Still The Uncrowned Queen?

A Retrospect of North Georgia's Own Ida Cox

Born Ida Prather on February 25, 1896 in Toccoa, Georgia, the future blues legend and her family left what is now Stephens County when she was quite young, moving to Lawrenceville before finally settling in Cedartown.  As a teenager, she ran away from home to travel the South with a minstrel revue, performing in vaudeville houses and tent shows.

Ida Cox descended from slaves owned by a very prominent family in the Toccoa area, hence her maiden name.  The Prathers possessed vast amounts of real estate, operated cotton gins and, among other enterprises, farmed the bottoms along the Tugaloo River (a Savannah River tributary now part of Hartwell Reservoir).

Mrs. Edna Prather, wife of the late Joseph T. Prather (son of Senator James Devereaux Prather), indicates the family had "owned over a thousand acres along the Tugaloo" on which they grew corn and cotton.  She recounts that it was her husband's grandfather, Joseph Jeremiah Prather, who utilized slave labor.

With a humble beginning, reportedly along Toccoa's Prather Bridge Road, Ida Cox would eventually perform in metropolises such as Chicago and New York.

Could the little black girl, with Georgia red clay between her toes, have envisioned the glamorous career that awaited?  Whether or not she dreamed of "making it," history reveals her unique style and charisma propelled her to a degree of success equaled or exceeded by only a few and envied by countless others at that time.

The Birth of Blues

In the early 1900s, vaudeville was a popular entertainment form, uniquely highlighting music, dance, comedy and other performances in separate, independent acts.  It would later decline with the introduction of sound motion pictures, but several vaudeville singers would somewhat reinvent themselves and subsequently become the founders of the blues genre as we know it.  One of those founders was Ida Cox.

While recording technology at that time was quite primitive compared to today's premier studios in New York, London, Los Angeles and Nashville, the early blues recordings, distributed by "race" labels, were well received, stimulating commercial success and even some critical acclaim.

However, it was certainly a different era, and any fame or fortune garnered at that time would hardly rival the attention lavished upon our current black female music stars such as singer-actress Whitney Houston, pop/jazz sensation Natalie Cole or urban/R&B prodigy Alicia Keyes.

Before blues was guitar driven and male dominated (a la John Lee Hooker and B. B. King), the field was firmly established by a handful of black women accompanied by pianists.

Among these were the flamboyant , dangerous-living "Empress of the Blues," Bessie Smith, and the incomparable Ma Rainey who interestingly toured briefly with Georgia Tom backing her on the piano.  (Thomas A. Dorsey, aka Georgia Tom, would later experience a religious conversion, pen such gospel classics as "Peace in the Valley" and "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" and be hailed as the "Father of Gospel Music.")

As for Ida Cox, she, too, worked the circuit with pianists like Jelly Roll Morton, performing at the 81 Theater in Atlanta and Tom Anderson's Cafe in New Orleans as well as appearing on Memphis' WMC Radio.

Having divorced her first husband, Adler Cox (of the Florida Blossom Minstrel Show), she later married Texas piano man Jesse "Tiny" Crump.  It was during this time that she was discovered and signed to a recording contract by Paramount Records' talent scout, Mayo Williams.  This college-educated black man was instrumental in launching the careers of several blues artists including the aforementioned Ma Rainey.

Cox's Career Gets Underway

Ida Cox's first records for Paramount, "Graveyard Dream Blues" and "Weary Way Blues," were recorded in the summer of 1923.  In seven years, she recorded 78 songs.  Bearing in mind that Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey were highly in vogue,  Paramount promoted Cox as the "Uncrowned Queen of the Blues."

An astute businesswoman, Cox served as her own manager and producer, and was a prolific songwriter.  She addressed many of the relevant issues affecting her core audience, the impoverished, oppressed black women who felt restrained by the yoke of inequality, damned by racial injustices and hopelessly trapped with little with which to aspire. Of course, no one ever said the blues are pretty!  Many of her songs contained death themes, including "Black Crepe Blues," "Bone Orchard Blues," "Cemetery Blues," "Coffin Blues," "Cold Black Ground Blues," "Death Letter Blues," "Graveyard Bound Blues" and "Marble Stone Blues." Typical of that era, several Cox songs were blatantly risque ("Handy Man" and "One Hour Mama") while others were related to geographical locations including "Memphis Tennessee," "The West Texas Blues," "Birmingham Blues," "Pensacola Blues" and "Muscle Shoals Blues." As with today's ever-changing music trends and short-lived careers, the popularity of blues waned with the beginning of the 'Big Band' craze and Cox's heyday was apparently over following the Depression years.  Or was it?

From Toccoa to Carnegie Hall

On December 23, 1938, John Hammond, a white record producer, indelibly made music history with his presentation of From Spirituals to Swing---an unprecedented event which featured a remarkably diverse set (blues, jazz, gospel, etc.) performed by some of the most gifted black artists of the times before an enthusiastic, integrated audience.  The sold-out concert was held at a prestigious venue (you might have heard of it!) located on New York's Seventh Avenue and 57th Street.

Again, in 1939, the second and final From Spirituals to Swing concert familiarized its attendees with some future legends in the making.  Many of the fans were perhaps only beginning to understand and appreciate black music as an art form, and the reintroduction of an original, female blues star of the 1920s must have surely been an evening highlight as she sang "Lowdown Dirty Shame" and "'Fore Day Creep" with fervor, resonance and the authenticity of a diva.  Ida Cox had made it all the way to Carnegie Hall!

With the emergence of more contemporary, fancy picking, blues guitarists, a diminished interest in '20s style music and her suffering of a stroke, Cox opted to forsake the blues altogether.  She eventually moved to Knoxville in 1949 where she assumed a low profile and lived out the last years of her life with her daughter, Helen Goode, in a modest residence on Louise Avenue.

Having renewed her faith in God, Cox's performances were strictly limited to singing in the Patton Street Church of God choir.  Her fellow choir members were probably unaware of who she truly was!

While Ida Cox was living contently without fanfare, her old friend, John Hammond, attempted to locate her by placing an ad in Variety magazine in 1960.  He was unwilling to accept the rumors of her passing, and he also owed her some royalties for a recording she had completed some 20 years earlier.

Thereafter, a white TV and radio announcer by the name of Lynn Westergaard (son of radio legend R. B. "Dick" Westergaard) learned from his friend, musician Harry Nides, that John Hammond was searching for Cox.  In fact, Hammond was reportedly taking time off from promoting his latest discovery---a young man who would later be known as Bob Dylan---to find the old blues singer.  Nides told 24-year-old Westergaard that he'd heard Ida Cox was living just minutes away in East Knoxville.

Westergaard looked her up in the telephone directory and was able to confirm she was alive and well, and his uncovering of her whereabouts led to Cox's recording of one last album.

Riverside Records convinced Cox to travel to New York's Radio City Music Hall in April 1961 to record Blues for Rampart Street, an album which included an all-star band featuring saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and trumpeteer Roy Eldridge.  Her new friend, Lynn Westergaard, was present during the recording session, and he says, "She did several of the selections on the first take."

Ida Cox was a main attraction in New York that week.  She even appeared on Merv Griffin's quiz show, Play Your Hunch, in which the blindfolded contestants were unsuccessful in guessing who was belting out, "Put Your Arms Around Me, Honey, Hold Me Tight."  Westergaard indicates that Griffin "was very gracious in talking with her."

Indeed, a star had come to town and anything less than celebrity treatment would have been insulting.

Whitney Balliet, a reporter for The New Yorker, wrote, "Guess who was in and out of town last week, and after a 20-year absence, at that!"  During Balliet's interview with the singer in her room at the Paramount Hotel, Cox doused the flames of speculation that her recording career might rebound by clearly stating, "I mean to do the best that I can.  But then I'm going back home---whoom, like that."

In other interviews, Cox would later express some concerns over her last recording, even indicating she prayed for God's forgiveness if her momentary return to blues was a sin.

Ida Cox Dies at 71

Succumbing to cancer, her life came to an end on Friday, November 10, 1967 at 11:47 p.m. at Knoxville's Baptist Hospital.  "I was with Ida just a couple of days before she died," says Westergaard (now a resident of Atlanta) who, four decades later, fondly reminisces about the friendship he was privliged to share with the blues legend.

Referring to a shamefully uninforming obituary printed in the Knoxville News-Sentinel, Jack Neely, in a February 1996 article for Metropulse, wrote, "The same day, that same woman got a much larger write-up in the Sunday New York Times.  And a week later an obituary in Time magazine.  After all, she may well have been the most famous person living in Knoxville in 1967."

Her Music Lives On

Certainly some of the sides Ida Cox recorded are vibrant in the contemporary music scene including her most famous composition, "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues," which has become the signature song for Atlanta R&B singer, Francine Reed.

Known for her distinctive, gritty, soulful delivery, Reed could have given those early barrel-house mamas a run for their money!  Needless to say, she excels in acquainting audiences with the blues of yesterday through her own interpretations, regularly touring with Curb/Lost Highway recording artist, Lyle Lovett & His Large Band, as well as performing at various Atlanta clubs.

In fact, Lovett's 1999 CD, Live in Texas, features Francine Reed in a roof-raising rendition of Cox's "Wild Women."  The boisterous cheers in the crowd are likely coming from Reed's female fans reveling at the notion of living loose and easy, essentially trampling over any socially ingrained inhibitions.  One has to wonder how Ida Cox fans reacted to this song seven decades ago!

With All Due Respect . . .

It is doubtful that most Toccoans were aware of Ida Cox's appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1939.  Considering the attitudes of the day, most probably wouldn't have cared!

Yet, in the middle of it all, a talented, ambitious "colored" girl from a small North Georgia town set out to pursue a better life despite the limitations and hardships she would inevitably face.

Rising to national prominence in her field, Ida Cox was both a pioneer and icon, by all accounts, securing a significant place in America's rich and illustrious musical past.

However, some students of roots music contend that artists such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey and Ida Cox have been slighted in recent blues documentaries, including Martin Scorsese's The Blues on PBS, in which a great deal of emphasis was placed on the male guitarists from the Mississippi Delta.

Joseph Johnson, Curator of Music & Popular Culture at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon, concurs. "These female preachers of the blues have not received the credit and attention they deserve for putting blues on record," he says, adding their careers "were concurrent with all those Delta guys."

A Lesson Worth Learning

Most Georgians today have probably not even heard of Ida Cox---even older members of the African American community.  In stark contrast, she is revered by musicologists.

The U. S. Congress had declared 2003 the "Year of the Blues," but little homage was paid to this important blues figure.  Perhaps now is a fitting time to re-explore Cox's musical path and discover what makes her story worth remembering.

She triumphed despite social hurdles, racial barriers and the Great Depression.

Somewhere amid the Ida Cox journey echoes a sublime, inspiring theme, pulsating to the infectious groove of a ragtime melody, reassuring a new generation that life can surely be pursued to the fullest extent given the opportunities accessible today.

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Southern Exposure

Author:  Greg Freeman.  Published May 7, 2006.  Copyright Southern Edition

Compact discs containing Ida Cox's original recordings can be obtained from United Kingdom-based Document Records:

Additionally, my European readers (and North American visitors alike!) might enjoy checking out Jan Vollenbronk's New Orleans Jazz.  This site, though published in The Netherlands, is an excellent resource for any serious fan of the great American jazz, blues and gospel recording artists of yesterday.

Jan Vollenbronk's New Orleans Jazz