Various Artists - The Rough Guide To Blues Divas (LP)

The 1920s classic era of recorded blues was dominated by women who lived and performed in the cities. This Rough Guide explores its glitzy heyday when singers such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey became the first real stars of the blues.

This is an album which revives the memory of the largely forgotten 1920s blues queens and explores the hugely significant and often overlooked role that women have played in the story of the blues. Highlights the first wave of blues singers who inspired the likes of Billie Holiday, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone and Janis Joplin. The tracks were lovingly remastered using pioneering restoration techniques.