Ann Rabson

“Music Makin’ Mama” Ann Rabson played a significant role in assisting to regenerate acoustic blues in the post-Stevie Ray Vaughan era, both being a single artist and with Saffire — the Uppity Blues Females, the group she co-founded in 1988. Although she’s most widely known being a boogie-woogie pianist, Rabson proved helpful primarily being a guitarist for the initial 2 decades of her music profession, and she features the rather exclusive ability to change from Chicago barrelhouse piano-pounding to Piedmont fingerpicking on the drop of the head wear. Rabson’s rootsy strategy also draws intensely from the varieties of feminine blues singers from the pre-war period, such as for example Lucille Bogan, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith. Like her contemporaries Rory Stop and Bonnie Raitt, Rabson rates as a significant contemporary blueswoman who has taken tremendous crossover charm towards the genre. Blessed in NEW YORK in 1945, Rabson was raised in Ohio and began tuning into blues and jazz at an extremely early age group. She found electric guitar at 17, and within a calendar year was playing single gigs and honing a repertoire motivated by famous brands Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Tampa Crimson, and Leroy Carr. In 1971, Rabson transferred to Fredericksburg, VA, where she committed another seven years to playing music full-time. Though she ultimately returned to functioning a day work (being a pc programmer), Rabson continuing to execute and teach electric guitar lessons through the ’80s. Incidentally, it had been playing music part-time that allowed Rabson the opportunity to research piano — specifically, the boogie-woogie varieties of Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Amos Milburn. In 1984, Rabson and among her guitar college students, Gaye Adegbalola, shaped Saffire and started performing collectively around Virginia; they later on recruited bassist Earlene Lewis to become listed on the group. From the past due ’80s, Rabson, Adegbalola, and Lewis got focused on Saffire full-time and had been touring regionally. The trio authorized with Alligator Information in 1989 (these were the 1st all-acoustic music group to record for the label), and a yr later on their self-titled debut recording became a crucial and commercial achievement. Rabson’s structure “Elevator Guy” (from Saffire’s follow-up recording Hot Adobe flash) was nominated to get a W.C. Handy Honor in 1992 for Music of the entire year. Furthermore to touring and documenting with Saffire, Rabson offers continued to are a single act and program player. After documenting with several blues and folk music artists in the 1990s (including Steve Wayne, Deborah Coleman, and Ani DiFranco), Rabson finally released her 1st single recording in 1997. Music Makin’ Mama showcased Rabson’s skills in a number of contexts — boogie-woogie, R&B, Piedmont blues, and ballads — and attained her three even more Convenient Award nominations in 1998. M.C. Information released Rabson’s second single recording, Struttin’ My Stuff, in Sept 2000 to essential acclaim.