Biography
Ann Rabson earned recognition as "Music Makin' Mama" for her substantial part in restoring acoustic blues after the Stevie Ray Vaughan period, both through solo work and through Saffire -- the Uppity Blues Women, which she helped establish in 1988. Although primarily identified with boogie-woogie piano, she spent her initial twenty years in music chiefly on guitar and possessed the distinctive capacity to move without pause between Chicago barrelhouse piano attack and Piedmont fingerpicking. Her earthbound style also absorbed substantial influence from pre-war female blues vocalists such as Lucille Bogan, Ida Cox, and Bessie Smith. Alongside peers Rory Block and Bonnie Raitt, she stands among the modern blueswomen whose efforts extended the genre’s reach across audiences.
New York City birth in 1945 preceded an Ohio upbringing during which she began absorbing blues and jazz while still very young. Guitar study began at age seventeen, and within twelve months she was performing solo engagements with a song list shaped by Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Leroy Carr. Relocation to Fredericksburg, VA, in 1971 led to seven full-time years devoted to music. A later return to day employment as a computer programmer did not halt her performances or guitar instruction through the 1980s. That part-time schedule incidentally created space to explore piano, particularly the boogie-woogie approaches of Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Amos Milburn.
Rabson and her guitar student Gaye Adegbalola formed Saffire in 1984 and started appearing together across Virginia before adding bassist Earlene Lewis. By the late 1980s the three had committed to the group full-time and were touring regionally. Their 1989 signing with Alligator Records marked the label’s first all-acoustic band, and the ensuing self-titled debut album of 1990 achieved both critical and commercial success. Rabson’s composition “Elevator Man,” included on the follow-up Hot Flash, received a 1992 W.C. Handy Award nomination for Song of the Year.
Beyond Saffire commitments, Rabson sustained activity as a solo performer and session musician. After appearing on recordings by Steve James, Deborah Coleman, and Ani DiFranco during the 1990s, she issued her own debut album, Music Makin' Mama, in 1997. That release displayed her command of boogie-woogie, R&B, Piedmont blues, and ballad forms and brought three additional Handy Award nominations in 1998. M.C. Records brought out the second solo collection, Struttin' My Stuff, in September 2000, again to strong critical notice.
New York City birth in 1945 preceded an Ohio upbringing during which she began absorbing blues and jazz while still very young. Guitar study began at age seventeen, and within twelve months she was performing solo engagements with a song list shaped by Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, Tampa Red, and Leroy Carr. Relocation to Fredericksburg, VA, in 1971 led to seven full-time years devoted to music. A later return to day employment as a computer programmer did not halt her performances or guitar instruction through the 1980s. That part-time schedule incidentally created space to explore piano, particularly the boogie-woogie approaches of Jimmy Yancey, Meade Lux Lewis, and Amos Milburn.
Rabson and her guitar student Gaye Adegbalola formed Saffire in 1984 and started appearing together across Virginia before adding bassist Earlene Lewis. By the late 1980s the three had committed to the group full-time and were touring regionally. Their 1989 signing with Alligator Records marked the label’s first all-acoustic band, and the ensuing self-titled debut album of 1990 achieved both critical and commercial success. Rabson’s composition “Elevator Man,” included on the follow-up Hot Flash, received a 1992 W.C. Handy Award nomination for Song of the Year.
Beyond Saffire commitments, Rabson sustained activity as a solo performer and session musician. After appearing on recordings by Steve James, Deborah Coleman, and Ani DiFranco during the 1990s, she issued her own debut album, Music Makin' Mama, in 1997. That release displayed her command of boogie-woogie, R&B, Piedmont blues, and ballad forms and brought three additional Handy Award nominations in 1998. M.C. Records brought out the second solo collection, Struttin' My Stuff, in September 2000, again to strong critical notice.
Albums
