Female blues of the 1920s

I made a blues compilation for my sister yesterday. Theme: 1920's-1930's-1940's. Female artists. More specifically, I was looking for lyrics about cheatin' men who are no good. The record was surprisingly easy to put together. I found loads of material so I had to pick out the best of the best. Bertha "Chippie" Hall. Ma Rainey. Betty Hall Jones. Ida Cox. Big Mama Thornton. Georgia White. Lil' Johnson. Bessie Smith. Billie Holiday. Memphis Minnie. Lucille Bogan. Alberta Brown. As I listened to the comp, it hit me that these blues singers deal with male violence and fucked up relations in a way that might not have appeared in music again until the riot grrrl era of the 90s. Some of the tunes are tongue-in-cheek while others are dead serious. The songs I picked out revolve around the following themes: leaving town, alone, cause the man one loves is a cheatin' pig, drinking whiskey all day and all night. Most of all, the songs say the big F to males. Lucille Bogan celebrates bull dykes in B.D. Woman blues:

Comin' a time, B.D. women they ain't going to need no men
Comin' a time, B.D. women they ain't going to need no men
Cause they way treat us is a lowdown dirty sin

B.D. women, you sure can't understand
B.D. women, you sure can't understand
They got a head like a sweet angel and they walk just like a natural
man

B.D. women, they all done learned their plan
B.D. women, they all done learned their plan
They can lay their jive just like a natural man

B.D. women, B.D. women, you know they sure is rough
B.D. women, B.D. women, you know they sure is rough
They all drink up plenty whiskey and they sure will strut their stuff

B.D. women, you know they work and make their dough
B.D. women, you know they work and make their dough
And when they get ready to spend it, they know they have to go

It's a good song, too. Ma Rainey has a few songs about women loving women as well. Prove it on me blues:

Folks said I'm crooked, I didn't know where she took it, I want the
whole world to know
They say I do it, ain't nobody caught me
Sure got to prove it on me
Went out last night with a crowd of my friends
They must have been women 'cause I don't like no men

Sociologically, these songs thrill me. (Listen here) How come female black artists were allowed this much freedom? To what extent can subversiveness in female blues be related to reactions against racism and oppression, themes that occupy a significant space in blues music? Who wrote the lyrics of the songs? What was the structure of the recording studio business? Who was the audience of the female so called barrelhouse blues? Black people, white people....? What did the bar culture of the 20s look like?

I am really curious about a book written by Daphne Duvall Harrison, Black Pearls: Blues Queens of the 1920s. I hope I will get hold of it somehow. I also found an interesting article by feminist writer Lilian Faderman about subcultures in Harlem during the 20s. At the end of the essay, she discusses blues songs about woman&woman love:

"The listener to these 1920s blues apparently took whatever he or she wanted out of the songs. To the heterosexual male they were provocative. To the potentially bisexual female they were suggestive and encouraging. To the lesbian they could be affirming. One lesbian blues song, "BD's Dream," has been described by historians of 1920s and '30s music as one of the most frequently heard songs in the rent party repertoire. Of course lesbians sometimes attended rent parties in Harlem (parties where the guests would pay an entrance fee to help the tenant raise money for the rent), but those gatherings were generally predominantly heterosexual, which confirms that the song must have had terrific popularity with all manner of audiences. It is not surprising that sophisticated heterosexuals, both blacks and the tourists who were intrigued with black life and environs, were taken with such lyrics -- they were characteristic of the era: They flaunt unorthodoxy with a vengeance, but at the same time they exhibit the vestiges of discomfort toward female nonconformity and sexual autonomy that individuals who scoffed at the conventional nevertheless maintained. "

Why was the style of barrelhouse blues abandoned after the 30's? Or was it? The piano has never sounded so sleazy and the trumpet has never so joyous. Whiskey never tasted so good and life has never been so full of surprises and blows as in the songs of female blues artists from the 20's and 30's. The joy and sadness in this music is unique. What is so mesmerizing about these blues singers is also their voices, ranging from raw to elegant, from the growl to smooth, jazzy crooning - and from low to high. There's so much variation here, so much freedom of expression.

Or am I simply glorifying the historical gap, an imaginary swingin' 20s I really have no clue about (during which the US still was a very segregated, racist country). But still. There is a richness in the blues of the 20s and especially in blues performed by females. A series of blues documentaries showed on TV recently ignored this tradition completely, which was sad. Blues music still seems to be a very male business and the history of the blues is still very much centered around male blues artists.