KATIE WEBSTER
At the time
of her death on September 9, 1999 at the age of 63, Katie Webster was
acknowledged as the one of the premier blues artists of her generation.
Webster's sassy and sensuous blend of barrelhouse boogie-woogie, New Orleans
R&B, Gulf Coast swamp-pop, deep bayou blues 24224l119y and Southern gospel-flavored
soul placed her among the most in-demand blues artists in the country and made
her a favorite at festivals and concert halls all over the world. As a teen,
Webster was already hailed as South Louisiana's
reigning piano queen. She recorded on more than 500 singles during the 1950s
and 1960s. She joined Otis Redding's touring band in 1965 and enjoyed a
successful solo career in the 1980s, releasing albums on Arhoolie and a number
of European labels. She signed with Alligator Records in 1988, cutting three
albums for the label: 1988's Swamp
Boogie Queen (with guests Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray), 1989's
Two Fisted Mama! and
1991's No Foolin'. In
February 1999, Alligator released Deluxe
Edition, a collection of Webster's greatest recorded
performances from her years with the label.
Born Kathryn Jewel Thorne on January 11, 1936 in Houston, Texas,
Webster first learned piano as a child. Her deeply religious parents strictly
warned her to play only gospel and classical music, going so far as to keep the
piano under lock and key so Katie could only play while being supervised. But
Webster loved the blues, rock and R&B she heard on an old Philco radio
hidden under the bed covers late at night, and would play her secular music at
every opportunity. While still a teenager, Webster moved to South Louisiana
when her parents relocated to California.
She lived with less rigid relatives who allowed her to play the music she
loved. By the age of 15 Webster was one of the most requested studio musicians
in the region. Both Jay Miller of Excello Records and Eddie Shuler of Goldband
Records used her on hundreds recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including sides
with Guitar Junior (Lonnie Brooks), Slim Harpo, Lazy Lester, Lightnin' Slim,
and Clifton Chenier. In 1964, a young Otis Redding caught Webster's set with
her band the Uptighters in Lake
Charles, Louisiana,
and demanded she join his touring band the very next day.
Webster toured the country with Redding,
and can be heard on his Live At The
Whiskey A-Go-Go album. Unable to join Redding
on tour in 1967 because she was pregnant, Webster was not on the plane that
took Redding's
life. Devastated by his death, she kept a very low profile until the early
1980s, when she made her debut tour of Europe.
European audiences couldn't get enough of Webster, and she returned over 30
times. During the 1980s, Webster began to win over her American audience at
numerous high profile festival gigs, including the Chicago Blues Festival, The
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, The Boulder Blues Festival, The Newport
Folk Festival, The San Francisco Blues Festival and many others. "She can
floor the timid listener," raved the Boston
Globe. "Webster can say more about the pain of betrayal with
one low, sad growl, and more about the joy of fighting back against cruel life
with one teasing roll of her eyes, than most could write in a book."
In 1988, Webster teamed up with Alligator Records and went from a cult blues
legend to internationally recognized phenomenon. She received accolades from a
host of publications, including Rolling
Stone and Keyboard.
She was nominated for three Blues Music Awards (the Grammy of the
blues community) and, in March of 1989, performed for the first time on
national television on NBC's Sunday Night program
hosted by David Sanborn. In 1992, Webster joined label mates Koko Taylor,
Lonnie Brooks, Elvin Bishop and Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials on a
cross-country tour celebrating Alligator's 20th Anniversary. The Alligator Records 20th Anniversary Tour
album documented the proceedings, as did the Bob Mugge documentary, Pride And Joy: The Story Of Alligator Records.
In 1993, Webster was felled by a stroke while touring in Greece, and
lost some of the use of her left hand and almost all of her eyesight. But her
magnificent voice and wonderful right hand, not to mention her inimitable
spirit, kept her going strong. She continued to appear at selected festivals.
Even though her health wouldn't support extended touring, her final
performances were filled with the same boogie-woogie drive and spirit that
originally earned Katie Webster the title Swamp Boogie Queen.
