Ma Rainey
person
2 mentions
2 recordings
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 24 Jul
↑2 vs the 6 months before
Early 20th‑century blues singer cited as female performer example
Trend
Peak in the week of 20 Jul — 2 mentions across 1 series.
Moments
newest first · ▶ plays the momentPeter SokolowskiMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day · itinerant · 0:38 · 24 Jul
…There has long been this masculine idea that a lone, itinerant male blues singer, travelling the south with a guitar slung over his back was the authentic representation of the blues, doctor Cookie Woolner explains, while female performers like Ma Rainey, who drew from Vaudeville and Blackface Minstrels, were commercial entertainers and not artists.…
Peter SokolowskiMerriam-Webster's Word of the Day · itinerant · 0:38 · 24 Jul
…There has long been this masculine idea that a lone, itinerant male blues singer, travelling the south with a guitar slung over his back was the authentic representation of the blues, doctor Cookie Woolner explains, while female performers like Ma Rainey, who drew from Vaudeville and Blackface Minstrels, were commercial entertainers and not artists.…
All 2 moments