Bea Booze

Like Memphis Minnie before her and Bonnie Raitt in more recent times Bea Booze was a rarity, a guitar playing woman blues singer. She hailed from Baltimore and was born Muriel Nicholls in 1920, although little is known of her early life before she recorded for the first time in March of 1942 in New York City.

Sammy Price, a Texan pianist and bandleader took Bea to Decca Records, for whom he played many sessions and worked with the likes of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Helen Humes and Peetie Wheatstraw. Her first couple of releases tapped into the wartime zeitgeist, but neither Uncle Sam, Come and Get Him and War Rationin’ Papa made much impression; nor did a third release, one with no wartime reference.

It was Bea’s fourth Decca release, See See Rider Blues that got her noticed and briefly launched her into the spotlight when it made No.1 on the Harlem Hit Parade for 4 weeks in January b1943. It was Ma Rainey’s 1924 version of this blues standard that was the first to be widely recognised. The song dates back to around 1913 when Shelton Brooks published I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s Gone. Blind Lemon Jefferson, Big Bill Broonzy, Lead Belly, Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley are among those that have recorded versions of See See Rider and its derivatives.

Bea could not repeat her success or even come close despite going on tour with Louis Armstrong and Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy. She did record more songs, even as late as the early 1960s with Sammy Price. Despite her lack of further success the woman who died in 1975 should be remembered for this evocative rendition of one of the great blues songs.