Gertrude ‘Ma’ Rainey - April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early-blues recording artist. Often referred to as the Mother of the Blues, Gertrude bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic southern blues, influencing a generation of blues singers. Gertrude was known for her powerful vocal abilities, energetic disposition, majestic phrasing, and a moaning style of singing. Her qualities are present and most evident in her early recordings ‘Bo-Weevil Blues’ and ‘Moonshine Blues.

Gertrude Pridgett began performing as a teenager, she became known as Ma Rainey after her marriage to Will ‘Pa’ Rainey in 1904. Together, they toured with the Rabbit Foot Minstrels and later formed their own group, Assassinators of the Blues. Her first recording was made in 1923. In the following five years, she made over 100 recordings. Gertrude also collaborated with Thomas Dorsey, Tampa Red, and Louis Armstrong. She toured and recorded with the Georgia Jazz Band. Touring until 1935, she then largely retired from performing. Ma and Pa Rainey adopted a son named Danny who later joined his parents' musical act. Rainey developed a relationship with Bessie Smith. Rumours and legends of that relationship are many and most impossible to verify. For example, it was also rumoured that Bessie once bailed Gertrude out of jail.
A lot of legendary people started with Ma Rainey or grew with Ma Rainey. I read somewhere Thomas Dorsey said, ‘After performing and working with Ma Rainey there was nowhere else to go but to the Lord’.
“I think her voice made a statement. It was strong. It was unapologetic. They didn’t have all the bells and whistles and the amplifiers we have in music today. It was just music point blank to your soul. It was how she was feeling. Like the blues is your story, she told her story.”

In 1935, having parted company with Pa Rainey, Gertrude returned to her home town, and became the proprieties of three theatres, the Liberty in Columbus, and the Lyric and the Airdrome in Rome, Georgia, until her death in 1939.

She has been posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame, as well as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Gertrude has been portrayed in several films including the 2020 film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.