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Writer To Continue Bid For Headstone For Blues Icon Mamie Smith

11/01/2013
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(The Blues) A New York writer has vowed to continue his quest to secure a headstone for early blues icon Mamie Smith even though his first attempt fell short of his funding target.

Remembered as the first African-American vocalist to make a blues recording, Smith was active from the early 20th century until a short time before her death in 1946, aged 63.

Her 1920 version of Crazy Blues is regarded as a watershed moment in recording history and it's been inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame and entered on the US Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

Michael Cala, himself an inductee into the New York Blues Hall Of Fame, launched a campaign to place a headstone on her currently unmarked grave on Staten Island. more on this story

The Blues Magazine is an official news provider for antiMusic.com.
Copyright The Blues Magazine - Excerpted here with permission.

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