WEST POINT — While thinking about the blues, performers like B.B. King, Bobby “Blue” Bland and Howlin’ Wolf may be some of the first that come to mind.
But on Sunday evening, the Black Prairie Blues Museum is highlighting the voices of women who created the blues with a showcase featuring Mississippi State University opera students.
Museum volunteer director Deborah Mansfield said the Women in Blues event will be entertaining, but also educational on female voices’ impact on the genre to celebrate Women’s History Month.
“You always think about men in blues, but there have been so many fantastic women that have really blazed a trail through the blues scene,” Mansfield said. “… People need to broaden their horizons about what women have done to lay down some history in the blues genre.”
Mansfield said doors open for the showcase at 6:30 p.m., while student performances start at 7:15 p.m. Each student will portray a different woman in blues, dressed in period-realistic costumes and perform a song by that blues legend in their own voice.
Roza Tulyaganova, associate professor in the MSU music department, said eight students in her opera workshop class will be performing in the Women in Blues showcase on Sunday, portraying Bessie Smith, Samantha Fish, Nina Simone, Hannah Brooks, Ruthie Foster, Billie Holiday, Etta James, Big Mama Thornton or someone close to each artist.
“Each will be representing different female artists,” Tulyaganova said. “And though not every singer is female, they will perform from the point of view of a husband or a manager or a brother or something like that.”
Tulyaganova said each student selected their musician earlier in the semester, conducted thorough research on that artist, and then wrote a narrative about their selected musician. They also had to learn a song by the blues artist.
Despite being opera students, Tulyaganova said, the students will be performing closer to typical blues styles in an effort to learn more about the genre.
“It’s really cool, really exciting because it gave the students the opportunity to learn about the blues,” Tulyaganova said. “Some of them had no idea that that’s where the blues was born, in Mississippi.”
Another associate professor at MSU who has been helping with the program, Jeanette Fontaine, said that as the students researched their chosen artist, they learned not just about the genre as a whole, but unique stories about blues songs.
“I didn’t know this, and nor did our students, but one of the songs that’s going to be sung on the program, ‘Hound Dog’ … that is originally sung by Big Mama Thornton,” Fontaine said. “Of course, most of us think Elvis Presley was the first one to sing that song. But it was not. He essentially… did a cover of ‘Hound Dog’ that’s extremely famous. But Big Mama Thornton was the first person to perform that.”
Mansfield said the program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be available, and art by female blues musician and artist Bonnie Renfroe will also be on display during the performance. For more information, text Mansfield at (662) 275-7819.
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