Victoria Spivey

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Victoria Spivey (1906-1976) was an American blues singer. She was born October 15, 1906, the daughter of Grant and Addie (Smith) Spivey. Her father was a part-time musician and a flag-man for the railroad; her mother was a nurse. Her sister, Addie "Sweet Pease" Spivey was also a singer and musician who recorded for several major labels between 1929 and 1937.

Victoria Spivey's first professional experience was in a family string band led by her father in Houston, Texas. She also played on her own at local parties and, in 1918, was hired to accompany films at the Lincoln Theater in Dallas, Texas. As a teenager, she worked in local bars, nightclubs, and buffet flats, mostly alone, but occasionally with singer-guitarists like Blind Lemon Jefferson. In 1926, she moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she was signed by Okeh. Her first recording, "Black Snake Blues", did well, so her association with the label continued. She made numerous Okeh sides in New York until 1929, then switched to the RCA Victor label. Between 1931 and 1937, more recordings followed on the Vocalion and Decca labels, and, working out of New York City, she maintained an active performance schedule. Spivey's recorded accompaniments included King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Lonnie Johnson, and Henry "Red" Allen. Depression did not put an end to Spivey's musical career, but she had found a new outlet for her talent in the year of the crash, when director King Vidor cast her to play "Missy Rose" in his first sound film, Hallelujah!. Through the 1930s and 1940s, Spivey continued to work in musical movies and stage shows, often with her husband, vaudeville hoofer Billy Adams, including the well known Hellzapoppin' Revue.

In 1951 Spivey retired from show business to play organ and lead a church choir, but she returned to secular music in 1961, when she was reunited with an old singing partner, Lonnie Johnson, to appear on four track on his Prestige Bluesville album, '"Idle Hours"'. The folk music revival of the 1960s gave her further opportunities to make at least a semblance of a comeback. She recorded again for Prestige Bluesville, sharing an album '"Songs We Taught Your Mother"' with fellow veterans Alberta Hunter and Lucille Hegamin and began making personal appearances at festivals and clubs. In 1962 she and jazz historian Len Kunstadt launched "Spivey Records", a low-budget label dedicated to blues and related music. They recorded prolifically such performers as Sippie Wallace, Lucille Hegamin, Otis Rush, Buddy Tate and Hannah Sylvester, as well as newer artists including Luther Johnson, Brenda Bell, and Larry Johnson. Bob Dylan, who had heard Spivey sing at Folk City, in Greenwich Village, also made an appearance on the label, identified as "Blind Boy Grunt," and Janis Ian appeared as "Blind Girl Grunt."