This Week's Show: March 18-21

Rosetta Records: 
Independent Women's Blues 

When Rosetta Reitz set out with $10,000 of borrowed money in 1979, she seemed to have a clear vision of what she wished to accomplish.  In founding Rosetta Records, she was out to set the record straight.  It was clear to Ms Reitz that, as had often happened in a patriarchal society, the contributions of the women who had created the blues and jazz of the 1920's and 30's  had often been overlooked and discounted.  Although many male blues musicians, as well as a few female singers had been "rediscovered" in the 60's folk revival, she had a deep sense that the true story was yet to be told.  (see the biography of Rosetta Reitz to the right)    
Eighteen albums later, 
the wealth of music she found, remastered and reissued; and the research compiled in her extensive liner notes, have given us a deeper and broader understanding of the central role that many women played in the emergence of the blues and jazz in the early part of the 20th century--and the rich legacy of music they left. 


This week Spinning Tales will focus on the women  brought to us on Rosetta Records.  As we'll hear on the show (or on our YouTube channel this week), these were not just women lamenting their fate, the stereotypical victimized women.   In fact,  a number of these artist's, like Lil Armstrong and Georgia White had a broad range of material and were major forces in the music world.  They wrote extensively, did their own arrangements, and led their own bands at various points in their careers.  Ida Cox managed "Ida Cox and Her Raisin' Cain Company", her own vaudeville troupe, as did Maggie Jones.  Victoria Spivey who moved from the recording studio to the Hollywood and Broadway stage, then  founded a record label and enlisted a young folksinger named Bob Dylan as a backup musician on guitar and harmonica in a 1962 recording she did with Big Joe Williams.

To be sure, Rosetta Records also brought to a new audience women artists like Bernice Edwards and Mary Dixon who, like their male counterparts, disappeared from sight after a few recording sessions.  Rosetta Reitz had a passion for having their voices heard.  Yet, as the album Mean Mothers: Independent Women's Blues demonstrated, she was intent on bringing to light the work of women who, in her own words, "were strong, not to be trifled with."   She highlighted women who were ready to break with the conventional norms and expectations, like Lesbian Gladys Bentley, and other's like Georgia White  who weren't afraid to sing their praises of marijuana and sex.  Rather than just singing of lost loves, they were just as likely to proclaim, as did Rosa Henderson in her 1923 Vocalion recording,  "So Long to You and the Blues"--and show the man unwilling to treat her with love and respect the door!


So, enjoy the tales and tunes this week as we continue in our celebration of National Women's History Month with the life and work of Roberta Reitz and these "Mean Mothers", the women of Rosetta Records.


This Week's Stories:


Our first tale this week is quite special.  Hazel Dawkins, a Greenfield resident, was a longtime friend of Rosetta Reitz, having first met her as the editor Reitz's book,  Menopause: A Positive Approach.  Through her words we get a better picture of Rosetta Reitz and her legacy.  Her story is both inspiring--and troubling.


Then, at about 5:30, we'll  continue with the Native American stories of Nancy Andry, this one a Seneca tale, "Turtle Rescues Beaver".