Elzadie Robinson (possibly April 24, 1897 – January 17, 1975) was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She recorded 34 songs between 1926 and 1929. Unusually for the time, she composed or co-composed most of her work. Few details of her life outside the recording studio are known.
AllMusic noted that "Robinson was a second-level blues singer whose voice seemed to get stronger with time".
Biography The music researchers Bob Eagle and Eric S. LeBlanc suggest that she was born Elzadie Wallace in Logansport, DeSoto Parish, Louisiana, in 1897, but 1900 is also possible.
She relocated to Chicago to make her recordings and remained in the city for some while thereafter. Her recordings were made between 1926 and 1929. Robinson had different piano accompanists over that period, including Bob Call and her most regular accompanist, William Ezell. Songs most associated with them are "Barrelhouse Man", "Sawmill Blues" and the Ezell-penned number, "Arkansas Mill Blues", which related the grim reality of lumber camp work and conditions. Robinson chiefly recorded for Paramount Records but also cut several sides for Broadway Records using the alias Bernice Drake. On two of her recordings, the pianist Bob Call or the guitarist Johnny St. Cyr replaced Ezell, and on two occasions in 1926, B. T. Wingfield or Shirley Clay played the cornet, with either Tiny Parham or Richard M. Jones on the piano. In 1928, she was backed by the clarinetist Johnny Dodds, the guitarist Blind Blake and either the pianist Jimmy Blythe or Jimmy Bertrand on xylophone.
To add to the variation, two of her sides ("Galveston Blues" and "2:16 Blues") were released under the name of Blanche Johnson, another pseudonym.
Little is known of her life after her recording career ended. She is thought to have married Perry Henderson in Flint, Michigan, in 1928, and to have died there in 1975.
In 1994, Document Records issued two anthologies incorporating all of her known recorded work.
In 2025 the Killer Blues Headstone Project placed the headstone for Elzadie Robinson at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Flint, Michigan.
Discography
78 rpm singles – Paramount Records 12417"Barrel House Man"October 192612417"Saw Mill Blues"October 192612420"Houston Bound"October 192612420"Humming Blues"October 192612469"Baltimore Blues"March 192712469"Troubled With The Blues"March 192712509"Back Door Blues"July 192712509"Whiskey Blues"July 192712544"Tick Tock Blues"October 192712544"Hour Behind the Gun"October 192712573"Santa Claus Crave"November 192712573"St Louis Cyclone Blues"November 192712627"You Ain't the Last Man"March 192812627"Love Crazy Blues"March 192812635"Pay Day Daddy Blues"April 192812635"Elzadie Policy Blues"April 192812573"Santa Claus Crave"November 192712573"St Louis Cyclone Blues"November 192712627"You Ain't the Last Man"March 192812627"Love Crazy Blues"March 192812635"Pay Day Daddy Blues"April 192812635"Elzadie Policy Blues"April 192812676"Mad Blues"June 192812676"Pleading Misery Blues"June 192812689"Wicked Daddy"July 192812689"It's Too Late Now"July 192812701"Arkansas Mill Blues"October 192812701"Gold Mansion Blues"October 192812724"Going South Blues"October 192812724"Rowdy Man Blues"October 192812745A"Unsatisfied Blues"October 192812745B"Need My Lovin' – Need My Daddy"October 192812768A"Cheatin' Daddy"March 192912768B"This is Your Last Night With Me"March 192912795"My Pullman Porter Man"March 192912795B"I Ain't Got Nobody"March 192912900A"Driving Me South"March 192912900B"Past and Future Blues"March 1929
78 rpm singles – Broadway Records 5006As Bernice Drake"Humming Blues"September 19265006As Bernice Drake"Houston Bound"October 19265037As Bernice Drake"Sawmill Blues"October 19265037As Bernice Drake"Barrel House Man"October 19265038As Bernice Drake"Whiskey Blues" (736)July 19275038As Bernice Drake"Back Door Blues" (735)July 1927
See also List of classic female blues singers
References
External links Robinson detailed discography