Women Sing the Blues
Dana Gillsespie at T.A.M, Monday 14th November
Dana Gillespie is a bohemian pin up girl with wicked wit and dynamite talent to match.
If her intimate Monday night concert at TAM in Elephant and Castle is akin to a velvety glass of Margaux, her priceless recollections of entanglements with rockstars like Bowie and squares like Princess Margaret are an ode to ending up horizontal with those who might fix you something stronger.
Photo by Laura Kelly, https://www.thelastbohemians.co.uk/danagillespie
Dana sings a heartfelt ballad to rhythm and blues itself. Accompanied by the fabulous Dino Baptiste on keys, it’s the perfect showcase of timeless talent. Their rendition of hits such as King Size Papa proved the relevance and intergenerational nature of lyrics with a self-awareness and wit perhaps way ahead of their time. Dana has herself taken the raw template of blues and written an array of hits including Funk Me, It’s Hot!, which explores female sexuality post-menopause, a subject most genres surely would struggle to begin to tackle. The stage of blues is still very much Female.
Dana with Bowie, Joe Stevens, BBC 5 Live
The fusion of songs and conversation is missing from much of contemporary live music, and Dana’s heartwarming storytelling is an antidote to this. The eclectic audience was invited to ask questions on life, music, and everything else in between (with one individual quietly sketching the stage and those in front of it). When asked about the concept of soulmates, the women of the audience were reminded that only a fool breaks her own heart. When a true discourse occurs between audience and performers, it encourages a deeper involvement, and an ultimately far richer experience. A visit to a Dana Gillespie show leaves one in no doubt that London’s very own Empress of The Blues understands this concept entirely. Indeed, maybe we watch Boiler Rooms sets red-eyed at after parties because the fourth wall between the DJ and her DJ-ees has been somewhat broken.
Since Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey’s precedent for black female artists, many of whom toured through a circuit established by the black-owned Theatre Owners Booking Association, women have been at the root of blues music. By the 1920s the “Empress of the Blues” Bessie Smith was the highest-paid black artist; her pioneering would pave the way for female musicians’ encapsulation of heartache and protest. A story all too familiar even today, women seem to be listened to… whilst on the stage.
There’s perhaps no better gateway into the rich history of female blues music than dynamo Koko Taylor’s I’m a Woman:
‘I’m a woman, I can sing the blues
I’m a woman, I can change the old to new…
I’m a woman, you know I’m an earthshaker’
Listen to the songs Lucy mentioned and more here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3soT6SSQWKmxf4GbLtnkK6?si=dbf5e3a1f9db46e2
Words by Lucy Bernard