Sippie Wallace

Wallace earned recognition as a defining blues vocalist of the 1920s and sustained both stage appearances and studio work straight through to the close of her life. Early in her own career, Bonnie Raitt drew heavily from Wallace as a primary inspiration, committing multiple Wallace compositions to record and appearing alongside her in concert.

Born Beulah Thomas in Houston as the daughter of a Baptist deacon, Sippie Wallace grew up immersed in the city’s church environment, where she performed vocals and piano from childhood. Before reaching her teens she began collaborating onstage with her brother, pianist Hersal Thomas. By her midteens she had departed Houston to seek a professional path, appearing in various tent shows and building a loyal following. In 1915 she relocated to New Orleans alongside Hersal, and two years later she married Matt Wallace.

The year 1923 found Sippie, Hersal, and their elder brother George settling in Chicago, where she entered the local jazz community. Before the year ended she secured a recording agreement with OKeh Records. Her initial releases for the label, “Shorty George” and “Up the Country Blues,” achieved strong sales and quickly elevated her to star status. Throughout the remainder of the decade she issued a steady stream of singles, nearly all of which enjoyed comparable success. Those OKeh sides included contributions from prominent jazz figures such as Louis Armstrong, Eddie Heywood, King Oliver, and Clarence Williams, while Hersal and George Thomas also played on the sessions and accompanied her in live settings. Between 1923 and 1927 she completed more than forty titles for the company, many of them originals or collaborations with her brothers.

Hersal Thomas succumbed to food poisoning in 1926, yet Wallace persisted with performances and recordings. Within a few years, however, she curtailed regular touring. After fulfilling her OKeh contract in the late 1920s she relocated to Detroit in 1929. By the early 1930s she had ceased making records, limiting herself to sporadic engagements. In 1936 both George Thomas and her husband Matt passed away. Wallace then became organist and singer at Detroit’s Leland Baptist Church, remaining in that role for the next four decades.

From 1936 through 1966 she stayed largely absent from the blues circuit, appearing in only a handful of concerts and cutting occasional sides. In 1966 her friend Victoria Spivey persuaded her to reenter the active blues and folk festival circuit, prompting both renewed performances and fresh recordings. The first of these projects paired Wallace with Spivey for the duet album Sippie Wallace & Victoria Spivey, taped in 1966 though not issued until 1970. That same year she recorded Sippie Wallace Sings the Blues for Storyville, supported by musicians including Little Brother Montgomery and Roosevelt Sykes; the album and her festival appearances proved widely popular.

A stroke in 1970 slowed Wallace’s pace, though she continued to record and perform on a reduced schedule. In 1982 Bonnie Raitt, who had long cited Wallace as a central influence, secured her a contract with Atlantic Records. Raitt produced the resulting album Sippie, released in 1983. The record received the W.C. Handy Award for best blues album of the year and earned a Grammy nomination. It marked Wallace’s final recording; she died in 1986 at the age of 88.