Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey 'Mother of the Blues' - Born Gertrude Pridgett in Columbus, Georgia, April 26, 1886, the second child of Thomas and Ella Pridgett, she had started her career in 1900 by performing in a local black review, 'A Bunch of Blackberries', at the age of 14. A couple of years later, she first heard the Blues. She adopted the Blues and was instrumental in popularizing it. When she married Will 'Pa' Rainey in 1904, she toured with him as 'Ma and Pa' Rainey, the Assassinators of the Blues. There is a possibility that she taught the Blues to Bessie Smith during this time. The younger and beautiful Bessie Smith was her only serious rival, though there were many women singers, such as Ida Cox and Sippie Wallace, who became very popular. Bessie's majestic style had earned her the name, 'The Empress of the Blues', but to rural blacks, Madame Gertrude Rainey was the 'Mother of the Blues'.

In 1923, she began her recording contract with Paramount Records. She was billed as the newly discovered 'Mother of the Blues'. Rainey was already 38 years old when she began recording although she had 25 years of performing under her belt. Ma's recording career lasted a short while, only until 1928. During this time she recorded 75 songs such as classics CC Rider, Jelly Bean Blues, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Blues, Bo Weevil Blues, and Prove It On Me. Ma Rainey was not a conventionally beautiful woman and she was affectionately dubbed by her peers as "the ugliest woman in show business. She made up for this with lavish costumes (she was also called the Gold Necklace Woman of Blues) and presence. In the 1930's the Depression hit and popular taste changed from female Blues singers to male Blues singers and a more urbanized sound. Ma Rainey was a shrewd business woman and had saved her money. She retired to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia. There she purchased and ran two theaters and became very active in the Congregation of Friendship Baptist church. Ma Rainey passed away on December 22, 1939 due to heart disease. She was inducted into the Blues Foundations Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Rock&Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.  MP3 - Goodbye Daddy