Browsing: Bessie Smith

Maybe you’ve heard ‘bout Bessie Smith. Empress of the Blues. Powerhouse in music history. One of the greatest voices of all time. But she wasn’t the only Smith out there. The blues as we know it started with a Smith. And it wasn’t Bessie…

It stretches for almost two miles, rising right up out of the Mississippi River. Beale Street. It’s where gamblers lived and died, hookers hooked and killers got away with it. For the first half of the 20thcentury, there was nowhere else you’d rather be….