It will be a night that honors some of the greatest female blues artists of all time when Gina Coleman and Misty Blues bring their “Queens of the Blues” show to the Shea Theater Arts Center in Turners Falls on Saturday, July 30, at 8 p.m. Led by vocalist and guitarist Coleman, Misty Blues will perform the music of and relay the stories of Bessie Smith, Big Mama Thornton, Ruth Brown and Koko Taylor. It will not only be a magical night of music but an educational one as well.
Coleman, a native of New York who now resides in Williamstown, came to the blues in a roundabout fashion. She grew up in a household where rhythm and blues and gospel music were played and even took piano lessons, but she never had any intention of becoming a professional musician.
It wasn’t until she graduated from Williams College and was out on the town in Pittsfield with some girlfriends who dared her to sing at an open mic that she took her first steps toward becoming a singer.
Soon after that performance, she was asked to sing with a musician who heard her at the open mic. They ended up forming a duo called the Siblings. That outfit lasted a couple of years and next came a folk/funk band, the Cole-Connection, that not only showcased her vocals but eventually became an outlet for her songwriting.
Her immersion in the blues would come later.
The year was 1999, and Coleman was recruited to perform as a gospel singer in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of “A Raisin in the Sun” (Coleman pointing out that she was the only African-American singer in Williamstown). This production included Viola Davis and Ruben Santiago-Hudson in the cast. As the show neared the end of its run, Santiago-Hudson gifted her with a CD collection called “Men are like Streetcars” and told her that her voice was suited for blues. He urged her to go in that musical direction and Coleman listened to the disc that featured performances from 1928 to 1969, highlighting the recordings of Billie Holiday, Memphis Minnie, Koko Taylor, Etta James, Big Mama Thornton and Irma Thomas. She fell in love with the music and that CD proved to be a great source of inspiration for her.
Soon after, she formed the blues band Misty Blues.
“Misty Blues started out as a classic female blues cover band in 1999,” wrote Coleman in a recent email exchange. “We almost exclusively performed music by these artists until we found our own muse inspired by these women.”
They eventually found their own voice and have released eleven albums, and their twelfth will be out in February. They have recorded with artists like the late Charles Neville and Joe Louis Walker. They have toured throughout the United States and have opened for the likes of Tab Benoit, John Primers, Albert Cummings and Michael Powers.
Misty Blues recently released a song that Coleman wrote called “The Hate” that deals with a recent encounter with racism that she experienced.
“I wrote the song in response to an exceptionally hateful message that was left on a YouTube video for a song off of our last album,” Coleman recently said in a radio interview. “The song was called ‘Freight Car’ and I actually wrote that song with my oldest son, Diego. And someone left a racially charged comment that basically said that the song would be even better if my kind of people weren’t involved in it.”
It’s a powerful song and you can hear it on Spotify.
Coleman wouldn’t be writing songs like this if she hadn’t been inspired by the legends before her, and that is where Queens of the Blues comes in. “We did our first show before the start of the pandemic, but it wasn’t until last year that we started doing them more frequently,” Coleman said.
“I feel like I bear responsibility to honor the artists that provided me with a platform to create my original music,” she added. “Queens of the Blues was created as a vehicle to educate audiences about the amazing women at the foundation of this genre and to simply pay our respects.”
The show on Saturday will mark the first time Misty Blues has performed the Queens of the Blues show to the Valley.
While this show will feature the music of the legendary female blues artists, Coleman said you could expect to hear a few original Misty Blues songs.
“We generally close the show with an original song or two just to show the audience how the women have influenced our own music,” she said.
Advance Tickets are available at sheatheater.org .
Fans of local music will be glad to know that the Valley Music Showcase will host its first in-person event since COVID. The showcase will take place on Sunday, July 31 at 3 p.m. at the Glendale Ridge Vineyard in Southampton. It is being produced by Mark Sherry, executive director of the New Music Alliance, an organization that assists with the careers of local musicians who write original music and promotes Western New England nationally as a destination for original music writing, production and performances.
The showcase is a juried live music competition that is designed to show off the best original music talent in Western and Central Massachusetts, Central Connecticut and Southern Vermont. There will be five participating acts including full bands and solo and duo performers who will be competing for cash prizes, gift certificates and other prizes from various sponsoring local businesses. One of the five acts will go on to compete in the grand ginale which will be held on September 24 and include the winners of the previous showcases, which took place over three years ago due to COVID. Among the prizes will be recording time in an area studio.
Greenfield’s own indie folk duo High Tea will be participating, and they will be joined by Hue Blind, Hawkns, Sadish Radish and Stoner Will and the Narks. Each act will play a 30 minute set.
The admission to Sunday’s show is free but donations between $10 to $12 are kindly requested. Funds raised will benefit the New Music Alliance.
If you are a musician interested in competing in future showcases or want to be played on the New Music Alliance’s weekly radio show, which showcases local talent and airs throughout the Valley, including WMCB (WMCB.net) in Greenfield every Saturday at 4 p.m., send a link to newmusicalliance@gmail.com
On Friday, July 29, from 4 to 8 p.m. local musicians and performing arts organizations will gather outside the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center to sell their merchandise, promote their music and connect with the community. A raffle will be held with merchandise donated by Hawks & Reed and participating vendors. All proceeds from this raffle will be donated to The Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts.
During the event there will be live music happening nearby on the common throughout the day. This will include a live DJ and a performance of chamber music from musicians of the Pioneer Valley Symphony at 7:30 p.m.