Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women

Recreating vintage barrelhouse blues boogies, Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women were an all-female trio that sang of middle-aged lust, health problems and the frustrations of the modern world and became cult favourites on the festival circuit in the early 1990s. Ann Rabson had been singing in clubs in Virginia since the early 1970s and was working as a computer programmer and giving guitar lessons on the side when science teacher Gaye Adegbalola became one of her students. Their friendship and mutual love of singers like Ma Rainey, Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith led to them performing locally and when they recruited Earlene Lewis to play stand-up bass in 1987, the band started to take off. Despite all being in their mid-forties, they quit their day jobs and self-funded a demo that landed them a deal with Alligator Records for early albums 'Uppity Blues Women', 'Hot Flash' and 'Broad Casting'. Full of raunchy humour and wry, open-book observations, their track 'Middle Aged Blues Boogie' became a particular favourite, singing of their desire for young men and reeling off a string of double entendres. Lewis left the band in 1992 and was replaced by multi-instrumentalist Andra Faye McIntosh, and their tongue-in-cheek, good time spirit and fearless attitude continued on 'Cleaning House', 'Live & Uppity' and 'Ain't Gonna Hush' and they went on to support BB King, Ray Charles and Koko Taylor. They sang about battling leukaemia, their greying hair and expanding waistlines on their final album 'Havin' the Last Word' in 2009, after which they announced their split. Rabson died from cancer in 2013.

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