about a captive audience — but a gig is a gig. It’s all about the music, and the blues speak to the things that make us all the same. It doesn’t matter about age, race or gender."
Ann Rabson and Guy Davis play Grounds for Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Road, Hamilton, May 3, 7:30 p.m., in a show co-sponsored by Concerts at the Crossing and the Jersey Shore Jazz and Blues Foundation. Tickets cost $15, and include admission to the park and museums; Grounds for Sculpture members $12. For information, call (609) 689-1089. On the Web: www.groundsforsculpture.org. Ann Rabson on the Web: www.annrabson.com