Arts > Music > Blues > USA

Willie Mae Thornton   1926-1984

Big Mama Thornton 1970        Video

Big Mama Thornton performs Ball and Chain

with Buddy Guy's Blues Band

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJlBo5KJ3b4

(1965) Blues by Big Mama Thornton

Hound Dog and Down Home Shakedown    Video

Blues in a perfect way: 2 Parts of a life show in 1965:

In the 1st part Big Mama Thornton is singing Hound Dog. 2:35

In the 2nd part

Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Big Walter Horton & Dr Ros

are playing on the harmonica Down Home Shakedown.

For fair use only.

YouTube > Duncan Automatic Stop

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxoGvBQtjpM

Gunsmoke blues

Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton,

Big Joe Turner, George "Harmonica" Smith

During a production hiatus of the popular TV Show "Gunsmoke",

the film crew decided to take off

and film a barnstorming blues revue making it’s way across the country

and they ended up in Eugene,

R with cameras rolling to film Muddy Waters, Big Mama Thornton,

Big Joe Turner and George "Harmonica" Smith

as they performed in a music hall.

YouTube > musadiggari > 30 March 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ATwmyuhmeY

Willie Mae ("Big Mama") Thornton    1926-1984

Big Mama Thornton

http://bluesland.net/thang/Thornton.htm

Willie Mae Thornton,

the blues singer

known as Big Mama,

whose renditions

of ''Hound Dog''

and ''Ball and Chain''

inspired Elvis Presley

and Janis Joplin

(...)

An aggressive blues shouter,

who also played the drums

and a biting

country-style harmonica,

Miss Thornton helped bring

to rock-and-roll the legacy

of such seminal blues singers

as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith

and Memphis Minnie.

A major influence

on younger blues

and soul singers,

including Janis Joplin

and Aretha Franklin,

her growling, visceral rendition

of the Jerry Leiber- Mike Stoller

song ''Hound Dog''

directly influenced

Presley's version,

which became a No. 1 pop hit

in 1956.

Miss Thornton's

own song ''Ball and Chain''

became a signature

for Janis Joplin in 1968.

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/28/
obituaries/willie-mae-thornton-influential-blues-singer.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Big_Mama_Thornton

https://encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/
willie-mae-big-mama-thornton/

https://www.npr.org/2022/12/11/
1140858096/willie-mae-thornton

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/28/
obituaries/willie-mae-thornton-influential-blues-singer.html

http://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/07/
arts/big-mama-thornton.html

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