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‘The Empress of the Blues’: History Alive! performance depicts musical career of Bessie Smith

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Sep 24, 2021

Actress and singer Doris Fields portrays Bessie Smith in the Morgan’s Grove Park pavilion on Sept. 16. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Classic blues songs could be heard drifting out of the Morgan’s Grove Park pavilion on Sept. 16, throughout the History Alive! portrayal of Bessie Smith by Beckley-based actress and singer Doris Fields.

Run by the West Virginia Humanities Council, the free History Alive! event was once again, as in previous years, hosted by the Friends of the Shepherdstown Library, as well as the Shepherdstown Community Club.

“This year, History Alive! is featuring a portrayal of Bessie Smith, a popular blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s. We are excited to be able to offer this to the community!” said FOSL member Patricia DiDonato.

The History Alive! program features scholars from around the state, who portray historical figures, ranging from Pearl Buck to Nellie Bly. These living history performances provide a passport through time for student and adult audiences throughout the Mountain State.

According to the West Virginia Humanities Council website, the History Alive! program presents a roster of 12 historical figures available for first-person portrayals every year. Previously, FOSL has hosted History Alive! performances in Shepherdstown featuring portrayals of Charles Schulz, Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, no portrayal was held in Shepherdstown last year, and this year’s portrayal changed typical locations, to accommodate social distancing concerns. Usually, History Alive! portrayals are located inside of O’Hurley’s General Store.

Community members listen with rapt attention to the Sept. 16 History Alive! performance in Morgan’s Grove Park’s pavilion. Tabitha Johnston

Selecting Fields’ portrayal for this year’s performance was an easy choice, DiDonato indicated, as Smith, “the Empress of the Blues,” was both the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s and the highest-paid Black performer of the time.

Fields herself brought the house down with her performance, alternating between portraying her character through song and monologue. Some of the songs she performed from Smith’s repertoire, included “Dirty No-Gooder’s Blues,” “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out.” Ending the portrayal by singing “Wasted Life,” Fields herself received a standing ovation for her incredible performance.

“Folks said all sorts of things about Bessie Smith. But folks don’t know, to sing the blues you got to live the blues,” Fields said. “I sing about folks in prison and homes washed away by floods, about no good men and about no good women.

“Folks like to call the blues ‘the devil’s music.’ I think that’s just because it tells them about themselves,” Fields said. “The blues tells the truth!”