Queer Blues: The Hidden Figures of Early Blues Music - A Guardian Best Book of 2023

From its very inception, the blues has maintained a close connection with the LGBTQ community. There is a long and decorated history of so-called 'dirty blues' songs, stretching back beyond the earliest attempts to capture the blues on record. The 1920s and 30s saw the release of dozens of raunchy, bawdy blues recordings specifically aimed at a knowing LGBTQ audience.

Queer Blues tells the compelling story of the pioneering LGBTQ composers and entertainers who wrote, performed, and recorded these wonderfully outlandish, life-affirming songs. It chronicles the lives and careers of figures including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Josephine Baker, Frankie 'Half-Pint' Jaxon, and many more. This is the definitive account of the LGBTQ trailblazers of early blues and a fascinating consideration of the intersection between music and LGBTQ history, all from the award-winning author Darryl W. Bullock.