Biography
Blind Mamie Forehand belongs to that rare group of 1920s artists whose distinctiveness extends beyond a memorable stage name, having cut just a few sides alongside her presumed husband A.C. Forehand. Although female blues singers remained uncommon on professional stages during the decade, she numbered among the many women performing gospel and stood out as one of the even smaller cohort whose work survived in striking recorded form. Forehand regularly delivered spirituals on the sidewalks of Memphis, a setting that naturally placed her sound within the street-corner and storefront gospel tradition. Among the selections she committed to disc in 1927 was “Honey in the Rock,” and those performances continue to circulate widely, aided by murky copyright histories that have produced multiple overlapping international reissues. Labels such as Wolf have further ensured that locating a Blind Mamie Forehand track in Austria can prove simpler than locating a jar of peanut butter. Once heard, the music itself proves impossible to forget: powerful voices supported by antique cymbals that release visible plumes of dust with every resounding strike.