Blues Revue
Located in 2 routes
Blues Revue is blues presented as a staged package: featured vocalists, comics, dancers, bands, emcees, costume changes, and specialty numbers moving through blues, jazz, gospel, R&B, and novelty material. The sound depends on the era, but the defining trait is show structure: tight arrangements, crowd work, dramatic pacing, and multiple performers sharing one blues-centered bill.
History
Blues revues grew from vaudeville, tent shows, TOBA circuits, medicine shows, and urban theaters, where Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Butterbeans and Susie, and many lesser-documented performers treated blues as part of a larger Black entertainment economy. By the 1940s and 1950s, touring R&B and blues packages featuring acts such as Wynonie Harris, Big Joe Turner, Ruth Brown, and B.B. King updated the revue format for theaters and dance halls. The model survives in blues festivals, heritage shows, tribute productions, and multi-artist tours that frame blues as a living stage tradition rather than just record catalog.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- See See Rider Blues — Ma RaineySpotifyYouTube
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find — Bessie SmithSpotifyYouTube
- Elevator Papa, Switchboard Mama — Butterbeans and SusieSpotifyYouTube
- Roll 'Em Pete — Big Joe TurnerSpotifyYouTube
- Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean — Ruth BrownSpotifyYouTube
- Every Day I Have the Blues — B.B. KingSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Daphne Duval Harrison, Black Pearls
- Lynn Abbott & Doug Seroff, The Original Blues
- Peter Guralnick, Sweet Soul Music
- AllMusic