First Lady of British Blues

By far the outstanding, most powerful female British Blues/R&Bsinger of her era, former Belfast art teacher Ottilie Patterson sang with Chris Barber's band between 1955-73. Although the slight, demure Ottilie looked like a shy Irish coleen, she sang like a white Bessie Smith, as Louis Armstrong once famously observed. She recorded prolifically, both as a solo artiste and as an ensemble band member, and this compilation is drawn from both sources. Includes a handful of solo singles, plus seven sides from her critically-acclaimed 1961 solo LP, "Blues Book Vol. 1", alongside tracks from The Chris Barber Band's three biggest-selling albums, "In Concert, Vols 1, 2 & 3". Features duets with Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Louis Jordan. Ottilie was an exceptional live performer, and 10 of these sides are either from official Live albums or gigs which Barber recorded professionally, but were unreleased at the time. A half-dozen or so of these twenty-seven sides are virtually impossible to find elsewhere on CD.