Cora Mae Bryant
{{short description|American singer}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Cora Mae Bryant
| image =
| caption =
| image_size =
| birth_name = Cora Mae Weaver
| alias =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|05|01}}
| birth_place = Oxford, Newton County, Georgia, United States
| death_date = {{death date and age|2008|10|30|1926|05|01}}
| death_place = Oxford, Newton County, Georgia, United States
| instrument = Vocals, guitar
| genre = Blues
| occupation = Singer, songwriter
| years_active = 1960s–2008
| label = Music Maker
| associated_acts =
| website =
}}
Cora Mae Bryant (May 1, 1926 – October 30, 2008) was an American blues musician.{{cite book| first1= Bob| last1= Eagle| first2= Eric S.| last2= LeBlanc| year= 2013| title= Blues: A Regional Experience| publisher= Praeger | location= Santa Barbara, California| pages=274 | isbn= 978-0313344237}} She was the daughter of another American blues musician, Curley Weaver. Bryant released two solo albums in her lifetime on the Music Maker label.
Part of her home in Oxford, Georgia, was thought of as a 'blues museum'. Her own music largely derived from the influence of attending impromptu performances and house parties, including her father, plus Blind Willie McTell, Buddy Moss, and other local blues musicians of the early 1930s.{{cite web|url=https://creativeloafing.com/content-158302-Cora-Mae-Bryant-19262008|title=Cora Mae Bryant 1926-2008 - Atlanta Creative Loafing|website=Creativeloafing.com|accessdate=11 October 2018}}
Biography
She was born Cora Mae Weaver in Oxford, Newton County, Georgia, United States. She was the daughter of Curley Weaver, and started singing at the age of six in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Walnut Grove, Georgia. With her father often absent performing and recording, Bryant was part-raised by her grandmother, Savannah Shepard, who lived in Almon, Georgia. Bryant often spent days and nights with her grandmother, who had both a piano and guitar, and often played them and sang to entertain the young girl. Bryant maintained that was where her father had earlier obtained his own basic musical intuition. She once said, "When the weekend came, Daddy would come and get me. We did not know the difference between night and day."{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}
She started attending fish fries and barbecues around her home state with her father, and through these connections got to meet Buddy Moss, Blind Willie McTell and others, including the unrecorded guitarist Johnny Guthrie. They played generally outside for the entertainment of locals and Bryant obtained her education in Georgia blues. She later found casual employment in her mid-twenties, with her father picking cotton for a living. Curley Weaver died in 1962.
Bryant began to perform in her own right, although one researcher wryly noted that "Clyde Langford and Cora Mae Bryant, kin to Lightnin' Hopkins and Curley Weaver respectively, but very distant from them in talent".{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__DTvryrBZkC&q=%22Cora+Mae+Bryant%22&pg=PA76|title=Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World Volume 8: Genres: North America|first1=John|last1=Shepherd|first2=David|last2=Horn|date=8 March 2012|page=76|publisher=A&C Black|isbn= 9781441160782}} Her own songwriting was slow to get started, but Bryant found the process easy to accomplish. She stated "I don't get no pencil and write 'em. One song, we was sittin' up there just talkin', me and my granddaughter, and I said, "Yeah, if you got anything in layaway, you better get it out." And I made a song of that". Also, Bryant's knowledge of early blues in Atlanta and Georgia, was used as a source by the music historians Peter B. Lowry and Bruce Bastin.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Her own recording career was late in commencing before Dave Peabody's 1997 album, Down in Carolina, contained a guest appearance from Bryant on her penned track, "McTell, Moss, & Weaver".{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/down-in-carolina-mw0000235697/credits|title=Down in Carolina - Dave Peabody - Credits - AllMusic|website=AllMusic|accessdate=11 October 2018}}{{cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/down-in-carolina-mw0000235697|title=Down in Carolina - Dave Peabody - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic|website=AllMusic|accessdate=11 October 2018}}
She gradually became important on the Atlanta blues scene; performing, organizing "Giving It Back" festivals at the city's Northside Tavern to honor early blues artists, and as a frequent caller to local blues radio shows.{{cite web|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/musicmakers/mm4000b/mm4003.html|title=American Blues-Music Maker Relief Foundation: Meet Cora Mae Bryant|website=Ibiblio.org|accessdate=11 October 2018}} In addition, her collection of memorabilia continued to expand; "... a little pale gray bench, that she said Blind Willie McTell used to sit on to play" was donated to Bryant's 'museum' housed in a side room in her home in Oxford.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEMIAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Cora+Mae+Bryant%22|title=Hand Me My Travelin' Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell|first=Michael|last=Gray|date=11 October 2018|publisher=Bloomsbury|isbn=978-1556529757}} Bryant was the subject of articles in both Living Blues magazine in February 1998 and in Music Makers in 2002.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=immRAgAAQBAJ&q=%22Cora+Mae+Bryant%22&pg=PA205|title=A Blues Bibliography|first=Robert|last=Ford|date=31 March 2008|publisher=Routledge|page=205|isbn=9781135865078}}
In 2001, Bryant recorded her debut album, Born with the Blues, which was released on the supportive Music Maker label. In July 2002, Bryant appeared at the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, accompanied by the guitarist Josh Jacobson, performing songs from Born with the Blues.{{cite web|url=http://www.mnblues.com/review/2002/mvbf2002-dp.html|title=18th Annual Mississippi Valley Blues Festival Review|website=Mnblues.com|accessdate=11 October 2018}} Her song "You Was Born to Die" had previously appeared on the compilation album, fRoots 7 (1996),{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} while "It Was Weaver" appeared on Soul Bag N°192 (2008).{{citation needed|date=May 2021}} Further tracks were included on Music Maker's own compilation, Sisters of the South (2003).{{cite web|url=http://www.bluesweb.com/p_disque.php3?id_article=1405|title=Music Maker - Sisters of the South|website=Bluesweb.com|accessdate=11 October 2018|archive-date=12 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012053953/http://www.bluesweb.com/p_disque.php3?id_article=1405|url-status=dead}} Her own second label, Born in Newton County, came out the same year.
In 2005, Bryant was living at home in Oxford when suffered a stroke. She died of natural causes on the morning of October 30, 2008, at the age of 82.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}
Legacy
Bryant's track, "Born to Die" was played by Cerys Matthews on the UK's BBC Radio 2 in April 2015.{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/f76e08a8-8f78-4455-92f0-349ad16a5f32|title=Cora Mae Bryant - New Songs, Playlists & Latest News - BBC Music|website=BBC|accessdate=11 October 2018}} "It Was Weaver" had been aired in June 2014, on a NTS Radio show hosted by Charlie Bones.{{cite web|url=https://www.nts.live/artists/11480-cora-mae-bryant|title=Cora Mae Bryant - Discover music on NTS|website=Nts.live|accessdate=11 October 2018}}
Discography
| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
| Year || Title || Record label | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Born with the Blues | style="text-align:center;"|Music Maker |
| 2003 | Born in Newton County | style="text-align:center;"|Music Maker |
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.northsidetavern.com/northside-tavern-wall/cora-mae-bryant-painting-by.html Painting and videos @ Northsidetavern.com]
- [https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/atlanta/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=119552185 Family placed death notice]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Cora Mae}}
Category:American blues singers
Category:20th-century African-American women singers
Category:American blues guitarists
Category:Singers from Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:Guitarists from Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:Songwriters from Georgia (U.S. state)
Category:People from Newton County, Georgia
Category:20th-century American women singers
Category:20th-century American women guitarists
Category:20th-century American guitarists
Category:20th-century American singers
Category:African-American songwriters
Category:African-American guitarists
Category:21st-century African-American musicians