Biography
Classic blues devotees have long shared a singular point of agreement about the name Jane Lucas: the performer never existed. Yet the Songwriters Hall of Fame placed Lucas among the credited partners of Georgia Tom Dorsey in its 1997 tribute, alongside the major blues figures Big Bill Broonzy and Scrapper Blackwell, whom the same document labeled “immortal.” Such language functions as straightforward exaggeration when applied to Broonzy or Dorsey, simply underscoring that their recorded work endures. When attached to Lucas, however, the phrase acquires an unintended literal edge, because an identity that existed solely on disc labels—employed by as many as three different vocalists—could indeed persist indefinitely on paper.
The debate shows no sign of disappearing. Several Lucas sides continue to appear on anthologies of ribald blues and on collections devoted to the prolific Dorsey. Four recordings were made with Dorsey and a vocalist using the Jane Lucas pseudonym: the comic “What’s That I Smell,” an uncommon blues centered on olfactory matters, and “Terrible Operation Blues,” a sardonic assault on physicians comparable to Weird Al Yankovic’s later parody “Like a Surgeon.” Two additional titles originally issued as by the Hokum Boys and Lucas—“Hip Shakin’ Strut” and “Hokum Stomp”—feature the same singer in an otherwise all-star trio completed by Dorsey and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. The Lucas credit surfaces once more on Victoria Spivey’s weary “I Can’t Last Long,” issued under the billing Jane Lucas & the State Street Four with Sweet Peas. Sweet Peas was the performing name of Addie Spivey, Victoria’s sister; both women have been proposed as the voice behind Lucas, though evidence leans toward the former.
Another classic blues singer, Mozelle Alderson, is widely believed to have supplied vocals on additional Lucas sides; Alderson is also thought to be the artist behind the recordings credited to Hannah May and Kansas City Kitty, and possibly two or three further pseudonyms. A few collectors even equate Alderson with Addie Spivey. The chain of assumed names reaches an almost surreal level in the case of Kansas City Kitty, a credit derived from a once-popular pamphlet that advised gamblers on interpreting dream imagery for betting purposes. Reviewing the duet with Dorsey titled “How Can You Have the Blues?,” one writer called Kansas City Kitty “hot stuff” while conceding that the name belonged to “…an otherwise anonymous blues singer…and my bet is solidly on Lucas.” ~ Eugene Chadbourne
The debate shows no sign of disappearing. Several Lucas sides continue to appear on anthologies of ribald blues and on collections devoted to the prolific Dorsey. Four recordings were made with Dorsey and a vocalist using the Jane Lucas pseudonym: the comic “What’s That I Smell,” an uncommon blues centered on olfactory matters, and “Terrible Operation Blues,” a sardonic assault on physicians comparable to Weird Al Yankovic’s later parody “Like a Surgeon.” Two additional titles originally issued as by the Hokum Boys and Lucas—“Hip Shakin’ Strut” and “Hokum Stomp”—feature the same singer in an otherwise all-star trio completed by Dorsey and guitarist Big Bill Broonzy. The Lucas credit surfaces once more on Victoria Spivey’s weary “I Can’t Last Long,” issued under the billing Jane Lucas & the State Street Four with Sweet Peas. Sweet Peas was the performing name of Addie Spivey, Victoria’s sister; both women have been proposed as the voice behind Lucas, though evidence leans toward the former.
Another classic blues singer, Mozelle Alderson, is widely believed to have supplied vocals on additional Lucas sides; Alderson is also thought to be the artist behind the recordings credited to Hannah May and Kansas City Kitty, and possibly two or three further pseudonyms. A few collectors even equate Alderson with Addie Spivey. The chain of assumed names reaches an almost surreal level in the case of Kansas City Kitty, a credit derived from a once-popular pamphlet that advised gamblers on interpreting dream imagery for betting purposes. Reviewing the duet with Dorsey titled “How Can You Have the Blues?,” one writer called Kansas City Kitty “hot stuff” while conceding that the name belonged to “…an otherwise anonymous blues singer…and my bet is solidly on Lucas.” ~ Eugene Chadbourne