Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Victoria Spivey


Victoria Spivey

Victoria Spivey was born in 1908 andbegan her recording career at age 19 as a pianist at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas. In the early 1920s, she played in Texas gambling parlors, gay hangouts and whorehouses. Spivey wasn't afraid to sing sexually suggestive lyrics. She wrote many of her own songs. Her first recording, “Black Snake Blues”, was for the Okeh label in 1926. In the 1930s she moved to New York to record for several companies and perform in various African-American musical revues. She also toured but left show business in the 1950s, singing only in church. In 1962 she formed her own Spivey Records label. Her first release featured Bob Dylan as an accompanist. She was in demand on the folk-blues revival festival circuit and influenced a new generation of singers. In 1970, Spivey was awarded a "BMI Commendation of Excellence" from the music publishing organization for her long and outstanding contributions to many worlds of music. After entering Beekman Downtown Hospital with an internal hemorrhage, she died a short while later in 1976. Spivey is buried in Hempstead, N.Y.

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