Diunna Greenleaf (born October 6, 1957) is an American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer and songwriter. At the 2014

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy, " ...

s, Greenleaf won the Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female), beating fellow nominees Teeny Tucker,

Lavelle White Lillia Lavell "Lavelle" White (born July 3, 1929) is an American Texas blues and soul blues singer and songwriter. After performing most of her adult lifetime, White released three albums, the first of which was issued in 1994, when she was aged ...

Trudy Lynn Trudy Lynn (born August 9, 1947) is an American electric blues and soul blues singer and songwriter, whose recorded work has been released on twelve studio albums, one live album, and four compilation albums. The Allmusic journalist, Alex Hende ...

, and

Zora Young Zora Young (born January 21, 1948, West Point, Mississippi, United States) is an American blues singer. She is distantly related to Howlin' Wolf. Young's family moved to Chicago when she was seven. She began singing gospel music at the Greater ...

Life and career

Diunna Fay Greenleaf was born in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, United States. Her parents, Ben and Mary Ella Greenleaf (née Travis), were religiously devout and involved in

gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

. Her early musical influences included

Sam Cooke Samuel Cook (January 22, 1931 – December 11, 1964), known professionally as Sam Cooke, was an American singer and songwriter. Considered to be a pioneer and one of the most influential soul artists of all time, Cooke is commonly referred ...

Sister Rosetta Tharpe Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her Gospel music, gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spir ...

Koko Taylor Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for ...

, and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

. Before her musical career, Greenleaf obtained a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in Mass Communications at the

Prairie View A&M University Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU or PV) is a public historically black land-grant university in Prairie View, Texas. Founded in 1876, it is one of Texas's two land-grant universities and the second oldest public institution of higher learnin ...

. Greenleaf and her backing band, Blue Mercy, have performed on the international stage for a number of years. In 2005, they took part and triumphed at the

International Blues Challenge The International Blues Challenge (IBC) is a music competition run by the Blues Foundation. Notable blues artists that have competed in the IBC over the years also includes Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Michael Burks, Tommy Castro, Sean Costello, Alb ...

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. She was President of the Houston Blues Society for three years, becoming the first woman to undertake that role. Greenleaf initiated the now annual Houston Blues Society Founders Day, and continues to support the Blues in Schools Program. She was also one of the founders of the Friends of Blues Montgomery County. She performed as a

backing vocalist A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...

for

Pinetop Perkins Joe Willie "Pinetop" Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011) was an American blues pianist. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock-and-roll performers of his time and received numerous honors, including a Grammy Life ...

, on his segment of the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

winning album, '' Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen: Live in Dallas'' (2007). The same year Greenleaf and Blue Mercy issued their debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''Cotton Field to Coffee House''. In 2008 at the

s, Greenleaf won the 'Best New Artist Debut' award for ''Cotton Field to Coffee House''. At the same ceremony the following year, she was nominated for the 'Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female)'. In 2012, Greenleaf was nominated again for the 'Koko Taylor Award', and in the 'Traditional Blues Album' category for ''Trying to Hold On''. The album included fourteen songs, of which Greenleaf wrote ten and co-wrote another. The album was recorded in

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as se ...

Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne (born Kenneth Wayne Spruell, November 13, 1944) is an American blues, boogie-woogie and jazz pianist, singer and songwriter. Music journalist, Jeff Johnson, writing in the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' stated, "There's no boogi ...

's ''Rollin' with the Blues Boss'' (2014), included guest vocal contributions from Greenleaf and

Eric Bibb Eric Charles Bibb (born August 16, 1951) is a Grammy-nominated American-born blues singer and songwriter. Biography Bibb's father, Leon, was a musical theatre singer, who made a name for himself as part of the 1960s New York folk scene; his u ...

. Greenleaf also appeared as a guest singer on Japanese jump blues band Bloodest Saxophone's ''Texas Queens 5'' released by Dialtone Records in 2019.

Festivals

Greenleaf has performed at many

music festival A music festival is a community event with performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme such as musical genre (e.g., rock, blues, folk, jazz, classical music), nationality, locality of musicians, or h ...

s. These include the Blues to Bop Festival in Lugano, Switzerland, the

Montreal International Jazz Festival The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal ( en, Montreal International Jazz Festival) is an annual jazz festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Montreal Jazz Fest holds the 2004 Guinness World Record as the world's largest jazz fest ...

(2009), the Bern Jazz Festival, the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival (2007),

Boundary Waters Blues Festival Boundary Waters Blues Festival is a blues music festival in St. Louis County, Minnesota, United States. It was established in 2001 by Michael Jankovec—host of a blues radio show in Ely, Minnesota—and Deb Pettit and Doug Brown of Timber Wolf ...

Sarasota Blues Fest The Sarasota Blues Fest was an annual music festival held at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Florida. In addition to all day live entertainment, the festival has vendors selling a wide array of food, drink and crafts. History The Sarasota Blues Fest ...

(2008),

Notodden Blues Festival Notodden Blues Festival (NBF) is one of the largest blues music festivals in Europe and the largest in Scandinavia. The festival is held in Notodden, Norway, usually in early August. It has been running annually since 1988. The festival does not ...

(2008),

Long Beach Blues Festival The Long Beach Blues Festival, in Long Beach, California, United States, was established in full in 1980, and was one of the largest blues festivals and was the second oldest on the West coast of the United States, West Coast (first being the San ...

(2009), the DC Blues Festival (2010), the Tinner Hill Blues Festival (2012), the

Bikes Blues and BBQ Bikes Blues & BBQ (alternatively named Bikes Blues and Barbecue, or abbreviated BBB or BBBBQ) is an annual motorcycle rally held in Northwest Arkansas Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is a metropolitan area and region in Arkansas within the Ozark Moun ...

(2014), and the Houston Blues and Jazz Festival (2022).

Discography

Albums

References

External links