Photo courtesy Texas Music Museum (1906-1976) Birthplace: Houston Genre: Blues Influenced: Bob Dylan, Alberta Hunter, the blues revival of the 1960s Other Sites: Victoria Spivey Page

The grandly named Victoria Regina Spivey was a true queen of the blues in the early heyday of blues recordings, and she survived to become a legendary record producer in the 1960s. Both a composer and a singer, Spivey's earthy, biting style attracted many young admirers of the classic blues in the early sixties, including the young Bob Dylan, who accompanied her in some late recordings. As the founder of her own recording company, she brought out of retirement another great blues singer, Roberta Hunter.

Victoria Spivey grew up in Houston in a family that produced several noted musicians, all trained in her father's string band. Hardly twelve years old, she began playing piano with local bands in Houston before moving on to Dallas. From 1918 into the early twenties Spivey performed with several Dallas bands and singers, including Lazy Daddy's Fillmore Blues Band and Blind Lemon Jefferson. By 1926 she had traveled to St. Louis, where she recorded her first composition on the Okeh label, the legendary "Black Snake Blues." By this time, her sisters Addie (Sweet Peas) and Elton Island (the Za Zu Girl) were performing with her in a revue that played in vaudeville theaters from Texas to Michigan.

An appearance in the 1929 King Vidor black musical film Hallelujah increased her national popularity, and she eventually recorded and performed with Louis Armstong, Memphis Minnie, Bessie Smith, and many other great blues artists of the era. Spivey recorded many songs, mostly her own compositions, until 1937, when changing tastes were bringing to a close the great era of classic blues recordings. Although she continued to perform in vaudeville-style shows throughout the forties, by 1952 she had largely retired.

In 1960 she made a comeback, writing new material that dealt with such contemporary issues as "drugs, violence, and deviant sex," according to one commentator. In 1962 she founded the Spivey label and began recording several of the classic blues singers, including the wonderful Alberta Hunter. Although she accompanied herself on the piano, she also experimented with a ukulele, and Bob Dylan is featured as an accompanist on her first release on the Spivey label. She also contributed to the history of jazz by writing articles to various blues and jazz publications. Spivey performed frequently in New York City in the seventies until shortly before her death in 1976.